<h4>Chapter 36: Chapter 35: The Game’s Gone Viral!</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>Exodus Tales <strong>Editor: </strong>Exodus Tales
<strong><i>Tranted by Coldtaco</i></strong>
<strong><i>Edited by Aelryinth</i></strong>
Even the video game mediapanies were shocked by the numberd. This included a lot of people who didn’t get a good night’s sleep.
Why? Trying to finish the script, of course!
The first day’s sales went from a thousand, to five thousand, and ten thousand, then twenty thousand. The script couldn’t be the same when the numbers were that different!
The media thought that the first day of sales would be around eight to ten thousand, as they thought <i>nts vs Zombies</i> was a casual puzzle game, which always had a smaller audience. It would gain a lot of yers in the first few hours from Weibo, and after the hype died down the sales would also follow.
In the end, the numberspletely surpassed their expectations!
Not only did it not slow down, but it kept increasing, and broke twenty thousand in twenty-four hours!
Some had known that they were going to witness this go down in history.
At noon, when the twenty-four hour statistics for <i>nts vs Zombies</i> were released, the media started uploading their articles.
===============
<strong>“The biggest underdog today: <i>nts vs Zombies</i>!”</strong>
<strong>“Breaking twenty thousand downloads in the first day, destroying the new games leaderboard”</strong>
<strong>“Gamers say: I can’t stop!”</strong>
<strong>“Industry professionals predict: Likely to enter the puzzle games leaderboard!”</strong>
<strong>“Game reviews: Rich content, new ystyle, otherworldly creativity!”</strong>
<strong>“Can you believe this? <i>ppybird</i> and <i>nts vs Zombies</i> had the same designer!”</strong>
<strong>“Breaking a hundred thousand in the first month? Shi Huazhe has noment.”</strong>
===============
The consensus of the video game media was very positive. The numbers that <i>nts vs Zombies</i> produced were too good overall, and there wasn’t much to nitpick in the terms of quality either. Even the haters found it difficult to find things to hate on.
Under bombardment from the video game media, <i>nts vs Zombies</i> was getting more and more well known. In addition to the promoted space on the official app store, it was likely that nts vs Zombies would receive another wave of explosive growth!
Noticing the hype around Chen Mo’s game, many “caring” yers put down everything they had on hand to check out Shi Huazhe’s Weibo, but it turned out that he had deleted his reply to Chen Mo.
Before today he liked criticizing everything, but ever since nts vs Zombies became popr, he hadn’t posted anything yet.
The ‘caring’ inte citizens weren’t satisfied. He was the one to say confidently that Chen Mo’s first game wouldn’t be able to break a hundred thousand sales in the first month. Did he still think that now?
Forget about a hundred thousand; after breaking twenty thousand on the first day, this game would be heading for five hundred thousand in the first month!
================
<i>“Mr Shi Huazhe, say something.”</i>
<i>“It’s fine, </i>nts vs Zombies<i> only had twenty thousand downloads in the first day, it’s possible that it won’t hit a hundred thousand in the first month. You still have a chance, sir.”</i>
<i>“Sir, don’t give up your treatment!”</i>
<i>“I have to say, it was a smart move for him to not say anything when asked what he was going to eat. That was smart of him.”</i>
<i>“So, you don’t n to show yourself anytime soon?”</i>
===============
The spectators around <i>nts vs Zombies</i> were allmenting on Shi Huazhe’s Weibo trying to start something. A few of the sarcasticments were pushed to the top with hundreds of likes.
Shi Huazhe didn’t post anything, because he knew what would happen if he did. The best thing he could do was to not do anything. However, this didn’t mean he hadn’t been looking at Weibo. With so many people making fun of him, sure he was angry, but there was nothing he could do since <i>nts vs Zombies</i> had performed very well. Coming out and criticizing it wouldn’t do much.
With these sales and poprity, going against the flow would surely bring many haters. While Shi Huazhe was mad, he wouldn’te out now to be murdered on the inte.
“How is this kid so lucky? How can everything he makes get so popr? Next time, there’s no way he’ll be able to maintain this next time!”
Shi Huazhe was set on notmenting. After others made fun of him and did not get any reactions, they decided to let this matter slide.
Things got popr quickly and died down quickly on social media. These users were just trying to band together, and when they saw that nothing could be started, they left it alone.
However, <i>nts vs Zombies</i> was getting quite popr, and the sales kept increasing.
——
Zao Zihao and Lin Mao both congratted Chen Mo over the phone.
“Not bad, I heard you murdered the new games leaderboard. I think you must’ve raked in quite a bit of money. Hurry up, I’m still waiting for my pay to win game,” said Zao Zihao.
Chen Moughed and said, “Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten.”
Lin Mao called in to congratte Shi Huazhe, “That’s pretty good, Chen Mo. I thought that your game would get quite popr, with a chance of going viral. I didn’t think it’d be this popr. That’s amazing!”
Chen Mo said, “Your game is also doing pretty well, seeing as you’re second on the new games leaderboard.”
Lin Mao said, “Sigh, it doesn’t evene close to your <i>nts vs Zombies</i>. I’ve been ying it for the past two days. It’s actually pretty well done in all aspects, in particr how much ytime there is! I think this game is going to start a puzzle game trend.”
Chen Mo replied, “So be it, I’m not making a puzzle game for my next one.”
Lin Mao was shocked, “Huh? What are you trying to do? This game is going to go viral, why not make a <i>nts vs Zombies 2</i> while it’s still hot?”
Chen Mo said, “Nah, I’m fine. I’m not nning on making my next game a puzzle game.”
Lin Mao didn’t understand, “Why? It makes you money and fame! You’re good at it too, why not do it?”
Chen Mo said, “It’s hard to exin, but I just don’t see too much potential in these types of games. Alright, I have to go. Let’s meet up some time.”
——
It wasn’t just Lin Mao who thought that puzzle games were about to be popr. So did the video game media!
It was hard to say how popr <i>nts vs Zombies</i> was, but from what was going on now, it was possible for it to top the puzzle games leaderboard, possibly making ripples in the paid games leaderboard too!
Moreover, the game had been able to maintain a score of around 9.3, and a portion of that must havee from downvotes bypetitors. However, their efforts were proven useless, as the reviews had never fallen below nine. It was evident that this game was extremely popr!
The number of yers who requested a refund were also few and far between.
As long as you had a short ytime and had a good reason for the refund, the app store would provide one.
However there were extremely few yers who requested refunds, meaning that they recognized the game and nned to y it long into the future!
In the eyes of the video game media and video game designers, Chen Mo’s first game was stable, well done, had gone far, was already quite popr, and was certainly quite influential.
Puzzle games were always quite popr, but there weren’t many that could take it to the extreme. Puzzle games naturally had arge yer base, as they catered to both the young and old. Therefore if it got popr, it would surely go viral.
Moreover the entry requirements for puzzle games weren’t high, even a C or D-grade video game designer could make one. The only thing required was innovation!
Not one of the designers in this world felt that theycked creativity. Therefore, some designers and video game media were trying to figure out which direction this would end up in.
Would<i> nts vs Zombies</i> be a fire starter, reigniting the entire puzzle game market? Would a golden age for puzzle games arrive soon?
It could only be judged by numbers in the future.
However, nobody knew that the creator of the game, Chen Mo, didn’t n to continue making puzzle games...
At least for now!