Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
The official appstore was different from other game distribution channels. Four hundred downloads in twenty-four hours may seem like nothing, but that number was actually pretty good.
Other promotional spaces for other game distribution channels, such as the Emperor Dynasty Entertainment platform or the proprietary stores of phone manufacturers, could be bought using money. As long as you were friendly with them, the platform wouldn’t care too much about artificially inflating your numbers, either.
Therefore, as long as you were willing to spend money, it wasn’t surprising to have thousands or even tens of thousands of downloads on the first day on other game distribution channels.
However, the official store prohibited inflating statistics, therefore new games could only be found in obscure corners, just like The Adventures of the Storm Rider. There wouldn’t be many who would download new games, even if they were on the top new games or among the promoted new games.
However, the official store automatically adjusted the promotional spaces. Games like The Adventures of the Storm Rider would probably be on the promoted list of new games or in its respective genre, which would greatly boost the downloads.
If The Adventures of the Storm Rider was able to maintain its downloads and ratings for the next promotional round, it would be pushed even higher on the promoted list. If that continued, it would be able to go from a few hundred downloads to possibly hundreds of thousands within a week.
Of course, games that fell into that positive feedback loop were few and far between; most games would fall off the promoted list halfway because of the statistics they had reached.
The official app store also took a smaller, twenty percent cut from the revenue that the game generated.
As for taxes, it was more troublesome than in his previous life, as it was quite a bit different, but not too difficult by any means. After income taxes, trading taxes and the like, it all added up to about thirty percent.
Of course, the main form of taxing was based on net profit, as video game designers had a lower starting cost compared to traditional businesses. So when the profit increased, the taxing increased too.
So if there were a hundred thousand downloads, assuming no sales, Lin Mao’s gross income would be two million RMB, and after the platform’s cut and taxes, he’d be left with a million, one hundred and twenty thousand.
Even though only half of it was left, it was still a huge profit.
Of course, sales were also affected by the price. For a game like Lin Mao’s, selling at twenty RMB, a hundred thousand downloads was a bit difficult to achieve.
However, even if the game was cheaper, down to ten RMB, there weren’t many games that managed to break a hundred thousand on the official app store.
Those games would always be on the top of various rankings, and have promotional spaces multiple times.
Many smaller designers only got thousands of downloads regularly, after working for half a year to a year just to earn about a hundred thousand RMB and having to worry about other expenses, barely keeping their stomachs full.
Chen Mo said, “The promotional spaces will be refreshed in one or two hours, right? Let’s see how far up this game moves, then.”
Lin Mao nodded, “Yeah, I’m looking at games during the same period, and mine looks like it has a better chance than the others. I can’t be certain, as we don’t know how the promoted spaces are calculated.”
It was easy to tell that Lin Mao was slightly nervous. Promotions had a huge impact on the future of the game. In Chen Mo’s opinion, his game didn’t lack work, sincerity, or creativity, all that was left was the acceptance of the players.
Chen Mo patted his shoulders, “Relax, the quality of the games out there on display, what’s there to be afraid of?”
Lin Mao said, “Yup, we can only hope. Is your game ready? Maybe I can give you some opinions from a different perspective.”
Chen Mo nodded, “Yeah. You can try it out by going to a computer or using your own phone.”
Shocked, Lin Mao said, “Dual platform? Aren’t you ambitious! I’ll just use my phone then, I’m more used to playing on mobile.”
After installing the game on his phone, Lin Mao tapped on the icon and launched Plants vs Zombies.
After playing for ten minutes, Lin Mao was completely absorbed by the game.
“This game… is quite complete!”
As Lin Mao was a video game designer, he had a different perspective than the other players. He was shocked that the graphics, music, UI, and playstyle worked together very well; he couldn’t find anything to nitpick!
The tutorial was clear and was easy to pick up. The difficulty of the levels made sense, and the combat system was rich…
If someone told Lin Mao that this was a high-quality game that was on the popular games list, he wouldn’t doubt it!
“This… you made this in three months?” Lin Mao looked at Chen Mo, his mind blown.
Chen Mo nodded, “Yeah, I’ve actually been thinking about this idea for a long time. What’s wrong?”
Lin Mao replied while nodding repeatedly, “Pretty good, I think this game is capable of going viral! In terms of quality, the game beats many other top games. When do you plan to release it?”
Chen Mo said, “Tomorrow maybe. I have been collecting the feedback of the players for the past two days. Overall, it’s not bad. I’ve changed a few things that didn’t seem right. After it’s released and I gather even more statistics, I’ll make more changes.”
Lin Mao said, “I think it’s good. This game that you made is much better than mine. I can’t believe it, it seems that you really have opened up. How did you get so good all of a sudden?”
Chen Mo laughed, “What is this? Back to the topic, the success of the game doesn’t just depend on the quality, but there’s an element of luck, too. Let’s hope that both of our games make big sales.”
Lin Mao said, “Yeah, hope we get big sales. Then we can be buddies on the top new games leaderboards.”
In the past three days, nearly a hundred people had played Plants vs Zombies. Some of them were random players that had walked past the experience store, but most of them were brought over by Wen Lingwei and Jia Peng’s group.
When these people left, they introduced the game to their roommates. Chen Mo’s experience store received another bunch of players that way.
So far Chen Mo’s experience store had managed to gather ten or so players, and was much livelier than normal.
—
Chen Mo and Lin Mao chatted for a little while longer.
“Huh? The recommended lists have updated!” Lin Mao exclaimed in surprise.
Chen Mo went over and said, “Let’s check it out; where’s the new promoted space?”
Lin Mao excitedly raced through the app store, “Recommended in its genre! New recommended games! It was recommended on both!”
“Not bad!” Chen Mo laughed. “You’re on a roll here!”
These two recommendations were pretty good one for a new game. Recommended in its genre meant bringing in more players who liked games like that, and being recommended on the new games list would attract players who liked trying out new games.
Two recommendations at the same time meant the system was rating Adventures of the Storm Rider highly, meaning that it should bring in a large amount of sales in a small amount of time.
If the game maintained its high rating, the game would undoubtedly receive better recommendations, possibly even being recommended on the front page.
Lin Mao patted his chest in relief. “Now I can relax, the second recommendation was so important!”
Chen Mo reminded, “Don’t celebrate too early, you should continue monitoring the reviews. You might even be defamed by your competitors.”
Lin Mao nodded, “Yeah, I know. The gap between the second recommendation and the game properly going viral is still massive.”
After chatting for another few hours and looking at the new games at the time and checking out their numbers, the two of them went out for supper after the store closed, after which Lin Mao left.
After all, he had to pay great attention to the statistics and the feedback of players, as it was a key moment. Chen Mo, on the other hand, had to worry about his release, so the two of them didn’t have much time to spare.