Almighty Video Game Designer

Chapter 35: Chapter 34: Recommended on the Front Page!

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Translated by Coldtaco

Edited by Aelryinth

On the extreme end, it was possible to have twenty-two or more Cob Cannons. Chen Mo didn’t want to show that one, as it was quite easy to fail. It wouldn’t look good if he failed during the demonstration.

Moreover, every single one of the Cob Cannons needed to be managed properly, it wasn’t as simple as firing it everywhere. It required a certain knowledge of how the zombies appeared and firing ahead of time.

Furthermore, it wasn’t the only strategy. In reality, there was so much to learn in terms of strategy that you could have twenty to thirty pages posts on Baidu Sticky Notes, many of which were difficult to think up. For example, only using up half the map, or arranging the plants in the shape of an arrow, a heart shape or even strategies without using Cob Cannons. There were also extremely difficult-to-master strategies that used twenty-two or more Cob Cannons…

Chen Mo understood the theory behind them, but if he had to perform them himself, there was no way he could pull them off without some practice, especially since firing the Cob Cannons and placing bombs was extremely technical. Some players in his previous life even went as far as making up mnemonics to memorize the strategy.

Other than that, there were many other small tricks, such as freezing the water in the pool level during specific times to stop zombies from spawning from the pool.

There were many other small tricks like this, though Chen Mo didn’t plan to reveal any of them, letting the players find out themselves.

The passion of Wen Lingwei and the others was reignited once again, trying to figure out Chen Mo’s strategy.

“Hey, interesting. I finished placing down the plants!”

“How is it, is it good?”

“It’s good! Feels much stronger than my previous strategy!”

“Be careful and protect the Cob Cannon.”

Everyone had their heads deep in trying to figure out Endless Mode, and had tossed the game release to the back of their minds.

-I thought they said they were here to cheer me on?-

Chen Mo was speechless. He went back to the app store and focused on the statistics for Plants vs Zombies.

—

From the afternoon through the evening was the golden time for video game downloads. Every hour when the statistics were updated, the rate of increase for the downloads increased, from five hundred downloads per hour, to eight hundred downloads per hour!

While Plants vs Zombies convincingly held the first place on the new games leaderboards, it also started making progress on the other leaderboards.

Puzzle games, strategy games, casual games… Plants vs Zombies started to show itself in the other leaderboards, and even reached the top five hundred paid games!

It hadn’t been twenty-four hours yet. It was crazy to be able to achieve results like this.

At the same time, the topic of Plants vs Zombies started gaining momentum, and Chen Mo’s Weibo post was gaining more and more reposts.

All the large video game media were downloading Plants vs Zombies in order to introduce the game in their articles.

Some video game designers that had caught wind of the game were shocked, downloading the game in order to find out why the game was such a popular topic.

Right now, everyone was waiting for the statistics at the twenty four mark for Plants vs Zombies!

Currently Plants vs Zombies had a score of 9.2, maintaining its high rating. The vast majority of player discussions were positive.

============

“Very innovative puzzle game!”

“This game is very rich in content. There’s still more to come after playing for a few hours, very much worth my money.”

“Thumbs up for the music and graphics!”

“I initially thought that the theme of plants and zombies didn’t match, but turned out to work quite well together.”

“I downloaded the game during noon, and have been playing for a few hours. I just can’t stop playing!”

“I thought a game made in three months would be quite crude, but this is the complete opposite. This game is highly refined, and the creativity is out of this world!”

“I’m a professional hater, but I can’t find anything to complain about. Am I about to lose my job?”

“I’ll tell you what to do, comment above: These zombies aren’t scary at all! :P”

“Is there anyone else who came here from Weibo, and feels sorry for Mr. Shi Huazhe?”

“Hehe, who would feel sorry for that washed-up designer? Relying on his old fame every single day, criticizing everything that comes across him. Then what, do the games he makes even compare to Plants vs Zombies?”

===========

Chen Mo was filled with pleasure after looking through the player discussions.

There were also some bad reviews or some opinions. However, when Chen Mo took a look, they were only empty arguments. Perhaps they were hired or just hating for the fun of it.

Chen Mo didn’t mind, as this small minority didn’t affect the rating for Plants vs Zombies. Before they could leave a bad review, they had to whip out money and buy the game anyways.

-After they pay, they can say whatever they want. If I get mad, I lose.-

Chen Mo had a great mentality, it was impossible for him to get mad over a few haters.

Chen Mo was also filled with hope. He wanted to see how Plants vs Zombies which was so popular in his previous world, would fare in the parallel world!

——

The next day, at 12 PM…

There was only Jia Peng and a few of his friends. Wen Lingwei and the others stayed in the store until 8 PM when it closed. They probably played a bunch more when they got back to the dorms on their phones and ended up not showing up today at noon.

Jia Peng yawned and said, “Manager, I tried out your strategy the whole night yesterday: it doesn’t work! Why do I keep running out of Cob Cannons?!”

Chen Mo only replied with a smile.

Jia Peng said, “…Manager if you keep doing that, I’ll hit someone. How come you can beat level 2000 easily, but I can only get up to 109?”

Chen Mo rolled his eyes and replied, “You beat twenty-odd levels in one night and you still aren’t satisfied?”

Jia Peng gave it some thought, and it seemed like that was true, then he should continue to investigate…

—

Chen Mo went to the app store to check out the statistics for Plants vs Zombies.

So far, many companies had their articles done, the only thing missing were the statistics.

At 12 PM sharp, the statistics were updated!

Plants vs Zombies: 23,187 downloads, 9.1 rating!

It broke twenty thousand in twenty-four hours!

According to Chen Mo’s estimates, it would break ten thousand in twenty-four hours, but Chen Mo wasn’t too optimistic about it breaking twenty thousand. How when Chen Mo looked at it this morning, it had already surpassed twenty thousand, and at 12 PM, it was around twenty-three thousand.

This meant that Plants vs Zombies had received another wave of downloads during the night!

Furthermore, Plants vs Zombies had entered the top 10 for puzzle games, strategy games, casual games, and so on. It even managed to reach the top 100 paid games!

The promotional spaces were even crazier, as the official game store gave Plants vs Zombies a spot on the front page, under “Must Play Today!”

There were four main promotional spaces on the front page. The best was for classic games, which would be recommended on a rolling banner alongside five other games.

The next was the “Hot Today” recommendations. They would receive a larger icon, which featured ten games.

The one after that was the “Must Play Today“, which also had the larger icons, but would be provided for ten to twenty games.

The worst of them was “Specials Today“, with about thirty recommended games.

However, the worst front page recommendations were better than anything after the second page.

Being able to receive a “Must Play Today” recommendation meant that Plants vs Zombies was already doing quite well. It could be said that very few games are able to receive this recommendation only one day after its release. This meant that the score given by the system to Plants vs Zombies was very high!