Started as a comics editor

Chapter 225 Caught off guard
Is this playing cards?

at the same time.

The audience was actually thinking about this question too...

Because this is quite different from what I imagined playing cards to be!
They had, of course, heard Tang Yao's series of explanations and foreshadowing.

Hearing about playing cards.

They were a little disappointed.

Because it didn't seem very fun... they subconsciously associated Hearthstone with games like Dou Dizhu (a popular Chinese card game).

They never expected such exquisite game graphics to appear.

"As you can see."

"This is the game's battle page. Of course... you may not understand how to play yet, but that's okay."

"This game is very simple."

the other side.

Tang Yao began to explain: "First of all, in the lower left corner here is the mana crystal. Every action must consume an equal amount of mana crystal, such as this card."

Tang Yao moved the mouse to grab the one-cost minion in her hand: "The number in the upper left corner of this card is the mana crystal value. The mana crystal value will recover and increase by one point each turn, up to a maximum of ten points... As the turn goes on, more and more cards will be available for use."

"For example, I play a one-cost minion now..."

Tang Yao threw the cards in her hand onto the chessboard, and the mana crystals dimmed as they were consumed: "The mana crystals will be consumed, and after a minion is placed, except for some minions with special attributes, it cannot attack immediately, but can only attack after one turn."

"Attacks can be made by targeting the opponent's hero, whose health is displayed below the hero's health, or by targeting the opponent's minions. When trading minions, the opponent's attack power is applied to your own minions, and vice versa. The two values ​​below the minion represent attack power and health, respectively."

"For example, if my 2/2 minion, which has two health and two attack, attacks the opponent's 2/3 minion, it will deal two damage and die, leaving the opponent with one health... Appropriate minion trading can effectively control the battle situation."

"..."

Tang Yao began to work with the hotel owner to explain the rules of the game to the viewers in the live stream.

Actually, setting aside those terms, the rules of Hearthstone are quite simple.

You could even say that it's easy to understand just by listening to it.

At least the viewers in the live stream basically all understood it.

What followed was less about listening to the rules and more about being drawn to the high quality of the game itself.

This is... so exquisite!
The game truly exudes a sense of refinement from the inside out!

Whether it's the appearance of the followers, the attack feedback, or even the dense dialogue, everything is of a high standard.

Oh... and the card illustrations too.

For Tang Yao herself, the idea of ​​Hearthstone being turned into a two-dimensional version was a bit strange.

That's not surprising at all to these local viewers who didn't have any preconceived notions.

For example, the character Jaina, which Tang Yao is currently controlling, has a classic beautiful girl sorceress illustration with vibrant colors and a focus on the dreamy feel of anime.

Very beautiful.

What a luxury!

Is this playing cards?

"?"

The audience started typing question marks in real time.

As for the specific gameplay.

The player thought...it was pretty simple.

The players had only just started having this idea.

Tang Yao drew the Fireball spell, which resulted in a fireball hitting her face.

...Some viewers immediately realized something was wrong.

Many people who have played TCGs or have been exposed to similar games had already made some guesses from the beginning...

Now see this scene.

His eyes lit up instantly, and he immediately guessed what Tang Yao meant by "playing cards".

This is... interesting!
Live streaming.

As Tang Yao explained the game while playing the beginner levels, more features of the game were revealed.

Minion interaction, battlefield combos, spell card quality, minion types, spell factions, card keywords, decks...

The rules themselves aren't complicated, and then there's the amazing presentation of the game!
For example, the taunt not only has a sound effect to remind you, but also a special effect like building a city wall when the follower lands.

Once this special effect appears, the audience understands the effect without even needing the prompt "You must attack minions with the Taunt skill"!
The others are also easy to understand. Charge means you don't need to hibernate; once you put a minion down, it becomes actionable.

As for the battle cries, they will have different entrance effects depending on their effects, to help players understand them.

And magic goes without saying!
Combined with the cards' simple and straightforward descriptions, the learning curve is really low!

It looks very interesting overall!
The system appears deep, but it's not complicated!

"TCG!? No!! It seems to have been greatly simplified! But it really does seem like it!!!! Am I dreaming? There are actually companies willing to make this type of game! And they've made it so well!?"

"Holy crap! This is interesting! It looks like it could be really fun!"

"Is this a mobile game? This evolution is a bit too fast! FGO was still about drawing command cards to build decks, and suddenly it jumped to such a deep gameplay! Has it evolved that quickly!?"

"It shouldn't be a mobile game, right? But I have to say, Avalon is really talented... They don't seem to be a very big company, but they seem to have a very thorough understanding of games. Although I don't know how the game actually plays, every gameplay element they come up with is very attractive."

"The art style is as awesome as ever. The previous 'Yun' was awesome, and this 'Hearthstone' is awesome in a different style."

"Want to play?! Hurry up!!!"

"..."

As the introduction progressed...

The topic of discussion in the live chat gradually shifted back to Hearthstone.

Because this game looks really fun!

And soon, this atmosphere reached its climax.

After Tang Yao finished the tutorial, she directly faced off against Li Xue in a match.

Actually, Li Xue isn't very good at playing games.

no way.

Avalon usually has too much work, so she really doesn't have that much time to play games.

However, after she started playing the game for her live stream, she found Hearthstone very interesting. So, two weeks before the live stream, she took some time to play with Tang Yao and got a general understanding of the gameplay and deck concepts.

Tang Yao carefully selected the decks for this live-streamed match: control decks against aggro, aggro against aggro, and midrange against control.

There are three matches in total.

When it came to the battle phase, Tang Yao stopped giving a detailed introduction to the game and instead focused on playing the matches seriously... because at this point, what needed to be shown to the players was the fun of the battle, not the rules.

She hadn't forgotten the purpose of this live stream.

And the rules have already been explained sufficiently.

She only briefly mentioned some mechanisms that might be difficult to understand.

For example, there's the Doomsayer, a card with a single-player mechanic, and some secrets.

Combined with the preceding tutorial levels, most viewers... can easily understand the match between the two from almost the very beginning.

In fast-paced, aggressive play, both sides flood the board, trade minions, and attack the opponent's face... the main focus is speed.

When playing a control deck against an aggro deck, the control deck struggles to clear the board, while the aggro deck attacks relentlessly, making it a battle of offense versus defense.

In the final game, when playing against a mid-range control deck...

The viewers in the live stream are already eager to try it out themselves!

Especially the moment when Li Xue made the wrong cut.

She didn't realize anything was wrong.

The audience got anxious first! Extremely anxious!!!

"That lady in black stockings! She's at the kill threshold! With her attack and hero skill combined, she's got exactly 8 health! Oh no! Why didn't she finish her off?!"

"Let me play! Let me play! The streamer doesn't know how to play!!! Send me the game! Let me play!!"

"Wrong number!!! I'll buy it! I'll buy it, okay?! Just release the game already! Enough said! My blood pressure is acting up! I want to play it myself!"

"Haha... I'm tempted to play too, but isn't the Deathrattle mechanic of the Savannah Highmane Hunter a bit too overpowered?"

"Isn't the pastor's mind control just as effective?"

"I want to play, when will it be available!?"

"..."

The comments section was filled with lamentations.

Interspersed with discussions about the game.

Exploded instantly.

Clearly, players have fully experienced the game's charm! They all wish they could play it themselves!
Behind the camera.

Li Xue was startled and subconsciously looked at Tang Yao. Tang Yao reassured her, then decisively ended the game and said, "This is the second game tonight, Hearthstone."

"This game is also available on the ANF Games section. The game will be open for testing next week, and you can make a reservation yourself~ In addition, this is a cross-platform game."

"That's the advertising copy."

"Now we move on to the introduction of the third game—"

She immediately started switching games.

Just this time.

The audience was even more unhappy!!

The number of comments in the live stream suddenly tripled!
Densely packed!

"what??"

"One more round! One more round!!"

"No!!!"

"What do you mean by 'dual-platform game'?! No, wait! One more round! If you won't let me play, at least I can look at it!"

"Ugh! If you won't let me play, let me at least take a look!"

But this time, Tang Yao still ignored them and let the audience shout.

The audience was getting a little frustrated.

For example, Jian Yinghua, whom I've been following.

What a coincidence.

He had also been exposed to TCGs, so he was very interested in this game...

Of course, this was just now.

After watching the game, his interest went beyond mere curiosity!

He thought the person who designed this game was... a genius!
TCG can be played like this?!

And the quality of this game is amazing! It's incredibly high!!

Even just looking at the individual character illustrations, they're on par with FGO! Not to mention the clever details and animation!
I really want to play!!

Even just show me one more game!
Jian Yinghua suddenly realized that watching the live stream was a complete mistake!

Damn it! They let us watch good games but not let us play them... and now they won't even let us watch them! We might as well not have come at all!

Let's play one more round!
just.

Tang Yao, heartless, simply shut down the game.

Jian Yinghua's heart finally died... He was silent for a moment, then suddenly thought of something, grabbed the mouse, opened a new window, and then jumped to the ANF main site, opening the game section that previously only had FGO.

really.

The entire game section has been completely changed!
The "Yun" mentioned earlier appears above.

Hearthstone is also on it!

See this scene.

Jian Yinghua's eyes lit up and he immediately clicked on it.

really.

The Hearthstone details page is now live, and beta registration is open!

point!
Without hesitation, Jian Yinghua started clicking the reservation button repeatedly!
After a brief pause.

The prompt pops up.

Congratulations! Your reservation has been successfully made! Please wait patiently for further notification!

[Number of reservations made: 40392]

……

at the same time.

Shen Lun stared blankly at the live stream.

Is this a card game?

No.

Something's wrong.

TCG doesn't look like this, does it?
This is completely different from what I imagined!
He even thought...it was quite interesting.

And double-ended? Is it the double-ended one you're thinking of?
Online games? ...Simultaneously logging in on mobile and PC?
if it is real.

That would be a huge problem!

this moment.

Shen Lun couldn't convince himself anymore and suddenly felt that things were getting out of control.

wrong.

It's out of control!

No, what's going on with this company?

Thinking about it.

Shen Lun suddenly woke up, and like Jian Yinghua, he thought of something and opened the ANF game section... This was also the first time he had opened the ANF game section.

Then, he received a surprise.

Another webpage.

The live broadcast continues.

Tang Yao's voice was still ringing out, introducing the third game.

But Shen Lun couldn't care less at the moment... He frowned deeply, staring blankly at the number of reservations.

These few short minutes.

Hearthstone has already surpassed 80,000 pre-registrations.

Yes.

Double it all!
……

Inside Avalon.

Li Xue and Tang Yao were live-streaming in the conference room, while the other staff members watched the live stream from outside, ready to provide technical support at any time, without disturbing them.

It was only after seeing Tang Yao finish her Hearthstone tutorial that I realized this.

Si Jinliang was getting restless.

He approached Cai Quan, who had specially come to the Avalon office to oversee things, and asked, "...How many people have made reservations?"

"One hundred thousand..."

Upon hearing this, Cai Quan paused, looked up, and then exclaimed in astonishment, "And it's still rising, rising every minute."

"!"

When Si Jinliang heard this number, his eyes widened in shock.

And then the next second.

He jumped up, almost screaming, "Really!?"

"..."

Cai Quan ignored him, turned back to look at the screen again, and then remembered what Tang Yao had said a few days ago.

“Now, the conventional way to promote games is to release them one by one on the ANF game section. This will definitely have an effect, but by the time we have built up a reputation, other companies will have realized it.”

“I don’t think anyone will just stand by and watch us succeed. Jiuxiao certainly won’t. Their ambitions are even greater than ours, and they’re targeting us right now.”

"So I changed my mind. Instead of using conventional methods, let's use the gimmick of a live stream by an anime girl to reveal the game all at once. And instead of something like a promotional video that requires players to speculate, let's directly reveal the gameplay and let all ANF users see how excellent our game is!"

"This not only bypasses traditional promotional channels, avoiding targeting from Jiuxiao, but also establishes ANF Games' position in the mobile game industry through both quantity and quality!"

"I don't believe it. A beautiful girl in a costume livestream, releasing three games at the same time, and it still doesn't make a splash."

"To be honest... I'm quite confident in how to leverage the highly interactive nature of live streaming, how to present content, and how to transform content consumption into a social event that everyone can participate in."

"So the focus isn't on the live stream itself. This live stream was ultimately just to gather popularity. ANF is very important going forward... This is the live stream schedule."

"Yes, this isn't a warm-up; this time we're going to catch our competitors completely off guard."

"..."

Think of this.

Cai Quan stared at the ever-increasing number of reservations on the screen and murmured, "It actually works..."

ANF's game section... it's up and running already?

What kind of magic?
This was even under the circumstances that FGO was being targeted by Nine Heavens.

If the game section is successfully developed...

Does that mean FGO is targeting nothing at all?
(End of this chapter)