Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 146 How did this become so popular?

The very next morning, Wang Jiayi was preparing to become a "doll master".

Famitsu Editorial Department, Japan.

As usual, Tanaka Kenichi inserted his work card into the time clock, and with a click, a small dot was stamped on the card.

I've completed the check-in.

As usual, Tanaka walked towards the break room, picked up a coffee cup, filled it with hot water, poured in a packet of instant coffee, and casually grabbed a newspaper from the break room.

Sitting at my workstation.

The workday unfolds in this leisurely time.

During this time, more people came in one after another, greeted each other, and then sat down.

The office was unusually quiet.

If nothing unexpected happens, this place will remain as quiet as it was just now for the rest of the morning, until the end of the workday.

For those who are not used to it, this quiet office environment can be a kind of "torture".

For Kenichi Tanaka, this has been his daily routine for the past ten years.

However, today's routine was interrupted by a flurry of footsteps.

Following the sound, the owner of the footsteps soon appeared before them; it was Takayuki Imagawa, the editor-in-chief of the editorial department.

As soon as he entered, everyone stood up and greeted him.

Normally, Imagawa Takayuki would respond with a smile, but today, there was no smile on his face, and he didn't even respond to the greetings from the crowd.

Instead, he walked straight to the side of the field.

His expression was very serious.

"Tanaka."

"Yes, editor-in-chief."

Kenichi Tanaka didn't know why the editor-in-chief wanted to see him, but he still quickly replied.

"I need to write a news article for Startap. It's urgent."

".good.."

"I need to see the first draft this morning."

"morning?"

"Is there a problem?"

"no problem."

Kenichi Tanaka really wanted to say that there was a problem, a big problem.

The first draft is due this morning? It's already 9:30, and he only has two and a half hours left before lunch break!! And he doesn't even know what "Star Tap" is!!

How should I write it? Should I use my imagination?
These words churned in his throat, but in the end, he couldn't utter a single one.

In the Japanese workplace, saying "no" requires far more courage than working overtime all night. You can eventually bow and apologize for your lack of ability, but you can never refuse a task in the first place.

Imagawa Takayuki seemed quite satisfied with the answer, or perhaps he simply didn't care what Tanaka's answer was.

As soon as the editor-in-chief left, the stagnant air in the office seemed to begin to move again.

Colleagues around him cast glances, some with sympathy, some with curiosity, but mostly with relief—relief that he wasn't the one the editor-in-chief had singled out in the eye of the storm.

Tanaka sighed, picked up his coffee cup, and took a big gulp. The instant coffee had cooled down a bit, and the cheap, bitter taste spread through his mouth and into his nasal cavity, causing his tense nerves to relax slightly.

Besides that, I also had some curiosity.

As editor-in-chief, Imagawa Takayuki rarely personally requests someone to write anything. The last time he was in such a hurry was when FGO was suddenly bought by a Chinese company.
What will it be this time?
"Star Tap"

As Tanaka typed "star tap" into Yahoo's search box, before he even pressed the button, a whole bunch of suggested terms appeared next to the search box.

Some of them were even "on fire".

Clearly, many people have been using Yahoo to search for this term recently.

This fueled Tanaka's curiosity even more. As he pressed the confirm button, a whole bunch of news articles popped up on the screen, with the top ones being news flashes from several mainstream gaming media outlets.

"A Global Sensation: Japanese-Style Game 'Dolls' Sweep the Globe!"

Starry Night Games Unveils Another Dark Horse!! Starry Night Tap Sweeps Japan, Topping the Apple Download Chart in Just Two Days!

The Birth of a Phenomenal Hit? Japanese Horror Game Ignites the Global Internet

"Top 10 Global Regions Listed! Just Who Exactly is StarTap?!"

Scroll down to find related discussions and trending posts on 2ch, Japan's largest social networking forum.

Kenichi Tanaka's eye twitched.

"So exaggerated?"

He then opened Twitter and searched for "#StarTap". There were even more discussions there, with various screenshots, shares, rankings, guides, and people asking each other for help.
One game, "Dolls," was mentioned most frequently, and the core of the discussion was invariably who would be the first to unlock the sixth level. "Eh!? Is it... that popular?"

"How come I've never heard of this before..."

As a seasoned game editor, Tanaka is confident in his information sensitivity.

There are always signs that a game is about to become a hit.

Whether it's large-scale publicity, word-of-mouth among core gamers, or at the very least, a partner will give advance notice.

But this "Star Tap" seems to have appeared out of nowhere. Just two days ago, it was unheard of, but today it seems to have become a social phenomenon sweeping the whole country.

It was a strange feeling, like the whole world was talking about a great game, but I not only missed the live broadcast, but I didn't even know when the game started.

In the gaming industry, it's quite normal for a game to become a huge hit. Games like Puzzle & Dragons and Monster Strike became wildly popular in a short period of time.
But it's rare for something like Star Tap to become popular so quickly.

However, Tanaka was a professional editor after all. After looking through it, he vaguely understood why the Star Tap app was so popular.

This is a platform similar to a collection of Nintendo games, with about five games that look quite simple and interesting.

just
This level of popularity is simply outrageous.

"Is this even possible? It's just a collection of mini-games. How can it become popular???"

"That's so strange."

The explosive popularity of Star Tap is not surprising at all; it's just that there aren't many casual games that leverage strong "social" elements for viral growth these days.

But in the future, this path has been repeatedly proven.

Taking the previous game "Sheep and the Sheep" as an example, on its first day of launch on the WeChat mini-game platform in September 2022, it only had 100 daily active users. By the second day, this number had increased to 500, and by the third day, it had increased to 3,000.

Then, a week later, the number reached an astonishing 30, then 80, and a month later, it had become 2000 million.

What does 2000 million daily active users mean? It's like "everyone in China gives me 1 cents." Even if each player only clicks on ads a few times a day, the revenue would be astronomical.

Besides "Sheep Jump," the predecessor of "Jump Jump" was even more outrageous. As one of the first batch of mini-games promoted by WeChat, it relied on the WeChat ecosystem for pre-installation and splash screen promotion.

On its first day of release, "Jump Jump" had over 1 million daily active users.
In other words, on that day, one in every fourteen people in the country played Jump Jump.

These data clearly show that, once the splitting mechanism is effective, this type of mini-game can grow to a terrifying number as long as the splitting chain continues.

The explosive popularity of Star Tap actually falls somewhere between the previous two, "Sheep and the Sheep" and "Jump Jump".

First of all, Starry Sky Games has a certain amount of traffic. Whether it's Bilibili, which was "manipulated" because of "FGO", or Starry Sky Wallpapers, the traffic is not small.

Therefore, Star Tap doesn't need to be completely split from the beginning like "Sheep and the Sheep".

Of course, Xingchen's current traffic channels are far from reaching the heights that Tencent's previous promotion of "Jump Jump" achieved.

But then again.

StarTap also has an advantage that Tencent doesn't have, namely, game quality.

Standing on the shoulders of giants, Chu Chen's games have all been tested by the market, and they also feature advanced gameplay.

Make these games have a longer "fun playtime" than the original.

Simply put, the original Jump Jump might get boring after two or three days, but the Starry Sky version of Jump Jump can keep you entertained for at least a week.

It can even extend this time by updating the scene.

This means that the splitting time of Star Tap will be longer, which also means that once Star Tap has a basic traffic, it can trigger geometric growth in users.

Although this type of game has a common problem: it "comes strong" but "goes out quickly."

But this "coming on strong" is truly strong. As this type of game goes uphill, it really gives people the illusion that "the whole world is playing it".

All kinds of traffic, reports, and news will revolve around this "hot topic".

Furthermore, because StarTap was indeed launched globally, even though there are fewer players in Europe and America and it hasn't caused much of a stir yet, it has gradually entered a cycle of rapid growth.
By now, many Western gamers are discussing the game "Dolls," which is why Japanese media are hyping it up as a global phenomenon.

Foreigners' interest in their own culture isn't limited to China; it's not just China that generates buzz.

It exists in Japan as well.

Even if the game is made by an overseas company, just like when Total War: Three Kingdoms was first announced, there were quite a few content creators who shared overseas discussions.

Even if the so-called Japanese culture in the game "Dolls" is basically all just "stereotypes" from Hoshino.

But this didn't stop Japanese gamers and media from praising it extensively.
About an hour later, Tanaka vaguely understood the chain of Star Tap's explosive popularity.

No wonder... no wonder I was completely unaware.

This explosive growth does not rely on traditional media channels at all.

It bypassed editors, reviews, and press releases, creating an explosion directly at the user level. By the time these belatedly aware "professionals" noticed, the wave had already swept across the entire beach.

Kenichi Tanaka wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the overwhelming discussions on the screen, feeling utterly overwhelmed.

"It's troublesome..."

To write a decent first draft review for such an app in such a short time is not just a crisis assignment; it's like asking him to defuse a bomb that's about to explode with his bare hands.

Perhaps we should first think about how to bow this afternoon.
(End of this chapter)