Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 153 A Ghost

A ghost, a ghost named Star Tap, is hovering over the Chinese game market.

This statement can be said to be the biggest takeaway from the StarTap community in China after four days.

It's strange, even though it's during the CNJOY expo, the most talked-about thing these past few days has been Star Tap.

A game company, despite receiving so much news at the CNJOY expo, still managed to stand out from the crowd.

That's quite exaggerated.

The key is that Star Tap has too much "activity" to it. It's one wave after another, just like the second games that exploded after their launch in later years. The only difference is that they exploded, while Star Tap exploded.

From CNJOY's early launch the day before, to the social media frenzy sparked by the five games, to the second round of heated discussions triggered by Apple's removal of the games from the App Store.

Then came the phenomenal success of "Runestone Guardians," which sold three million copies in a single day, and StarTap's announcement of expedited development of a PC version to allow more users (specifically Apple users) to experience the game on different devices.

At the same time, the Chinese version of FGO also opened for pre-registration, officially "announcing" the existence of the Chinese version of FGO.

On its first day of pre-registration, it received more than two million pre-registrations. Even Honkai Impact 3, which opened pre-registrations at the same time, received more than one million pre-registrations on Star Tap.

This series of news.

Some of these were completely unexpected by Chu Chen, such as the chain reaction triggered by Apple's removal of the app from the App Store, and the PC version of Star Tap being released ahead of schedule because Apple refused to list it despite pressure.
The other part was intentional on Chu Chen's part. For example, before "Runestone Guardians" was launched, although Star Tap gave coupons to all users, there were no other games available for purchase on Star Tap.
This detail ensured that the first buy-to-play game to be released on StarTap would be a huge hit.

After all, in its previous life, TapTap had around 30 million monthly active users in 2021, and that year it sold 6.2 million copies of buy-to-play games, with the highest single-game sales exceeding 1.2 million copies.

The current daily active users of StarTap have reached 30 million worldwide.

After using the coupon, the price is 3.9 yuan after paying 8.9 yuan, making the threshold almost zero.

Under such circumstances, the reason why "Runestone Guardians" only sold three million copies was due to its art style.

Many female players hesitated.

If it were a game with a cuter art style, the sales on the first day would be even more explosive.

But that's exactly the effect Chu Chen wanted.
What he wanted to show was the number of male players on StarTap who are currently willing to pay, which is a very important figure. Many games offer 1-yuan gift packs in order to increase the proportion of paying players.

Within the framework of capital narratives, a user who is willing to pay 1 yuan is likely to continue paying.

Taking all this into account, the sales of three million on the first day are already quite good, and this number can obviously continue to rise as word of mouth spreads.

Three million is already a number that can "influence" many people.

In fact, just as Chu Chen had thought.

When the number three million appeared, the gaming community's perception of StarTap gradually changed.

For example...
At this time, a large number of game companies are participating in the CNJOY exhibition.

~~~
The next day.

CNJOY Domestic Single-Player/Indie Game Exhibition Area.

In an inconspicuous corner, a few people were chatting.

"Old Zhang, how accurate is your information? Three million reports a day?!"

Compared to the manufacturers' exhibition area in the center of the venue, the domestic single-player game exhibition area was located in a very remote area, the booths were very simple, and the flow of people was relatively sparse.

Most of those who come here are core gamers who are genuinely interested in the game itself, or like-minded peers. "It's absolutely true, Lao Zhu said it himself, there were no fake orders, it's all real sales."

"Hey Li, your 'Homecoming' was released last month, how many copies have it sold so far?"

"Less than 30,000."

"Wow, this doesn't even sell as much as others did in half an hour... Brother Li, if your game were on StarTap, it would probably be a bestseller too..."

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man named Brother Li sighed.

"It's not that simple. This time, Xingchen Tap has poured all its traffic into it: the best recommendation spot on the homepage, no-minimum-spend coupons across the platform, and the public opinion buzz built up from its previous confrontation with Apple... It's a perfect storm of favorable conditions..."

"Even if we get listed on StarTap, it doesn't guarantee a sales explosion."

That's what he said, but everyone could tell that he still had some thoughts, even though reason told them that "Runestone Guardian" was just an isolated case, an unrepeatable miracle.

But emotionally, who wouldn't long for such a miracle to happen to them?

"But this at least proves one thing."

The tall, thin young man who spoke first was clearly more proactive.

"There are people in China who are willing to pay for single-player games! It's not that no one plays them, it's that our games don't have a suitable channel to reach them!"

"Steam is too far away! You have to download, register, and link your payment method, the barriers are too high! But mobile phones are different, who doesn't have a mobile phone? Who doesn't know how to scan a QR code to pay? Although StarTap has lowered the price to 8.9 yuan, it has also cultivated a group of players who are willing to pay at this price."

"Furthermore, I asked Lao Zhu, and by evening, over 30% of those who upgraded from the 8.9 yuan tier to the 19 yuan tier had done so. In other words, these people are willing to pay..."

"And this is only the first day, and they've already bought three million."

"I heard that StarTap is also launching a PC version. Isn't this an opportunity?"

The tall, thin young man's words actually make a lot of sense.

What is the biggest challenge for domestically produced single-player games?
With a small market, a narrow audience, and a single distribution channel, they had almost no other options besides Steam. However, before the explosive popularity of PUBG, Steam had virtually no presence or influence in China.

Now, Star Tap has opened a door for this.

"Old Zhang, do you have the contact information for the people from Starry Sky Games?"

Someone nearby asked...
"Old Zhu should have... no, is your 'ICEY' going to be on StarTap too?"

"Go for it! Didn't you say before that you'd let StarTap handle the distribution? Could they provide assistance with the Android porting? I'm thinking, even if it can't reach a tenth of the level of 'Runestone Guardians,' I think it'll be worth it!"

~~~
Single-player game developers are getting restless, and so are mobile game developers.

They weren't concerned about the three million copies sold by "Runestone Keeper," since three million copies didn't add up to much money.

What they are paying attention to is that the number of people willing to pay on Star Tap is much higher than expected, and they are focusing on the number of pre-registrations for "FGO" and "Honkai Impact 3".

Within a day, FGO pre-registrations exceeded two million, and Honkai Impact 3rd exceeded one million.
This number isn't something they can change in their backend system—the "official website reservation number."

Even if many players just clicked the reservation button casually, it still represents a genuine user intention.

What does a million reservations mean?
This means that as soon as the game launches, at least one million players will receive a notification immediately, even if only 10% of them actually play the game.
That's a new number of 100,000 to 200,000!

(End of this chapter)