Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 161 The money's yours! Give me the clothes!

They sold 20,000 sets in two days.

This is already quite extravagant for the merchandise of a game.

Following the arrival of the first batch of "Qixi Festival Promise" sets, people quickly shared photos of the hidden surprises on the clothes on social media.

"Guys! I found it! The embroidery on WA2000 in the story! It's on the inside of the right cuff! A little swan!! So cute!!"

This post was like a starting gun.

Almost simultaneously, a nationwide movement to "remove" clothes was launched in full swing.

"The Type 95's button is here! The second one! And her name is really engraved on the back, just like in the story! My God!"

"G36 found! There's a tiny maid's headscarf print on the lining tag in the left pocket!"

"AR team's markings are the most well-hidden! There's a Morse code on the inner seam at the bottom of their jackets, which translates to 'FAMILY'!"

One Easter egg after another was discovered, each one precisely corresponding to the personality and characteristics of the girls in the game's storyline.

These details are completely invisible from the surface of the clothing; only players who actually own it, watch the Qixi Festival storyline, and look carefully can discover them.

The joy of exploration and the surprise of discovering secrets have led many players to share their experiences online.

Some tech enthusiasts even compiled all the Easter eggs and details of the entire outfit into a detailed "treasure map," which has been widely circulated in the player community.

Soon after, the number of reservations, which had been gradually slowing down, began to surge like a second-stage rocket during this social media frenzy.

50,000, 80,000—in just a few days, the number of reservations reached 80,000.
But at that moment, the second little incident occurred.

That was this peripheral event, which was originally a trial event for Starry Sky's peripheral products.

Although Starry Sky Games is currently very well-known, many things are just beginning to be rolled out. The surrounding physical industries, which involve warehousing, logistics, and tariffs, are actually a very complex matter.

Therefore, this first batch of merchandise was not released globally simultaneously, but was only pushed out in the Chinese server.
Actually, this wasn't a big deal.

Some Chinese players, however, took the clothes and then bragged about it on Twitter.

As mentioned before, just like there are a group of content reposters in China, there are also a group of bloggers in Japan who specialize in reposting posts from China to Japan.

As a result, once this merchandise became a hot topic on the Chinese internet, it naturally spread like wildfire among Final Battle Front players in Japan and even the West.

"Here's the money! Give me the clothes!!!"

"Hoshino-san! My wallet is ready, when are you going to accept it?"

"Damn it! I've already prepared my credit card, why! Why is it that only the commanders from China can communicate with the androids! I also want to wear the clothes that everyone made by hand!"

Suddenly, not only on Japanese Twitter, but also on domestic Weibo and Bilibili accounts, Japanese and Western players started leaving comments.

The most ridiculous thing is that they were able to get here by following the website.

It's because the Japanese movers specifically included the address when they moved the files. Also, since the last "Korean server" incident...

Many Japanese players feel that causing trouble at the StarCraft headquarters is a faster way to resolve issues than causing trouble in StarCraft Japan.

As public opinion swept in, both Japan and the United States quickly issued announcements explaining the reasons and, as is customary, issued five recruitment notices globally.

This includes the domestic situation, which is actually unaffected.
Following that, an event link was launched globally. However, due to its overseas focus and the overwhelming number of pre-orders, the estimated shipping time for this merchandise was two months later.
Even so, as soon as the pre-order event went live, the initial pre-orders in Japan sold out, exceeding 30,000 units, and the US server saw nearly 10,000 units sold as well.
It can only be said that after years of development in anime and game merchandise, the Japanese anime and manga market has indeed cultivated a large group of people willing to pay for related products. Furthermore, no one had done this before, especially not Starry Night Games.

The price is reasonable, so it's no surprise that it's selling like hotcakes.

The outfit's explosive sales overseas have, in turn, caused some ripples in China.

A domestically produced game has not only won over overseas players with its content, but has also driven the notoriously discerning and sophisticated Japanese market crazy with its commercial derivatives.

This in itself is a pretty "cool" thing, so it can be considered as stepping out of the circle a little bit.

Then, while many Chinese players were reading "Lezi News," some people started to remind them.

"Something's not right!!! The pre-order production queue for StarCraft is shared globally!!"

Simply put, for every order placed by a Japanese player, the inventory in China will increase by 1, and the estimated shipping time will be quickly postponed.

After discovering that global reservation orders were being shared, the Chinese players who were still hesitating were quickly thrown into a panic.

That's how people are.

The more people rush to buy, the more people will buy.

Moreover, as more and more people buy, those who were originally indifferent to buying become itchy to do so. They were already itching to buy, and then they saw that Japanese and American players were starting to compete for production capacity, so many people followed suit and placed orders.

As more and more people started scrambling for them, scalpers also began to notice this market.

Although Starry Night Games requires players to have completed the game's storyline to purchase items in order to curb scalping, what's that saying again?

Everyone criticizes scalpers, yet everyone wants to be a scalper.

After all this, by the end of the month, orders had reached a staggering 160,000, and they simply couldn't keep up with the demand. As soon as one batch of pre-orders was delivered, another batch would arrive.

The number of units to be delivered in August was 8, and the number remained at 9 by the beginning of September. It was as if a month's worth of production capacity had vanished into thin air.
These orders of over 100,000 brought in more than just nearly 50 million in revenue.

This also shocked almost all manufacturers, who exclaimed, "Surroundings can be sold like this?!"
Keep in mind that this is 16, not 20, when Mihoyo could make a mug, label it 99, and sell hundreds of thousands of them.

Moreover, the orders for this clothing were concentrated in a short period of time.

Therefore, it has a very strong impact on people.

At the time, many media outlets reported on it, and even the owner of a clothing factory came out to personally thank the players for their enthusiasm.

This series of events not only led to the explosive sales of this limited-edition "Qixi Festival" merchandise, but also...

This also gives the outfit a certain "social aspect".

Because new orders keep coming in, even in China, a country known for its industrial Cthulhu, the contract manufacturers' production capacity is booked until the end of the year to ensure quality.
So many players actually didn't get the clothes.

Therefore, many players who have already received the outfit like to wear it to anime conventions or events.

Even a nouveau riche like Lao Wu is no exception.

He has clothes worth thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan at home, but recently, the outfit he wears most often is this one that he ordered for 299 yuan as soon as it came out.
That's why Yuwan asked Lao Wu when he placed the order when he saw the clothes he was wearing.

I knew this person was dressed like this; I was just waiting for someone to ask.
If you don't ask, there's no way to continue the conversation.
(End of this chapter)