Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 253 The Age of Dharma's End?

The next day arrived.

In addition to the anniversary edition of "Final Front" entering the best-selling charts, the sales of "Final Front: Origins" are also rising, and the reason for this increase in sales is quite peculiar.

In addition to the quality of the game itself, the inclusion of "memes" also adds to its appeal.

The very next morning, a post that appeared out of nowhere began to be reposted by countless players of Final Frontier.

This post is utter nonsense, starting with the title.

[Rational analysis and technical discussion: Will the large number of players purchasing "Final Destination" lead to StarCraft Games' bankruptcy?]

It contains a lot of information, but the most classic sentence is this one.

"Brothers, I've done the math. This game costs 38 yuan, and the coupon is worth 60 yuan. That means Starry Sky loses 22 yuan for every game sold!!! Could this be a bug? Will Starry Sky go bankrupt if they keep selling like this?!"

You can't tell from this post whether he's posing as a troll or just "talking nonsense with a straight face."

In short, because it was so full of "memes", the post was quickly reposted.

"Damn, you're a business genius, OP!"

"Hearing your words is like hearing a profound truth! I was still hesitant, but now I feel like not buying it would be a waste of 22 yuan!!"

"So that's how it is!! Starry Sky has suffered a huge loss!?"

"Cry, you'd rather lose money than make us happy?! Starry Games, you bastard!!"

"Hahaha, no, I'm dying of laughter. Let me laugh for a bit before I come back."

Similar comments are commonplace.

Soon, by the afternoon, this matter, like "Nintendo's Nintendo Coupons," gradually became a meme. As we all know, once something becomes a meme, its spread is faster than anyone can imagine.

Originally at this time.

Due to the phenomenal success of "Final Front" on the global bestseller charts, countless gaming media outlets and influencers are looking for opportunities to attract players' attention.

This is just like "when you're sleepy, there's a pillow for you"—perfect timing!

This changed the nature of the matter.

If it was just a hobby among gamers before, it quickly went viral thanks to the promotion by various news media and content creators.

On Weibo and Bilibili, this post was screenshotted, adapted, and remixed, spreading like wildfire.

For example, a certain Weibo account.

"Brothers, I've found a way to legally fleece capitalists. It's a very unorthodox method, and I don't usually tell people about it."

The accompanying image shows the price of "Tracing the Source" at 38 yuan and the 60 yuan coupon.

"If you don't understand, just ask. If I buy a copy of 'Tracing the Origins' now, does that mean Starry Sky Games owes me 22 yuan?"

A popular comment below reads: "Theoretically, yes. If you round it up, you're practically the creditor of the stars."

This trend quickly evolved into a performance art piece, with one "bored" player who, after purchasing "Tracing the Origin," specifically went to Starry Sky Games' official account to leave a message.

"Mr. Chu, I've received the game and paid for it. You don't need to pay back the 22 yuan. Consider it my advance New Year's greetings to your company."

"Just bought three copies, one for myself and two to give to friends, made 66 yuan profit, I'm such a philanthropist." But upon closer inspection, some of these comments are actually "quite problematic."

Who calls Chu Chen "President Chu" for no reason?
However, none of that matters. In the midst of the revelry, the reasons for the revelry quickly become irrelevant; the revelry itself is the key.

I've actually mentioned this before.

Memes have the properties of "compression" and "unpacking".

At first, many casual gamers were confused by these comments, but once they understood the logic that "buying a game = making the developer lose money," everyone laughed.

At this point, the second characteristic of "Tracing the Source" began to take effect.

That is, although many players were discussing the story of "Final Front: Origins" when the game was first launched, starting the next day, some people began to discuss the gameplay of "Final Front: Origins".

The gameplay of "Final Destination" is actually quite interesting.

From the very beginning, the game "Tracing the Origins" was positioned as an "experimental" game within StarCraft, but this "experiment" does not refer to the game itself.

It refers to "marketing methods".

In the past, most anime-style games relied on major version updates for marketing and promotion, but these updates were more about attracting veteran players.

This means that the "launch performance" of a two-dimensional game basically determines its upper limit.

After the server launches, every major version update you release is essentially a call to veteran players.

Acquiring new users is very difficult and costly. By 22, mainstream ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) companies were dividing their marketing and promotion costs by the number of new users they acquired.

The cost of acquiring a new user has soared to over 200, and after fierce competition in 25, it skyrocketed to 300.
Some people say, "Are you crazy? Have the game developers gone mad?"

With such high user acquisition costs, why are we still trying to acquire new users?!
Why don't you just give out 200 yuan red envelopes to get players to play?
This understanding is actually wrong. The core reason for the high cost of acquiring new customers is essentially the decrease in the efficiency of marketing and promotion. Simply put, manufacturers have to invest every year, say 1 million yuan.
How many new players will come back after spending 1 million on marketing and promotion? That's the cost of acquiring new players.

Starting in 22, many manufacturers found that spending 1 million yuan on marketing and promotion did not attract many new players.

At this point, would you dare say, "Since I can't get publicity, I won't do any more promotion?" Of course not, because if you don't spend money on promotion, others will.
Moreover, publicity is not just about offense; you also need publicity to "maintain stability."

all in all.

After 22, with the expansion of the anime and manga market coming to an end, basically as soon as your game is released, the players in the market who are paying attention to you have already become fans.

Do you really think you can attract new players just by showing some PVs and ads?
It's not entirely impossible, but it's certainly very difficult.

Even the top companies in the ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) industry can't do that. In the past, several top companies could get their new versions ranked among the top on Bilibili in terms of viewership.

With millions of views every now and then, they shouldn't lack "exposure".

But in reality? Most of them are still the same group of players... If the version is well-made, more players will return; if it's poorly made, more players will leave.

Chu Chen personally experienced this "end of the Dharma era" in his previous life.

Of course, by then, the base of second-tier games will already be enormous, and the revenue of top games will also be enormous. Basically, as long as you can get into the top 10 or even the top 20, monthly revenue of over 100 million will be easy.

However, for Chu Chen...

Given the current situation, he still wants to "break out of his niche" and expand the "core audience of anime and manga fans," rather than "resting on his laurels."

(End of this chapter)