Chapter 47 (1/2)

Translated by Coldtaco

Edited by Aelryinth

Chen Mo looked up the recently published games on the market and what the bigger video game companies were testing when he got back upstairs.

The majority of the larger companies would have their unreleased games in their experience stores. As long as they were finished, even if they hadn’t been released on the market, there would be rumors floating around.

Chen Mo managed to find a playtest video on Emperor Dynasty Entertainment’s new game, called Guardian of the Holy Spring.

-Hmm? Emperor Dynasty Entertainment has joined in? I should probably pay attention to this as it was released by Entertainment Dynasty Entertainment.-

Chen Mo played the video, investigating the game more deeply.

—

As a new innovative game became popular, a wave of similarly-styled games would obviously follow suit.

Plants vs Zombies had been trendy for two months; if there were other video game designers who wanted to make a knockoff, two months would be more than enough.

Chen Mo was prepared for such an event, but didn’t think it would come so soon.

Plants vs Zombies could be viewed as a descendant of Tower Defense games, but it’s popularity had surpassed most such games, likely because it required more strategic planning.

It wasn’t a difficult task for the video game designers in this world to identify why Plants vs Zombies was so popular. Any C-grade video game designer would be able to replicate it as long as they didn’t care about the opinions of others.

Lunar Defense was a game like that, a game with terrible reviews. An unknown video game designer was able to replicate it in two months.

The thought process of Lunar Defense was clear; utilizing the fact that it was free, it would pick up any players that didn’t get into Plants vs Zombies and sell ads to make a profit.

They targeted the players that didn’t want to spend money on the game, or the ones who were already bored of Plants vs Zombies.

However, Chen Mo didn’t care, as he knew that their thought process was bound to fail!

There were three main reasons.

First, because the video game designers lacked skill, they were afraid to make any changes to the rules of Plants vs Zombies, just in case they removed any of the focal points. That mindset resulted in them essentially making a carbon copy.

It meant that most of the Plants vs Zombies players wouldn’t play through it. If it were the same as the original, why not play the original?

Moreover, the first few levels on Lunar Defense had tutorials. This would greatly affect the players who were already bored of Plants vs Zombies, as they didn’t have the patience to sit through the tutorial again.

Second, games like this weren’t suited to be free!

No matter if it was ads or top-up service, it didn’t look good in the eyes of the players. Compared to Plants vs Zombies, the only thing Lunar Defense would get would be bad reviews.

Third, the playstyle, mechanics and level design of Plants vs Zombies worked very well with the artwork. If the artwork were changed, it would make the game feel disjointed.

This resulted in many players not liking the Lunar Defense, but they were unable to pinpoint why they didn’t like it. Because they changed plants into defense systems and zombies into aliens, it affected the mindsets of the players, which greatly affected their mood when they played the game.