Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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Yes, even though the game hasn't been released yet, the Gundam Battlegrounds development team is already making a profit by releasing merchandise featuring original mobile suits from the game.

Besides these, which are known within Spark as the "Rich Guys' Studios".

Many studios also lack their own coffers because they haven't released any games yet.

However, not having a secret stash of money doesn't mean you can't do something fancy.

Many studios, including the Legend of Sword and Fairy Remastered Team, Heroes of Might and Magic Remastered Team, The Song of the Saintess, and Galaxy Paradise Survival, are also very active on social media.

The reset team occasionally sends out old data that they've found.

They would find some of the original developers to announce news such as new content to be brought in the future remake, while the new team would mainly focus on game development logs and promote their own games on various Spark self-produced programs.

These actions are efforts beyond the publicity and distribution allocated by Xinghuo headquarters, which means they are incremental.

For studios, the greater this incremental cost, independent of the company's marketing and distribution costs, the greater the probability of their game's success.

Under such circumstances, when Tencent suddenly launched a large-scale promotion of the animated interactive game "Tomorrow" three days ago, it naturally drew a response from the development team of "Perfect Strategy".

The development team behind "Perfect Strategy" is quite ruthless.

The original launch date of January next year was changed by the entire team working overtime for three consecutive days to confirm that there were no serious bugs.

It was released online on the afternoon of the same day that "Tomorrow" was launched.

It was a full month ahead of schedule.

Their efforts paid off. Although Tencent's extensive marketing campaign had a wide reach, there was a problem: Tencent needed to ensure the reputation of this beta game.

The testing method used is a qualification test.

In other words, although many people see this advertisement, very few people actually play it.

At this time, the suddenly launched "Perfect Strategy" immediately seized this demand, and it even targeted users outside of the Spark platform.

The tagline released by the development team of "Perfect Strategy" is simply, "Don't wait, go to the world of anime now! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!!"

By placing advertisements on Douyin and various websites.

This directly intercepted a large portion of players who were interested in interactive animated games and were promoted by Tencent Games.

They're all 2D interactive animation games. Instead of spending hundreds or thousands of RMB to buy a test qualification from Tencent, why not spend 58 RMB to directly enter the world of Spark's games?

Moreover, "Perfect Strategy" is still a finished product.

Isn't it obvious at a glance who to choose and who not to choose?

Moreover, the development team of "Perfect Strategy" is also very cunning. In addition to the purchase channel on the Spark platform, they also created an extra web purchase link.

The video links on Bilibili and Douyin are included. Players can purchase the app and then download the Spark platform, or directly download the app on their phones using the activation code.

It may seem like a pointless exercise, but it actually lowers the barrier to entry further, allowing players who haven't downloaded the Spark platform before to buy directly.

This smooth and efficient operation, coupled with the reputation that "Perfect Strategy" had accumulated before, quickly boosted sales to more than 500,000.

At this time, the publicity resources that Xinghuo provided them had not been used much!

Some members of the production team even posted on their WeChat Moments to thank Tencent.

This post on WeChat Moments was even screenshotted and forwarded as news. In no time, the sentiment of Penguin Games doing the promotion but Xinghuo reaping the benefits became a hot topic across the internet.

It became a strange meme.

~~~

"Come on! We just played the penguin's interactive animation, let's see what the spark's interactive animation looks like!"

Huang Wenfeng's eyes really shone when he said this.

My mental state is completely different from when I was playing the penguin game.

Of course they're different. One is being forced to play, the other is purely something you want to do yourself. They're definitely not the same.

Without hesitation, I went to the Spark platform, purchased, downloaded, and installed it! All in one smooth motion.

The client for "My Perfect Strategy" isn't very large, only a dozen or so GB. While waiting for the download to complete, Huang Wenfeng browsed through some related news and found that most of the news was about Spark's attack on the penguin.

Some quick-thinking media outlets have already begun showcasing the differences between the two games.

One news item was particularly interesting: within an hour, the activation codes for Tencent's "Tomorrow" on Xianyu (a second-hand marketplace app) plummeted from over a thousand to less than a hundred.

And it is still falling at a visible rate.

This news delighted Huang Wenfeng. Although he himself wouldn't buy these activation codes, as a player who had been playing Chinese online games since the early days, he was very happy.

Seeing scalpers who resell activation codes get their comeuppance is incredibly satisfying.

The game downloaded and installed relatively quickly. Huang Wenfeng was about to check the news a bit more when the game was already installed.

"Wow!! It can even load save files!!"

Upon entering the game, Huang Wenfeng noticed something interesting: on the main game interface, below the "Start Game" option, there was a "Load Game" option.

Clicking on it does produce a response, which means that his save file from the previous playthrough in the demo is still there.

Moreover, the game's main interface at this time is quite different from the one he played the demo last time.

The game's background is very evocative.

It was a summer afternoon, and sunlight filtered through the dappled leaves, casting golden patches on the grass.

There was a stone table under the tree, and in the dappled sunlight, a girl was dozing off beside it.

The girl was wearing a typical Chinese school uniform. Although the uniform was simple in design, it gave her a unique youthful vibe.

She wore a clean and neat white short-sleeved shirt, with a slightly open neckline that revealed her swan-like long neck and delicate, fair skin.

She wore dark blue athletic pants with slightly loose cuffs that swayed gently in the breeze.

A few strands of jet-black hair slipped from her ears, and her ponytail draped over the girl's shoulder. Her eyes were closed, and her long eyelashes, like two small fans, cast faint shadows under her eyelids.

A faint smile played at the corners of her lips, as if she were having a sweet dream.

The leaves rustled gently in the wind, and all around was quiet except for the occasional bird song and the faint chirping of cicadas in the distance.

Even without entering the game, the background animation alone is enough to make your heart flutter.

Moreover, a youthful breeze seemed to blow onto Huang Wenfeng's face.

Chapter 468 What is Youth?

Load the game.

As expected, Huang Wenfeng went straight into the second chapter of the game.

Like the first chapter, the second chapter retains the same setting and characters, but the timeline is different.

The first chapter takes place during the player's high school years. In high school, the player encounters Elizabeth, a cute Russian girl with white hair who suddenly appears in their home, and the story revolves around the player and her.

This second chapter is set in junior high school.

The setting is a small town.

The game's plot is not complicated. The first ten minutes or so are spent exploring the town freely. By selecting points on the map, players can go to various corners of the town.

This town is full of memories from different eras, from children rolling iron hoops to elderly people sitting leisurely in the sun at their doorsteps, and those classic little shops. These interactive scenes are very everyday.

There is even a process of going to and from school, but unlike "Tomorrow", the production team did not focus on depicting the school in "Perfect Strategy".

After all, what people miss is their youth. If you actually drag players into a classroom and have them attend a high school class, they might feel immersed, but that wouldn't be a game anymore.

During this part of the story, players will encounter the female protagonist.

The female lead's name is also very beautiful: Qingyueying.

She gives off a refined, youthful, and adorable vibe.

In the storyline, players can invite the female protagonist to study together under the tree.

The scene at the beginning of the game is the place where the two of them studied together after school.

This part of the story is still very ordinary.

Their conversation barely touched on romance; it was just a very innocent and awkward interaction. Through their words, you could feel the naive and innocent attraction they had for each other.

Look at these simple conversations.

Huang Wenfeng's sly smile never stopped.

"That's right, that's right!! This is exactly what I want!!"

"This is the taste, it's perfect!"

At this point, the game will occasionally switch to first-person perspective, allowing players to see and even do their homework. However, a considerable number of interactive events will occur during this process.

For example, while a player is writing, they might find a small insect appearing on the stone table. If the player clicks on the insect, they can catch it.

After capturing him, you can choose to scare the female lead or simply throw him away.

"Haha!! I know the answer to this question, it's definitely 'scare'!"

As Huang Wenfeng made the selection, he saw the girl startled, scream, and stand up abruptly, injuring her foot after hitting the stone table.

Looking at the girl sitting on the ground with tears streaming down her face, Huang Wenfeng was just as at a loss as the protagonist in the game.

"...I'm so sorry..."

There are many similar small interactions, including when both sets of parents call for dinner. The production team wrapped the innocent love in the dialogue and perfectly presented it to the players.

In addition, the gameplay also incorporates many childhood memories for domestic players, such as rolling iron hoops, setting off firecrackers, and spinning tops.

There's even a fishing game, because the player's father owns a fishpond.

Although the first half of the story doesn't have any major ups and downs, it gives people an extremely comfortable feeling, even more interesting than the first chapter.

However, as the story progresses into the second half, the tension in the game suddenly increases.

The incident began on a Friday night when a torrential downpour occurred. The following day, the player accompanied his father to the fishpond to check if it had been affected by the previous day's rain.

Immediately afterwards, both of them heard a loud noise coming from the mountains.

Huang Wenfeng was still somewhat bewildered, but the protagonist's father had already realized what was happening and told the player that there had been a flash flood, and that the protagonist should hurry home.

At this point, Huang Wenfeng had not yet recovered from the relaxed daily life in the first half.

He actually opened the map and chose to go home, and then... then he entered the bad ending. To be honest, after the flash flood, seeing the female protagonist's house destroyed, and hearing the male protagonist calling her name over and over again...

In the end, they couldn't find the female lead, but they found a shoe in the mud.

That feeling.

It's really painful.

This was not the ending Huang Wenfeng wanted, so he loaded the save file again. He quickly discovered clues about the good and bad endings, and the core of them was actually that insect.

It was because the player frightened the female protagonist, causing her leg injury, that she was unable to escape when the flash flood came due to her leg injury.

"Is this telling us not to do things that hurt the people we like?"

After passing the first round of ordinary endings, Huang Wenfeng was quite emotional.

But something just doesn't feel right.

So he paused the game and started looking for a walkthrough. He quickly found a pro player from the first closed beta test and actually found a complete walkthrough.

"Holy crap, no way! This chapter has so many details!?"

"It can save the whole village? Really?!"

According to the expert's guide, Huang Wenfeng realized that those mini-games were not actually meant to make players reminisce about the past, and that even the arrival of the flash flood had warning signs.

If players can collect a radio early on and find information in the newspaper, and tune it to a fixed frequency, they will be able to receive weather warnings at night.

In addition, players can collect medicine for bruises and sprains beforehand. After scaring the female protagonist, using this medicine will not only give players an ambiguous experience of applying medicine to Qingyueying, but also greatly increase the female protagonist's affection.

Later, after taking the female protagonist to the clinic, the doctor will tell the player that the girl also has an ankle injury, but thankfully they arrived in time.

"It's so detailed, truly my perfect strategy guide..."

"It would be fun to explore these things on your own."

After obtaining the walkthrough, Huang Wenfeng quickly followed it to complete Chapter Two, which resulted in a perfect ending, as the player had informed the village in advance.

The protagonist's father organized others to prepare for flood prevention overnight, and finally, the crisis was successfully resolved the next day, earning praise from everyone.

He also won the favor of the female lead.