Chapter 156: Chapter 155: Qiu Bin’s Uncertainty
Back at his experience store, Qin Bin continued to polish some aspects of Demon Slayers 2.
This game had been in production for quite some time and the core gameplay was more or less complete.
But upon considering the effects it would have on Demon Slayers after release, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment held off on releasing Demon Slayers 2 and chose to keep it in development instead.
It was a difficult situation as Demon Slayers was still capable of making more than forty million RMb a month, there wasn’t a need to kill off the previous game yet.
As the successor, Demon Slayers 2 had some improvements in terms of combat. From pure card combat to a horizontal combat. Players can use different abilities as usual, all they have to do differently was to modify the positions of their characters.
Of course the characters were also upgraded from cards to 2D models. But as a Xianxia themed mobile game, the characters would be throwing items at one another to attack and had no need to move.
There were still some differences between this and Soul Hunters from the previous world, but all in all it was slightly worse than Soul Hunters.
But Demon Slayers 2 looked amazing thus far. Although the characters still had a cuter artstyle, it wasn’t an immature one.
The shift in artstyle was to satisfy the demands of players for better quality, as well as appealing to as many players as possible. This artstyle would certainly make the game more popular among the younger audience.
I Am MT had the same cute artstyle. Qiu bin noticed that the cute artstyle can relieve how quickly the players get tired of the game which fitted well with fragmentation.
Qiu Bin was really confident in Demon Slayers 2 as many settings of this game had been repeatedly tested.
Qin Bin could confidently say that Demon Slayers 2 will be the best mobile card game on the market, bar none.
The art and music were all better.
The gameplay was the same as Demon Slayers with slight innovations.
Moreover, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment would never skimp on the promotion of Demon Slayers 2 following the success of Demon Slayers. With such a huge distributor behind it, the game could easily surpa.s.s its predecessor.
Qiu Bin was confident that the game can continue the success of Demon Slayers and continue to hold the best sellers top spot.
It could never make more than eighty million in revenue a month!
It would be incredible for a mobile game to reach eighty million in revenue a month, but Qiu Bin was really confident because he understood the power of mobile card games.
As Qiu Bin was dreaming about Demon Slayers 2’s release, his a.s.sistant ran out in a panic.
“It’s terrible! We just got news that Chen Mo is making a mobile game!”
Evidently the a.s.sistant ran over the moment they got the news from the shaking in their voice.
Qiu Bin felt like the sky had fallen on his head. What’s going on, Chen Mo is making a mobile game?!
Is he starting something?
But he calmed his nerves not long after, asking, “Are you sure? What type of mobile game is it, is it a card game?”
The a.s.sistant said, “We don’t know, but it looks really likely!”
The a.s.sistant handed over his phone to Qiu Bin.
Qiu Bin took a few of the original arts, they all looked like j.a.panese style monsters that were really high quality and their unique features were really clear.
Qui Bin asked, “Where did you get this from?”
“A outsourcing company. This company is the best art company in the country. I know one of the artists there because of our long term relationship with them. He sent it over because he noticed that Chen Mo asked them to do some artwork.” replied the a.s.sistant.
Qiu Bin nodded, “Alright, thanks. Did you ask him how many of these he ordered?”
“I’ve asked, he isn’t quite sure, but is confident that it’s over thirty,” replied the a.s.sistant.
“Above thirty?” Qiu Bin could feel a chill down his spine. This basically confirmed that Chen Mo was planning to make a mobile card game!
The features of these characters were very obvious. Their quality didn’t seem to be split into tiers, and combined with the fact that the characters can change their looks, it’s most likely a card game!”
The a.s.sistant asked, “Should we hurry Demon Slayers 2 along? We can’t go toe to toe with Chen Mo’s game!”
Qiu Bin waved his hand, “Hold on, let me think.”
Qiu Bin’s first reaction was to hurry the game along to release the game as soon as possible to avoid releasing alongside Chen Mo’s game.
The outcome of releasing the games at the same time could be horrifying as Qiu Bin was reminded of I Am MT.
But he couldn’t just hurry it along as the quality of the game may be compromised. Wouldn’t he be shooting himself in the foot?
Qiu Bin said after some thought, “Alright, we’ll do the game modes that we were thinking about earlier. We’ll grab some testers from Demon Slayers and get their feedback and make changes accordingly.”
The a.s.sistant nodded, “Understood.”
“Basically, we need to increase the pace. We’ll get rid of any mechanics that aren’t needed as long as they don’t impact the game play. We’ll do this step by step, but we’ll need to move as fast as possible.
The a.s.sistant went off and started to work, but Qiu bin decided to find out more about where these images were from as he was still unsettled.”
“Folklore from the Heian period ? No IP?”
Qiu Bin felt really unsettled.
Any video game designer would know that card games depend on their IP, how could Chen Mo not know that?
Chen Mo made an animation and worked on World of Azeroth when he developed I Am MT. Didn’t he spend that time and effort to make his own IP?
Obviously Chen Mo knew the importance of IP for card games, much earlier than other designers did.
Then, what’s the new game about?
Qiu Bin couldn’t believe that this game didn’t have an IP. He did a lot of research and even asked a few friends who were familiar with j.a.panese novels about this period. He concluded that there wasn’t any!
Chen Mo didn’t have the backing of any popular animes or novels. Many who were interested in j.a.panese culture weren’t aware about this theme either, not to mention Chinese players!
Qiu Bin was confused, what was going on?
Could it be that Chen Mo was so good that he could make a card game without an IP?
That’s not possible!