Almighty Video Game Designer

Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Chapter 27: Let’s play together

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Translated by Coldtaco

Edited by Aelryinth

“Plants vs Zombies.” Wen Lingwei replied without even turning around, completely focused on the screen.

“Plants vs... Zombies? Jia Peng thought that the name was direct. Plants on the left, zombies on the right, hence Plants vs Zombies.

Chang Xiuya looked at the plants on the screen and said, “Huh? This mushroom looks so cute, and so does the walnut. Seems pretty cool!”

“Be careful, there’s a zombie munching away at your walnut!” a woman reminded her.

Wen Lingwei wasn’t panicking at all, as she had already gathered plenty of experience. She easily had small problems like this under control. After saving up enough suns, she let go of a Cherry Bomb in the middle of the hordes of zombies. Following a “Boom!“, the zombies in the area turned into ashes.

Cheng Xiuya let out a wow, “You’re good at this!”

Wen Lingwei wasn’t affected by the flattering, “Basic moves. Relax, contain yourself.”

However, even if it didn’t show on her face, she was quite happy.

Although the game might seem simple, the middle to later stages of the game did have some difficulties, and more often than not would cause her to panic slightly.

However as Wen Lingwei gathered more and more experience under her belt, normal emergencies weren’t a problem at all.

Chang Xiuya said, “Senior, this game looks pretty fun. I wanna play too!”

Wen Lingwei said, “Sure you can, just turn on a computer, it’s preinstalled on it.”

Chang Xiuya looked at the people behind her and said, “I wanna play, do you guys want to join?”

Jia Peng saidm “I want to try it out, the game seems quite interesting.”

The others also joined in, “Let’s play together, seeing we’re here already.”

The ten of them went to the counter, swiped their IDs and sat down at computers. Chen Mo had a total of eighteen computers on the first floor, and out of nowhere, eleven of them were now occupied. The first floor was now quite lively.

Jia Peng, Chang Xiuya, and the others entered the game and started registering for their accounts.

“Huh? It looks like you can add friends in this game. I thought this was a single player game?”

“Yeah, what’s the point of adding friends?”

“Maybe it’s because there’s a multiplayer aspect coming, but it only has a simple leaderboard for now. Come, let’s add each other as friends and see who beats the game faster.”

“Wow, Senior Wen is already up to level three! Worthy of being the vice-deputy!”

Plants vs Zombies had always been a game suited for all ages and genders. Although it had a cartoony artstyle, it managed to appeal to all ages.

The reason everyone here was playing the game was because Plants vs Zombies was actually a fun game, and was something new and different. Another reason was that Wen Lingwei was playing it, leading the others to follow suit.

When a majority of people in a small group did something, individuals would also join in in order to not feel left out.

This was also the effect of herd mentality. Even if some within the group didn’t have a good first impression of Plants vs Zombies, they’d still try it out.

Soon, the others were also addicted to the game.

Jia Peng had the most gaming talent and progressed the quickest, not getting stuck on the earlier levels at all as he steamrolled through them. Chang Xiuya, on the other hand, was a bit more clumsy, but she was playing quite seriously. Whenever she got stuck on something she’d get Jia Peng’s advice, and was quite happy playing the game.

The others were in a similar position, completely enchanted by the new playstyle of Plants vs Zombies. One level after another, none of them wanted to stop.

At this point, Chen Mo made up his mind.

Although the sample size of ten wasn’t big, there were both men and women with different personalities. Every one of them were quite into the game. It was evident that there was a huge potential within the younger generation.

That was the best news Chen Mo could receive.

For games, the best group of consumers to fight for were young adults, as they were the main consumers of games. This group had the most spare time, were the most active, and were pretty easy going with their money. If a game was popular among young adults, without a doubt it would spread to people of different ages.

In contrast, if it doesn’t capture the attention of the young adults and was only popular in a specific age group, it was very unlikely that a game would succeed.

Moreover, this group was still quite focused after playing for an hour or two without raising any questions or opinions, meaning that Chen Mo’s level design and numbers were just right, basically replicating the original Plants vs Zombies.

The level design and numbers were points that had always worried Chen Mo, but he could finally relax after seeing this. The difficulty was on point, and the balancing on plants and zombies were well done, too.

——

5:30 PM...

After beating another level, Jia Peng looked at his watch, only to realize that it was already 5:30. He looked around to find out that nobody intended to leave, including Wen Lingwei, who was still fighting hard.

“Senior. It’s now five-thirty, what are we having for dinner?” asked Jia Peng.

The others raised her heads and looked at Wen Lingwei.

Wen Lingwei blinked dumbfoundedly and said, “How about... food delivery?”

Jia Peng didn’t know to laugh or to cry, saying, “Senior, you said to meet up for dinner?”

Wen Lingwei was staring at a screen with a struggling expression, as this level was slightly harder. She had tried the level three times now, and still hadn’t managed to beat it. She was also getting tired from playing the whole day, and wanted to take a break.

Moreover, after gathering the whole publicity department, surely they couldn’t just get some food delivered. No matter what, they should still go to a restaurant.

“Alright, those who haven’t finished have ten more minutes. Don’t start another level once you’re done. Let’s go out for dinner in a bit,” said Wen Lingwei.

“Ok!” everyone agreed.

The majority of the people here were still slightly worried. It would’ve been bad if Wen Lingwei decided on ordering food. Gathering the entire publicity department just to eat takeout at a video game experience store? If anyone outside of the group knew, they would be made fun of until they graduated.

One after the other, the students who beat their last level quit the game and started chatting about their experiences from the game.

“I think the Torchwood is quite good, the damage increase is quite noticeable. A Torchwood with a few Peashooters behind, that’s tons of damage!”

“However the Torchwood only boosts Peashooters, which aren’t a good choice at the later stages of the game. That strategy is too simple.”

“I found the night level so difficult, especially the tombstones. They’re so annoying, not to mention that they take up space too.”

“That’s how you make it interesting! If there wasn’t some difficulty, there wouldn’t be a challenge.”

“Right? This game is quite scary; once you start, you can’t stop.”

The students that were on the leaderboards became the focus of the group, sharing their experiences as they chatted while looking through the leaderboards.

Chen Mo reminded them nicely, “If you haven’t had enough of the game, there’s an installer for your phone on the computers, you can continue playing it on your phone.”