September 17th.
Shangyang Games.
The mobile version of “Hot-Blooded Battle Song Enhanced Edition” had been officially completed, with data synchronization with the micro-client version, allowing players to log in directly with their accounts.
The changes in game operation were much less than expected; after all, the original operation mode was just clicking.
After changing the scattered UI of the web game into the larger UI blocks for mobile, Wang Xiaobin and Ye Zhizhou tried it and found that the game still felt good.
From the perspective of gameplay and features, the mobile version experience wasn’t much different from the original micro-client, and might even be more convenient due to the nature of the platform.
Purely from a gaming experience standpoint, the mobile version conversion could be considered very successful. Of course, the actual effect would still depend on player feedback after launch.
While others were busy with final debugging, Lin Wan had already contacted the person in charge of the Shenhua mobile app store to arrange the best promotional resources for “Hot-Blooded Battle Song Enhanced Edition.”
Currently, the Shenhua Group’s main focus was still on their mobile phone business, and they weren’t paying as much attention to mobile software. This app store redesign was merely an exploration and trial.
After all, with the booming development of mobile games, any company with users was considering how to create game distribution channels to monetize users as much as possible.
Shenhua’s creation of an app store and game market was a basic operation that any normal person would think of.
Because it was exploration and testing, Shenhua’s app store wasn’t that well-developed yet. Even so, Shenhua phones had a large group of high-net-worth users, making every recommendation slot in the app store extremely valuable.
All recommendation slots had marked prices, and some particularly good slots couldn’t be obtained just with money—they also depended on specific data metrics.
After all, the more money a game earned, the more revenue share the platform received. When game developers and publishers paid similar amounts, naturally, games with better metrics would get the slots.
“Hot-Blooded Battle Song Enhanced Edition” had Lin Wan’s special relationship layer, so all kinds of reviews naturally got the green light.
Lin Yu didn’t need to personally intervene. She just gave a word to the minor leader in charge of the app store, and naturally, people would run around to get things done.
This arrangement for recommendation slots, in Lin Yu’s view, was merely a gesture of thanks to Mr. Pei and a limited show of goodwill to Lin Wan.
The message was “I’ll arrange a recommendation slot to please you” rather than “I fully support you continuing to make games to pursue your dreams.”
Lin Wan naturally understood this point very well.
Therefore, she was even more eager for the “Hot-Blooded Battle Song Enhanced Edition” mobile version to achieve good results.
First, completing this task well would not disappoint Mr. Pei’s trust.
Second, being responsible for and launching a successful project would count as the first step in fulfilling her gaming dream.
Finally, Lin Wan also hoped to use this opportunity to prove to Old Master Lin and Lin Yu that her choice of the gaming industry wasn’t a rash decision, but that she was fully capable of making a name for herself in this field.
Converting “Hot-Blooded Battle Song Enhanced Edition” to mobile was Lin Wan’s decision. If it truly failed miserably, it would be a triple blow for Lin Wan.
At that point, she might consider resigning to take responsibility.
The recommendation slots had been arranged, and success or failure would be determined by tomorrow’s launch.
…
Ye Zhizhou had just run through the game again and was now looking at the game’s chat group.
The guild chat group for old “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” players had always been active, with players following the recent developments of the game in the group.
Initially, these old players didn’t have much expectation for this game.
After Old Liu’s crazy operation with the “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” web game, it had been in a half-dead state. Even if one day they suddenly announced server shutdown, players wouldn’t have found it strange at all.
But gradually, this game that seemed ready to collapse at any moment had step by step regained vitality!
First came major changes to game content and the Chosen One system update, instantly transforming it from a traditional web game that sold hatred and tried hard to extract money, into a conscientious game where everyone was equal, where not spending money was fine, and even light spending could be enjoyable.
Afterward, the official team invested significant resources to produce “Hot-Blooded Battle Song Enhanced Edition,” completely renovating the art resources and even finding so many celebrities for endorsements.
All signs indicated that Shangyang Games, the company developing this game, suddenly had plenty of money!
Although no one knew where Shangyang Games’ money came from, having money was ultimately a good thing.
Having money meant the official team could temporarily withstand losses, make numerous changes to the game, and spend on promotion…
In short, all signs predicted that this game was heading toward an incredibly bright future!
Recently, rumors had spread about the launch of a data-synchronized mobile version, which excited the old players in the group even more.
This way, they could log into the game anytime, anywhere.
They could play on the way to work, play lying in bed after returning home, and if they wanted better graphics, they could open their computer to play the micro-client.
In short, not having a computer during national battles used to be a very annoying thing, but now this problem has been solved!
At the same time, the popularity of the “Hot-Blooded Battle Song Enhanced Edition” advertisements also gave these old players an illusion.
It seemed like the whole world knew about this game.
The advertisements featuring Zhang Zuting and his four good brothers had created a wave across the internet. Just the ad compilation alone had reached over two million views on AiLiDao.
The “Fried Pork Knuckle” meme could be seen everywhere online, and videos criticizing this advertisement and the game itself kept emerging one after another.
If this wasn’t considered popular, what was?
So, players were naturally waiting with drums and gongs for the mobile version’s launch.
But Ye Zhizhou, who had been lurking in the player groups, knew very clearly that these were all just illusions…
On the surface, this game was flourishing, but in reality, Shangyang Games had been burning through Mr. Pei’s money. By now, between development and promotion, they had already spent ten million yuan.
Ten million yuan was not a small number.
If spent frugally, it would be enough to make a small PC game or a decent quality indie game.
If the mobile version maintained its current state of seemingly hot but lukewarm after launch, it would probably be a very heavy blow for everyone.
…
September 18th.
On this day, everyone at Shangyang Games arrived at the company early, waiting nervously.
Everyone had downloaded the Shenhua app store on their phones and checked it from time to time.
10 AM.
Ye Zhizhou refreshed the app store again out of habit and exclaimed excitedly: “It’s there! It’s there!”
Everyone nearby immediately gathered around.
The Shenhua app store could be downloaded on other brands of phones (except Apple), and Shenhua phones came with the Shenhua app store pre-installed.
Everyone immediately began playing the “find it” game, looking for the recommendation slot for the “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” mobile version.
After searching everywhere, everyone couldn’t help but take a deep breath.
This was favored-daughter treatment!
Completely beyond everyone’s expectations!
On the homepage of the app market, at the very top were four cover promotions, with “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” as the first one.
Zhang Zuting was holding a large knife, poised to strike.
Below were five horizontal category tabs, and further down were five popular recommended applications, including shopping apps, video apps, and other popular software.
Among these five programs, “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” was also included.
The icon was Zhang Zuting’s portrait in costume props, and the title was: Hot-Blooded Battle Song (September 18th, 10 AM server opening).
Below shows the installation package size: 370MB, a four-and-a-half-star rating, and an advertising slogan: Endorsed by Zhang Zuting, absolutely fair and green national war game!
Clicking on it would directly jump to the game details page of “Hot-Blooded Battle Song.”
This was the homepage of the app market, where every recommendation slot was extremely valuable.
And “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” directly occupied two such important positions!
But that wasn’t all. On the “Game Store” main tab, the “Editor’s Pick” recommendation at the top of the page also featured “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” as the first choice!
Opening the “Online Games” category, “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” was still there in the “This Month’s New Game Heavyweight Recommendations” at the top!
The third main tab was the ranking list, which ranked all software and games in the market according to a certain algorithm, comprehensively considering recent and long-term download volume, ratings, popularity, profitability, and other factors.
Ranked 7th was still “Hot-Blooded Battle Song”!
Below it was annotated: 350,000 installations, rating 4.7 stars, and most provocatively, there was a very conspicuous red label after the title: Selected Recommendation!
This recommendation was made by Shenhua App Market’s official staff, who regularly selected games of good quality and appearance for this award.
Having this label was roughly equivalent to telling all Shenhua marketplace users: This is a good game screened by officials!
With such a variety of recommendation slots, it was no wonder everyone was sincerely amazed.
How strong a relationship must they have to secure this!
Those scattered recommendation slots, like the small recommendation slots in some sub-tabs, could be purchased with money.
But these heavyweight recommendations on the homepage not only had to compete with other popular games but also with some hot apps. Without enough money, it would be impossible!
Of course, these recommendation slots on the homepage weren’t the most outrageous part.
The most outrageous thing was that they had secretly pushed “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” to seventh place on the ranking list!
On a mobile screen, the seventh position was just at the bottom, visible without scrolling down.
This ranking list was generally calculated by an algorithm, and the order was fair.
After all, if the entire ranking list was maintained by fraud, it would be too obvious and easily spotted by users.
So the usual practice was to secretly insert one or two projects to be promoted, and then slightly fabricate some data to disguise them. After all, most users wouldn’t know the specific ranking rules of this list.
It was just like buying trending topics on Weibo.