The next day, Meng Shu opened the developer backend of the Cyber Platform. The moment he saw the sales figures, he could not help bursting into laughter in the office.
In three weeks, after the Official Version of "Dark Forest" had been released yesterday, its sales had risen by another huge margin.
It had now sold 1.66 million copies!
Revenue had already reached an unimaginable 114.5 million!
For a new company, this money finally gave them a bit of confidence.
Though compared to the assets he had possessed in his original world, it was still somewhat lacking.
But what self-made entrepreneur had earned a hundred million within three weeks?
Of course, this was also thanks to Infinite Network Entertainment's ads being pushed across the entire internet.
Now, opening any mainstream video site would reveal advertisements for "Dark Forest."
Not to mention all the mid-sized websites. Those advertisements had probably drawn in quite a few people.
For "Dark Forest" to achieve its current success, aside from its solid quality, it had benefited even more from the untapped market in this world.
Its exceptionally oppressive atmosphere and horror survival gameplay let players experience something fresh while stimulating their senses and minds.
It was like the first time Meng Shu had eaten hot pot. Though he was afraid of spicy food, he still wanted to eat it. Even in scorching weather, he would sit in an air-conditioned room and eat steaming hot pot.
He would even drink herbal tea to cool himself down while enjoying the sheer satisfaction of eating piece after piece of meat.
Now that the Official Version of "Dark Forest" had been released, the game would naturally fade away over time.
That was unavoidable.
But Meng Shu wanted to maintain the game's popularity.
Then the best method was—
"Open up MODs."
Meng Shu looked at the computer screen and spoke softly.
MODs were game modifications. They could optimize and enhance the base game, giving it more possibilities and more gameplay experiences.
Steam Platform in his original world had the Workshop, which was filled with MODs for all kinds of games.
The Cyber Platform in this world had something similar. Its name was even simpler: the MOD Community.
Meng Shu grinned, chuckled softly, and crossed one leg over the other.
"Open up 'Dark Forest' to the players. Let them make whatever MODs they like, add freshness to the game, increase its replayability, add new stories, and let players optimize the game content themselves. That's the best way for a game to maintain its popularity."
As he spoke slowly, he thought of the most classic game from his original world.
"The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim"!
That game had been released in 2011, but even before he had transmigrated, it had remained immensely popular. It had spread across the globe through MODs, with new MODs appearing every few days to keep the game fresh.
Some players had even used MODs to turn that sword-and-magic game into a full-blown shooting game.
Others had used MODs to transform that role-playing game with zero sense of impact into an action RPG where every slash drew blood and every punch hit solidly, sending its combat feedback soaring.
It truly was a case of players teaching developers how to make games.
Because of MODs, that game had stayed popular for eleven years straight!
That showed just how long-lasting player-driven game modifications could be.
So, in order to keep the game popular and relevant, Meng Shu did not mind opening the MOD Community and allowing players to make limited modifications based on the game.
However, he did not need to handle that personally. He could hire a group of programmers to do it, which would also make it easier to port the game to other platforms.
As for himself, he only needed to focus on developing new games.
Then, he wrote a congratulatory post. Its main content celebrated "Dark Forest" surpassing 1.5 million copies sold and thanked everyone for their support.
At the same time, he emphasized that the VR Game "21 Points" would be released for free on the IGame Platform as scheduled, and asked everyone to support it when the time came.
After writing the post, he casually uploaded it to his Danmu Network account feed and stopped paying attention to it.
Releasing "21 Points" for free was meant to demonstrate sincerity.
He knew that VR Games in this world were utterly terrible because of technological limitations. Even when famous major studios tried their hand at them, they ended in miserable failure.
He also knew that players viewed VR Games with skepticism and distrust.
That was not hard to understand.
In his original world, it would have been like a tiny studio crawling out of some obscure corner and claiming that four or five people could develop "Red Dead Redemption 2" in a month. It sounded ridiculous and wildly overconfident.
So, when Meng Shu declared that he would develop a VR Game that even major studios could not make within a month, players had not looked forward to it. On the contrary, they had not even paid attention.
Online, there was only that initial congratulatory post that had surpassed 200,000 views, along with a few reposted articles nobody read anymore.
Most people's attention remained fixed on "Dark Forest."
That showed just how little trust players in this world had in VR Games—or rather, in Meng Shu.
This could lead to players refusing to buy the game after its release.
Even if its quality eventually brought in sales, it would only be proving itself over time.
Therefore, he decided that after the VR Game "21 Points" was released, it would be available as a free download, letting everyone try it with the mindset that it would not cost them anything anyway.
After all, VR had already become widespread. As long as someone had a computer at home, they could use VR to play games.
Once they were shocked by this gaming experience that surpassed the current era, Meng Shu believed that his next VR Horror Games title—
Would absolutely explode into the mainstream!
Infinite Network Entertainment had tried many times to persuade him against this free-release idea, but he ignored them all.
In the end, they could only reluctantly agree to list it for free on the IGame Platform.
However, their cut from "Dark Forest" would increase by 0.5 percent as the price for releasing "21 Points" for free.
That was simply the nature of businessmen, and Meng Shu did not care.
Now that the matter of "Dark Forest" had come to an end, it was time to focus on developing "21 Points."
There was only one week left before his bold one-month promise expired.
Meng Shu looked at the Monkey Simple Dev Engine in front of him.
Inside it was the scene Xia Nianzhen had created.
He had to admit that the girl's skills were genuinely impressive.
Although there were some differences from the original game, it was basically a high-quality recreation.
That much reassured him.
There was still one problem.
As "21 Points" was a DLC for "Resident Evil 7," its characters were connected to the main game.
Now that it was being pulled out and made into an entirely new standalone game, the character relationships needed some adjustments.
Meng Shu sat in his chair with his arms folded, frowning in thought.
Suddenly, inspiration struck, and he thought of an excellent reference!
"Saw"!
Right!
At the start of "21 Points," Lucas explained the rules to the player and his opponent through a black-and-white television while controlling the entire game.
So why not remove Lucas's character setup and adapt him into someone like Jigsaw?
Give him a Mask as well and alter his entrance lines.
It would fit perfectly!
True to his word, Meng Shu immediately began making changes.
Also, since the game had only been a small-scale DLC, it had not done much to flesh out Hoffman, Clancy's card-game opponent.
Now that "21 Points" was being turned into a standalone game, the characters needed to be more fully developed.
Therefore, Clancy and his opponent Hoffman also needed additional dialogue so players would remember them clearly. Ideally, players should be able to feel the hardship of survival!
With that in mind, Meng Shu's hands gradually moved faster.
During the remaining time, he also contacted Infinite Network Entertainment. By giving them the script, he had them find suitable voice actors and music.
As expected of a leading domestic publisher, they sent over encrypted audio files in just three days.
Meng Shu quickly imported them into the program, allowing the engine to automatically match and optimize them, saving him a great deal of effort.
Finally, after Meng Shu's extensive modifications and development, the standalone VR Game "21 Points" was complete!
Before you continue