What Wang Chuan wanted to make was a Roguelike game.
The Stanley Parable leaned more toward art. It was excellent for winning awards or building prestige.
Because the focus of a Meta Game was its plot and content, The Stanley Parable had virtually no profit model beyond its upfront purchase price.
It placed greater emphasis on making players think, and it was inherently artistic.
But he wanted to make money even more, so making a Roguelike game was a good choice at this point.
Games of this type leaned more toward commercialization.
Their purpose was to make players feel that they were fun and bring them more enjoyment.
Compared to Meta Games, which earned players' praise but did not generate much revenue, Roguelike games could bring in massive profits as long as they met a certain standard.
Of course, Wang Chuan had made so much money from Meta Games only because this world had never had them before.
Before transmigrating, Wang Chuan had played quite a few Roguelike games.
For example: The Binding of Isaac, Lost Castle, Enter the Gungeon, Moonlight Blade, Slay the Spire, Soul Knight, and so on.
And the game Wang Chuan wanted to make was Soul Knight.
Strictly speaking, Soul Knight was not the best, whether in terms of depth, popularity, or other aspects.
It could not compare to games like The Binding of Isaac and Slay the Spire.
But it was the most suitable for his current situation.
Games like The Binding of Isaac and Slay the Spire were excellent—extremely excellent.
But one factor made it impossible for Wang Chuan to choose them.
Their popularity took too long to build. Players needed to delve deeply into the games and experience their charm.
But he simply did not have time to wait. Three Factories and the other game companies would not give him much time.
So he needed to make a game that could become popular quickly.
And Soul Knight perfectly met his requirements.
Based on its development in his previous life, Soul Knight had very simple gameplay mechanics that players could pick up immediately.
So in just one week, it gained a huge number of users.
Other games could not achieve that.
Games like The Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon had too steep a learning curve.
Their content was also more complicated, and players needed time to adapt.
In comparison, Soul Knight was much better. Though it did not have as many gameplay elements as other games, it was simple enough.
Of course, this would make veteran Roguelike players feel that the gameplay lacked variety, and they would quickly grow tired of it.
But it was very beginner-friendly. Its mechanics were not complicated, and the barrier to entry was low.
It was precisely this trait that allowed Soul Knight to achieve such impressive results.
Likewise, it would let Wang Chuan get players to accept it as quickly as possible during promotion.
After all, Huangtu Game Company was still too weak and needed enough time to develop.
Otherwise, even if Wang Chuan could make more classic games and had even more novel game concepts,
without sufficient capital to support him, he would still have no way to make them.
This was also why he had previously given up on making card games.
Card-based mobile games were the most profitable games and also the easiest to make.
There was no room for argument.
Yet Wang Chuan had still given them up.
As for the reason, it was time for a brief introduction to the stages of card game development.
First, in his previous life, card games began gaining fame with I Am MT.
Then came Dota Legend, which ushered in a new generation of card game design.
After that, The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match Online directly earned enormous profits and even led to the birth of card game IP adaptation!!!
Then came the appearance of Onmyoji and Fate/Grand Order, which broke through the limitations of card games.
They showed people that turning card game art into premium-quality work, or making anime-style card games, made it easier to create breakout hits.
This led games like Azur Lane, Honkai Impact 3rd, and Arknights down the same path, allowing them to achieve success.
The core lay in outstanding Art Assets.
In this world, card games had also developed rapidly.
At present, card games were between premium art development and card game IP adaptation.
Moreover, the major companies had already formed stable markets.
Given Huangtu Game Company's foundation, making a card game would be no different from courting death.
Without funding or distribution channels, never mind whether they could seize market share—they would not even be able to withstand attacks from the major companies.
Besides, for card games, promotion was more important than the game's content.
Because their core was IP. Players had to recognize the value of the cards.
Otherwise, why would players spend money? Wasn't it because they wanted to pull a certain character?
It was like collecting. Only when the value of a collectible was recognized would people collect it.
Cards were the same.
That was why Wang Chuan had not made card games. It simply was not worth it.
The core systems of card games were too easy to imitate.
If he developed a card game without the ability to promote it, other companies would only steal his results.
He would never do such a losing business.
Of course, not doing it now did not mean he would never do it in the future.
After all, he understood the core of card games perfectly.
To make a card game popular, one either had to create an IP or focus on numerical design.
Everyone understood the former, and the latter was also simple.
Take the game Younger Three Kingdoms from his previous life. Its card game IP was the Three Kingdoms, which was already an unpopular IP at the time.
Yet why was it able to earn massive profits and maintain such outstanding results?
It was all about the numbers!!
Because good numerical design could give players benefits.
Things like daily check-in rewards, stage-clear rewards, leaderboard rewards, and so on.
It was all about using numbers to create a sense of success and encourage players to keep playing.
Whether those benefits were real or not, once players received them and were stimulated by them, some would stay.
It might sound ridiculous, but it was indeed something game companies had to do.
Because if you gave things away, it would not affect game balance, and it would make players feel that the game was generous.
But if you did not, players would think the game was stingy.
Wang Chuan had more than one reason for choosing Soul Knight.
More importantly, this game would help him achieve his goal.
Because Soul Knight was a commercial game with sufficiently strong results.
It was also the culmination of Roguelike games and dungeon-crawling games.
It possessed the traits of both.
Not only did it have excellent game content, it also allowed multiple players to clear stages together.
Before you continue