The Reason for Giving Up Card Games

What Wang Chuan wanted to create was a Roguelike game.

"The Stanley Parable" leaned more toward art—it was excellent for winning awards or building reputation.

Because the focus of a meta game was on its story and content, "The Stanley Parable" had virtually no profit points beyond its buyout price.

It emphasized giving players something to think about, belonging to the literary-artistic category.

But he wanted to make money, so at this point, developing a Roguelike game was a solid choice.

This type of game was more commercially oriented.

Its goal was to make players have fun and bring them more joy.

Compared to meta games, which earned player admiration but low revenue, Roguelike games could generate substantial profits as long as they met the baseline standard.

Of course, the reason Wang Chuan had earned so much from making meta games was also because this world had no meta games.

Before his transmigration, Wang Chuan had played plenty of Roguelike games.

For example: "The Binding of Isaac," "Lost Castle," "Enter the Gungeon," "Moonlight Blade," "Slay the Spire," "Soul Knight," and so on.

What Wang Chuan wanted to create was "Soul Knight."

To be honest, "Soul Knight" wasn't the best—its depth, recognition, and other aspects

couldn't compare to "The Binding of Isaac" or "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, truly excellent.

But one thing doomed Wang Chuan's inability to choose them.

Their boom cycles were too long; he needed players to deeply experience the game and feel its charm.

But he simply didn't have that time to wait—the three factories and other game companies wouldn't give him much leeway.

So he needed to create a game that could explode in popularity quickly.

And "Soul Knight" perfectly met his requirements.

According to its development in his previous life, "Soul Knight" had a simple game mechanic that players could pick up directly.

Thus, within just one week, it had amassed a huge user base.

This was something other games couldn't achieve.

Because "The Binding of Isaac," "Enter the Gungeon," and similar games had too high a learning cost.

Their content was also more complex, requiring players to adapt.

Relatively speaking, "Soul Knight" was great—though its gameplay wasn't as rich as other titles, it was simple enough.

Of course, this would make veteran Roguelike players feel the gameplay was lacking and quickly grow bored.

But it was very friendly to newcomers—the game mechanics weren't complicated, and the entry barrier was low and easy.

It was precisely this trait that allowed "Soul Knight" to achieve such high results.

Likewise, it let Wang Chuan get players to accept it as quickly as possible during promotion.

After all, Huangtu Game Company's foundation was too shallow right now; it needed enough time to develop.

Otherwise, even if Wang Chuan could create more classic games with even rarer game concepts, without sufficient capital to support them, he couldn't make them.

This was also the reason he had previously given up on making card games.

Card-based mobile games were the most profit-generating and the easiest to develop.

No argument accepted.

But Wang Chuan still gave them up.

As for the reason, here's a rundown of the development stages of card games.

First, in his previous life, starting with "I Am MT," card games gained fame.

Then came "Dota Legend," which brought an upgrade to card game concepts.

Next was "The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match Online," which directly raked in massive profits and even sparked the birth of card game IP-ization!!!

After that, the emergence of "Onmyoji" and "Fate/Grand Order" broke the limitations of card games.

It made people realize that turning card art into high-quality pieces or making it two-dimensional anime-style was more likely to create blockbusters.

This led games like "Azur Lane," "Honkai Impact 3rd," and "Arknights" to follow this path and achieve success.

The core lay in excellent art assets.

In this world, card games were also developing rapidly.

Currently, card games were caught between art refinement and card IP-ization.

And several major companies had already formed stable markets.

With Huangtu Game Company's foundation, making a card game would be nothing short of suicide.

Without funding and distribution channels, forget about whether they could even grab market share—they wouldn't even withstand the attacks from the major studios.

Besides, for card games, promotion matters more than the game content itself.

Because its core is the IP; players need to recognize the value of the cards.

Otherwise, why would players spend money? Isn't it just to pull for a certain character?

It's like collecting—only when the value of the collectible is acknowledged will people collect it.

The same goes for cards.

This is also why Wang Chuan hadn't made a card game—it wasn't worth it.

Because the core system of card games is easily copied.

If he developed a card game without the resources to promote it, other studios would just steal his results.

He absolutely refused to do business that was such a loss.

Of course, not doing it now didn't mean he wouldn't do it later.

Because he understood the inner workings of card games inside and out.

For a card game to take off, you either create an IP or focus on numbers.

Everyone gets the former, and the latter is simple too.

Take the previous life's game "Younger Three Kingdoms"—the card IP was the Three Kingdoms, which was already a dead IP by then.

But why could it rake in massive profits and maintain stellar results?

It was the numbers!!

Because if the numbers are done right, they can give players benefits.

Like daily check-ins, stage clear rewards, leaderboard prizes, and so on.

It uses numbers to create a sense of achievement and stimulate players to keep playing.

Whether those benefits are real or not, as long as players get them and feel stimulated, some will stay.

It sounds ridiculous, but it's something studios absolutely have to do.

Because if you give, it won't break game balance, and it gives players the feeling the game is generous.

But if you don't give, players will think the game is stingy.

Another reason Wang Chuan chose "Soul Knight" wasn't just that one point.

More importantly, this game served as a support for his goals.

Because "Soul Knight" was a commercialized game with solid results.

And it was a masterpiece that combined Roguelike and dungeon-crawling genres.

It had the traits of both.

Not only did it have excellent game content, but it also allowed multiple people to clear stages together.