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[Game] Chapter 25: Game Release
🕑 Added 2024-11-17 19:07:55 +0000 UTCOver the weekend, Ichin spent two continuous days at home optimizing his game. Finally, by Sunday night, he uploaded it to Steam, setting the release date for Wednesday, perfectly marking the last two days of April.
Stretching his body, Ichin felt a sense of relief.
“Finally made it this far. I wonder what the sales numbers will look like in the first week and the first month. Once the game is released, I’ll still need to reach out to some content creators for promotion. I might as well start contacting them now.”
Ichin didn’t know many foreign content creators, so he decided to focus on those within the domestic scene first. With so many creators on Bilibili and streamers on various platforms that specialized in single-player games, he had plenty of potential contacts.
He started reaching out, prioritizing those with larger followings. If the creators had a business inquiry email listed, he sent a direct email; if not, he opted for private messaging. Naturally, there weren’t going to be any immediate responses that night, but by the next day—Monday—Ichin received his first reply.
It was from a prominent figure in the industry, an up-and-coming game developer and chairman of Future Tech Corporation. Ichin was thrilled to get a response from Lao Ju.
He quickly added him to his contacts, and the two began chatting, starting with Ichin sending a game activation code. They then transitioned to talking about game development.
Lao Ju’s game development seemed to be progressing slower than what Ichin knew from his past life. The company had just been founded, and the game was still in its early development phase, but Lao Ju appeared to have plenty of creative ideas awaiting his team’s experimentation.
During their lunchtime conversation, Lao Ju took some time to try out Ichin’s game.
Meanwhile, Ichin continued to sift through the other replies he received in his email.
Over the next two days, many domestic content creators and streamers privately tested Ichin’s game. They found it quite intriguing and agreed to promote it through videos or streams. As for the international scene, Ichin had made some headway and was negotiating with a couple of content creators abroad.
Finally, it was Wednesday, the day of the game’s official release.
At noon, Ichin arrived at his clubroom and opened the laptop he had brought with him. Utaha and Eriri joined him after lunch, both curious about how the game was performing on its first day.
Looking at the Steam store page, Eriri spoke up, “Ichin-kun, I didn’t ask you for a game activation code. I bought my own copy to support you!” She proudly showed her purchase record on her phone to Ichin.
Seeing this, Ichin smiled and said, “Thanks for the support! When I develop a new game, I’ll be sure to come to you first for playtesting.”
“Hehe, it’s a promise!” Eriri cheerfully pumped her small fists, then quickly asked, “Your next game won’t be a turn-based card game, will it?”
“Nope, the next one will definitely be a different genre.”
“Good, good,” she sighed in relief.
Watching the two interact, Utaha sat to the side, arms crossed, her eyes narrowing slightly. She couldn’t help but feel a bit annoyed. Don’t ask why; she just felt that way.
Seeing the atmosphere between the two becoming more pleasant, Utaha couldn’t hold it in any longer and interjected, “Ichin-kun, how are the sales numbers looking so far?”
Upon hearing Utaha’s question, Ichin nodded and opened the backend of his account to check the game’s sales figures.
For the release, Ichin had chosen a global launch, but at the moment, he only supported three languages: English, Chinese, and Japanese. This was enough to cover most regions, but he planned to hire translators to expand to more languages once he had sufficient funds.
The sales numbers in the backend showed a total of 562 copies sold worldwide. This wasn't an enormous figure, but considering this was a game developed by a single person, it was surprisingly solid for a start.
Utaha, not being very knowledgeable about sales numbers, asked, “Is this considered good?”
“It’s better than I expected,” Ichin replied with a nod. “Since it’s still early in the release and there’s a language limitation, many people who are interested in the game might hold off on purchasing it. But it’s fine. I anticipated a slow start in sales for my first game. Plus, I haven’t even started the promotional campaigns yet.”
Saying this, Ichin opened his computer's browser and logged into Bilibili.
Seeing the website, Eriri exclaimed in surprise, “Ah, I know this site! There are tons of fun videos here, and they even have lots of anime content. But there’s no Japanese version, so I have to use a VPN to access it. Still, it’s not much of a problem for me. Ichin-kun, have you been promoting your game here?”
“Yes, I reached out to some content creators and streamers,” Ichin replied as he opened his notifications and saw that Lao Ju had already posted a video—at five in the morning, no less.
“Wow, that’s fast. It’s only been a day, and he didn’t even let me know,” Ichin thought, amused.
The title of the video read: “A Hundred Minutes Full of Details”. It sounded impressive, but Ichin knew that the content would likely cause viewers' blood pressure to rise in some way.
He clicked on the video and heard the familiar opening line:
“Alright, dear viewers, hello everyone…”
Seeing Ichin open a video about his game, Utaha seemed to catch on. “Ichin-kun, is this one of your promotional partners?”
“Yeah, this is one of them,” Ichin confirmed.
Eriri, being more familiar with Bilibili, was startled, “Huh? This creator has over two million followers, and the video is already close to a million views! And it’s only been half a day, right?”
Hearing the surprise in Eriri’s voice, Ichin chuckled. “Of course! Did you think I’d randomly pick someone? I wouldn’t reach out to anyone without some real influence.”
After closing the video, Ichin planned to watch it in detail later that afternoon. For now, he refreshed the Steam backend. As he did, he noticed a noticeable increase in the sales numbers.
He refreshed again, and the numbers climbed even higher.
Soon, it had surpassed one thousand copies, and after one more refresh, it was already at one thousand five hundred.
Looking at the detailed sales report, it was clear that most of these sales were coming from the Chinese region.
Checking his Bilibili notifications again, he saw that many of the content creators he had arranged collaborations with had already posted their videos. Their efficiency was impressive, with some even streaming live.
Although he wasn’t sure about other regions yet, in the Chinese market, the momentum seemed promising for now.
And just as Ichin had anticipated, the results weren’t far off. As the content creators and streamers continued to promote the game, the sales numbers kept climbing during his afternoon classes.
The game’s reviews also increased, and they were maintaining an overall rating of “Overwhelmingly Positive.”
…
Comments
Hrea_
Nice, ty for the chapter
