They wanted to make a trashy game, but how come it sold like hotcakes again?

Chapter 34: The Battle Begins

Xiao Li stepped down, and Wu Yu took the stage next.

He remained reserved, but he also had his own doubts.

"Plants vs. Zombies is a really great game in my opinion."

From any perspective, it was a very important game for us. At the time, Three Kingdoms Kill had only been online for a month, and everyone was blinded by victory. And the most discussed topic was how to proceed with the second round of Tiger Talismans.

He was different; he directly presented a new game design proposal.

He said, "Do you remember the dream we had when we first came together? My dream was never to develop a game that made a lot of money, and the quality of a game shouldn't be determined by its sales. My goal from the beginning was to make a game that would make people happy."

Now it seems that Plants vs. Zombies has succeeded.

How long did it take for Plants vs. Zombies to go from being conceived to being released? I believe this is a question that many people have overlooked.

And now I can tell you the answer: one month. To be precise, four people, one month, five versions.

The development cycle, number of developers, and development resources were even shorter and more outrageous than what was speculated online.

This is why we created a level generator.

At first, I didn't understand why he wanted to make five versions.

In my opinion, wouldn't it be enough to just make the most basic version? That version is perfect enough.

But during that live broadcast, I understood.

Perhaps in his view, there are only two versions of this game.

One is the initial version, and the other is another version.

The reason he made other versions was simply to give players a sample and allow other players to participate in the game.

After completing the full version, you can not only play other versions of this game, but also experience the creation of this game as a game in itself.

Even now, there is still a lot of controversy surrounding this game online, and he has never offered much commentary on it.

Within our company, or rather, in his view, Plants vs. Zombies is a game that brings joy to everyone.

Our goal in making it is simply to bring joy to everyone while playing it. That's all, and that's enough.

The annual meeting was naturally broadcast live, and after hearing his words, many people who previously disliked Plants vs. Zombies fell silent.

Yes, it's just a game designed to make everyone happy. Why hold it to such high standards?

Moreover, it's a great game, so where does my hatred for it come from?

The third person to go on stage was Lin Chen. Perhaps because he had seen his sister's live streams a lot, or perhaps because he had inherited the gene of facing the screen from his parents, he was the least stage-frightened among all the participants. He even played a little game with the audience when he went on stage.

He walked onto the stage, and the game on the screen changed from Plants vs. Zombies to Pokémon. He smiled, and said with a hint of helplessness:

"Actually, I wanted to talk about the Plants vs. Zombies part, but at that time I hadn't joined Tangren Games, so I probably wouldn't be able to give a clear answer. So I could only choose Pokémon."

I first met him during the development of Plants vs. Zombies.

At that time, the game was really dead, and the boss was in talks with CatShark Live about a collaboration.

As someone with a little bit of fame in the industry, I was also invited to participate in the event. And as you all know, the boss's evaluation of the abstract map I created was:

"While this map is interesting, the solutions are too simplistic and predictable, making it difficult to differentiate players in matches."

As everyone has seen, the final outcome was pretty much exactly what the boss had said.

We've strayed off-topic, so let's steer the conversation back to Pokémon.

I was discussing this topic with my boss when he knocked on the door and came in. Just as senior colleague Wu Yu said, he said to the boss:

"Forget about all that useless stuff. Does it matter if the game makes money? What matters is making players happy. And right now, I have a brand new project. Do you want to work on it?"

The brand-new project piqued my curiosity enough that he didn't stop me from watching, but instead let me continue.

I quickly finished reviewing the project proposal; it really is a fantastic game.

It was just a simple proposal that convinced me to join Tangren Games.

This is similar to the game's reputation; although some people dislike it, there aren't many people actually attacking it.

This is also my view of him: a perfect person, a person with few flaws, a person who maintains his integrity in a volatile industry.

While we don't know what new plans he has, I want to tell everyone that the era of Pokémon is far from over.

After my sister Lin Wan defeated her game counterpart, our company decided to launch a brand new mode.

Of course, it's not that rivalry mode that's been circulating online. What we're going to open is the Pokémon PVP battle mode.

Explaining the battle mode in detail is too complicated, so let's just get straight to the action. Let's give a round of applause to Mr. Tang She, whom we've been talking about for ages, along with our boss and my sister, who will come up on stage to demonstrate this brand new game version.

As he spoke, the camera moved with his steps to the edge of the stage.

The stage, which had previously appeared perfectly normal, has now been transformed into an open space the size of a tennis court.

Walking to the sidelines, he nodded to his sister beside him, and then the two of them took out a plastic Poké Ball from their pockets.

Lin Chen and Lin Wan aimed at the badminton court in what they thought was a cool way. As a red light flashed in the court, two Pokémon appeared in front of the audience in their virtual forms.

Then the camera was pointed at Tang She, who had been praised for a long time but couldn't say anything. He could only try to avoid looking at the camera and did nothing, making others think he was just a passerby.

The necessary props had been prepared in advance, and he and his senior took out the Poké Balls they had prepared beforehand and aimed them at the tennis court.

The brother and sister duo brought out two Pokémon, two Charizards.

Unlike the regular Charizard, the sister's Charizard is the red one, a yellow Charizard with wings and barbs all over its body, which is obviously Mega Evolved.

The Charizard released by Lin Chen was a black Charizard with blue flames, which looked cooler and more powerful than Lin Wan's.

The sprites released by the senior student and Tang She were quite adorable.

The senior student released a baby Eevee, while Tang She released a Pikachu.