Chapter 21: Something Wrong with This Game!

On the second day at noon, Ruan Guangjian got up from the bed, feeling a little dizzy in his head.

Fortunately, he had been drinking beer, so after a good sleep, he sobered up quite a bit.

"Ah, right, the game!"

Ruan Guangjian remembered that the game should have passed the review by now!

He couldn't wait to take out his phone and search for "Ghost General" on the official platform.

These original artworks were created by him and his roommates working tirelessly day and night, cherishing them like their own children, hoping that the game would become a hit.

By that time, he would be able to legitimately claim the title of concept designer.

Whether it was finding a job or seeking investment in the future, showing off his original artwork would definitely make an impact.

So, although he was doing outsourced work as an artist, he was actually more committed to it than Pei Qian!

"Hey, our game has passed the review, download it and check it out, just search for 'Ghost General'."

Ruan Guangjian called out, and the already awake roommates also took out their phones to download the game.

Looking closely at the game's detail page, Ruan Guangjian frowned.

Why was it so simple?

Especially the introduction, saying "neither painful nor itchy" was an overstatement; it was simply perfunctory!

"This is a rather ordinary card game"?

Did the producer have a grudge against his own game?

Moreover, other games would have promotional images and attractive posters on this page to cater to the cover party.

Anyway, the best-looking art resources in the game would be thrown on the game's detail page, just to lure players in.

As for the actual in-game graphics not matching the promotional images... that's fine, as long as some players stay after entering.

But "Ghost General" didn't even have a single image!

So, when Ruan Guangjian found this game, its cumulative download count was still 0, even Pei Qian hadn't downloaded it yet.

"It must be because the game just passed the review and hasn't had time for large-scale promotion... Yes, that must be it."

Ruan Guangjian comforted himself while downloading and entering the game.

The game cost 10 yuan, and Ruan Guangjian naturally paid without hesitation.

A rather primitive card game, its gameplay reminded Ruan Guangjian of the "Q-Meng Three Kingdoms" version from half a year ago.

However, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Mobile games don't require overly complex systems and gameplay; in this era, casual mobile games are still popular.

Most players can only spare two to three hours of entertainment time per day, scattered throughout the day.

So, card games of this period mainly focused on challenging levels, sweeping, and other active gameplay, controlling players' game time with energy and level challenge limits.

Adding too many fancy gameplay elements would be a low-return endeavor.

But for a game like "Q-Meng Three Kingdoms," which has been operating for nearly a year, there's a paradox.

Updating the gameplay is laborious and unrewarding, making the game cumbersome, and players complain that the game is too grindy.

But if they don't update the gameplay, players will get tired of playing the same thing over and over again.

So, "Q-Meng Three Kingdoms" updates its version every two to three months, adding new features and cards, making the game increasingly bloated, which is really an act of helplessness.

However, "Ghost General," as a new game, doesn't have this problem.

Although it employs the somewhat outdated gameplay of "Q-Meng Three Kingdoms," it is, after all, a market-tested classic gameplay that players tend to accept.

As long as the game has a new skin, it won't become boring.

Moreover, the game features relatively simple and basic gameplay, so card game players can pick it up quickly and won't feel it's too grindy or exhausting.

Ruan Guangjian quickly drew some cards, all of which were basic cards suitable for beginners.

He looked at the overall effect and found it to be excellent!

When designing the original artwork, Ruan Guangjian knew that the artwork was for a card game, so he intentionally created some unique designs to make the characters on the cards more dynamic.

For example, the Guan Yu card features a dragon ready to strike with a sword, and when combined with the card's shaking effect, it looks particularly impressive.

The more Ruan Guangjian looked, the prouder he became.

No wonder he could create such perfect original artwork!

At first, Ruan Guangjian was worried that his artwork style might appear abrupt or mismatched in the game, but now it seemed to be no problem at all.

These cards were well integrated and added a unique flavor to the game.

Beautiful cards, decent interface effects, and passable music and sound effects combined to provide Ruan Guangjian with a pretty good gaming experience!

Ruan Guangjian had played other card games on mobile devices, so he picked this one up quickly.

Perhaps it was because he drew the original artwork for this game, giving him a sense of "his own child," so Ruan Guangjian naturally had a bit more affection for this game.

After playing for a few minutes, he entered the usual card drawing session.

Most card games would arrange this session early on, aiming to retain players with a rare card.

Of course, to ensure the game's spending ceiling, this card would usually be a regular purple card, which looks good to new players but is not very useful and becomes common in the later stages.

Ruan Guangjian was well aware of this.

But after clicking on the ten consecutive draws, he was stunned.

He actually got two orange cards?!

Ruan Guangjian was very clear about the value of these cards, as the artwork request form clearly stated that some generals were rare!

Now he had drawn Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang, both of which were undoubtedly rare generals and the rarest type in the game!

Ruan Guangjian was dumbfounded.

His first reaction was that the game might still be in the testing phase, so the probability of drawing rare generals was higher due to misconfigured values.

But soon, another outrageous thing happened.

Ruan Guangjian was surprised to find that there was only one item for sale in the game's store, a permanent membership card!

Players who didn't buy a membership card could only draw ten cards once a day, while those who bought a membership card could draw ten cards twice a day.

Apart from that, Ruan Guangjian saw no other items, nor anything like a noble system.

In other words, the game indeed had in-app purchases, but it only allowed you to spend 30 yuan. You couldn't spend a penny more, and you couldn't even recharge it into the game!

"Could it be that it's in the testing phase, so the features are incomplete?"

"But that's not right, this is already the version submitted to ESRO for review, isn't it?!"

Ruan Guangjian felt something was off.

After submitting to ESRO for review, any version updates or fixing of bugs in the game would require another review submission.

Moreover, there was a limit to the number of submissions per month, and developers couldn't repeatedly submit and waste ESRO staff's time.

Generally, the submitted versions should be official ones and should not have these basic functional errors!

After all, once the review is passed, the game would be available on the official store, displayed to players, and some players would pay to purchase it.

Developers, out of responsibility to players, should not frequently and irresponsibly change the game content.

Ruan Guangjian was baffled.

If it wasn't a rookie mistake, then it must have been intentionally designed that way!

He never expected that "Ghost Sword" would be such a kind-hearted card game mobile game?!

Isn't this going to be a big loss???