Although Huaying Games has nothing to do with either of them, as guest game reviewers of "Witch House", Fang Lian and Wen Feihang are still quite concerned about the situation of this game.
"As of now, we don't have to worry about visual novels. We have The Emperor's Development Project and I'm at Hogwarts. I believe someone will soon make a similar development game. However, pixel RPG games are a bit troublesome..."
Wen Feihang was a little worried.
"There's nothing we can do about it," Jiang Yucheng said. After all, he is a game producer and has some understanding of the players' psychology. He analyzed, "Although the horror level is not high, "Witch's House" is still a horror game, and this game category itself is relatively unpopular. Moreover, it is a pixel RPG game, which means that players who like horror games will give up because the graphics are not scary enough—"
"How about we find a few game up-loaders to record live broadcasts and promote it?" Fang Lian suggested.
"I'm afraid that won't work, at least not at this stage," Jiang Yucheng shook his head. "Although there isn't much plot, I believe you can see that the special plot twist is the biggest charm of this game. Once players know the ending in advance, when they start playing the game, the shock at the end will undoubtedly be reduced a lot."
Wen Feihang remembered Mu Suxing's usual "old problem" and suddenly had an idea: "How about letting Amu try promoting it himself?" In this way, even the advertising costs could be saved.
Muxuxing had no objection to this proposal. After all, the entire painting belonged to him, but...
"Are you really addicted to seeing me being scolded?" Mu Suxing asked suspiciously.
He could imagine the scene where players would finish "Witch's House" one after another and then turn around and line up to settle the score with him.
"You think too much," Fang Lian said with a serious face and a righteous tone: "Everything is for the promotion of the platform."
Mu Suxing did not comment on this, but he finally listened to everyone's opinions, took the time to log into his Weibo account, and promoted his own game.
Muxuxing v: A very inspiring game, I recommend you to play it. [Game address]
He looked at the editing column and made sure that the promotion did not contain any spoilers before posting it on Weibo.
Normally, people who work behind the scenes, such as animation directors, should not have many fans. But Mu Suxing is obviously an outlier. His Weibo fans are of various types: animation fans, comic fans, fans of his looks, voice fans who begged him to do voice acting, and even game fans who fell in love with him at first sight and can't forget his game illustrations.
Just a few seconds after he posted his Weibo, the comments below began to increase rapidly at a visible speed:
"? You're starting over again aren't you?"
"Let me translate this for you: This is a very depressing game, come and cry for me! [Funny]"
“I haven’t started playing yet. I don’t know what the motivational game is, but I’ll just buy a box of razor blades online and prepare in advance [sure]”
"No, aren't you guys a little too paranoid... Isn't the original game about inspiration? It's not about healing, so it can't be associated with 'depression', right?"
"I understand the reason, but don't you think that everything can cause depression in a dog thief?"
…
"Are you sure this promotional method is really effective?" Jiang Yucheng hesitated. Judging from what he saw in the comments section, fans seemed to be more interested in "whether the game is depressing or inspiring" than the game itself. The comments section was mostly full of jokes, and there were few people who mentioned the game seriously. It didn't look like it could effectively convert fans into players of "Witch's House".
Knowing that inspiration is likely to lead to depression, will there really be players who actively seek out abuse
It turns out that yes, there are, and there are many such players.
With the launch of this honest promotion by Muxuxing, the download volume of "Witch House" began to show a significant increase - although it cannot be compared with the two games released in the same period, the previous huge gap has begun to show a trend of gradually converging.
Jiang Yucheng even saw several five-star ratings for games with a duration of one minute. If he was not well-informed about his own company's affairs, he would have suspected that these were water armies hired by Huaying to inflate the ratings.
"I haven't started playing yet, but I heard it's very depressing, so I'll give it five stars and wait and see."
"This bastard is really getting more and more arrogant. Does he think that I can't see the depressing nature of a game just because it's labeled as inspirational? Even the official has admitted that this game is depressing, would I still jump into it? Yes, I really would."
Jiang Yucheng picked out a few full-star reviews and took a look. He wanted to learn from them so that he could consider similar promotional methods when launching new games in the future. However, when he looked at the players' feedback, he became more and more confused.
Is this ok
Why
As if seeing the question marks on his head, Fang Lian couldn't help laughing: "Maybe this is the legendary saying of saying one thing and doing another," he explained: "In fact, this is also a kind of cognition that fans have unconsciously developed over the past three years. For Huaying fans, Huaying's depression not only means depression itself, but also represents a kind of quality assurance."
As for why fans still persist in sending razor blades to Muxuxing...
Is there any conflict between high quality animation (game) and sending knives to dog thieves? Obviously not.
Players were initially quite calm about this horror puzzle game that contained the "depression warning" of the star Muxiu.
Although the puzzles are a little difficult and the game is a little scary, as long as you get over the initial adjustment period, you will naturally become familiar with it. As for the plot... as long as you accept the "depressing" setting, then no matter how heart-wrenching the subsequent plot is, you shouldn't be tormented to tears, right
In fact, this time, the players who held such thoughts were not slapped in the face until the very end, and they were indeed not tortured to tears by the game’s plot—because all the players who completed the game independently went crazy.
"???"
"This game is not depressing at all. Viola successfully escaped from the forest and returned home with her father. We were deceived by the dog thief again!"
"No, no, no, you bastard didn't lie to us. Seriously, this is the most inspirational game I've ever seen. No kidding, it's really inspirational. The efforts of the protagonist and me were rewarded in the end. It's perfect!"
"Hahahahahahahahahahaha I'm not crazy. You may not believe it, but I have achieved almost forty good endings in this game. I'm very satisfied."
"I feel sorry for the people above. Your players have gone crazy again."
As various game reviews with unclear meanings spread online, people who have played "Witch House" will naturally understand it, but players who have not played it are a little confused.
According to past practice, if "Witch House" is quite heart-wrenching, players who have already played it will most likely nonchalantly point to depression as a cure, and it would be best if everyone could be dragged into the pit to cry together, and no one could escape.
At the very least, the angry players should have put the thief on the hot search list, there shouldn't be no movement at all until now.
It's not that no one tried to ask the truth to the players who had already completed the game and obviously knew the inside story. However, in the face of these people's inquiries, the general public, who always love spoilers, were extremely firm this time and insisted on refusing spoilers:
"The game experience is very different with or without spoilers. For your gaming experience, I won't spoil it."
“It’s a very interesting game. I strongly recommend playing it on your own! Don’t spoil the game! Don’t spoil the game! Don’t spoil the game! I have to say it three times because it’s important!”
It has to be said that this behavior of resisting spoilers has also aroused the curiosity of passers-by players to a certain extent - what kind of plot will have a subversive impact on a horror puzzle game
Players who have already completed the game were vague about their responses, while those who had not downloaded the game stood on the edge of the pit, not knowing whether they should jump in. It was at this time that several game up-loaders, well-known game review groups, and even editors of game magazines suddenly added game recommendations for "Witch's House" one after another.
Perhaps out of fear of spoilers, these game recommendations rarely mention the plot of "Witch House" itself, and more often make overall evaluations of the game on a large scale -
“This year’s game has surprised me the most, bar none.”
“I have to say that the plot and setting of Witch House are very complete, and it can even be said that it forms a complete closed loop. The foreshadowing can basically be found. What’s more valuable is that some feelings will change with the number of times the player passes the level. It’s a great game, and I recommend everyone to experience it.”
“A masterpiece in my opinion. The producer has a very good grasp of the players’ fear psychology.”
…
It's not just these well-known special players.
As time went by, the fans of Huaying, who were originally recommended by Muxuxing to try the game, also joined the ranks of tap water. Players' curiosity about the game plot, the unanimous praise from ordinary players and celebrity players, and the further fermentation of word-of-mouth drove the game, and even the download volume of the Huaying game platform itself began to increase significantly.
A week later, when the download volume of "Witch House" finally surpassed "Emperor's Growth Plan" and "I'm in Hogwarts" to top the download list of Huaying games, in the mobile phone's own app store, Huaying games, which were once despised by many large game platforms because of their focus on "small profits" such as pixel RPG games and visual novels, also entered the top five of the monthly download list for the first time!