191: The promotion of Chapter 191, "The Record of the Supernatural," generated some buzz beyond its initial target audience.

The promotional warm-up for the records of monsters officially began under Jiang Yuan's instructions and the lead of the Spark Games Publishing Department as the release date approached.

At 10:00 AM on Saturday, the official Spark Games account released the first official trailer for the records of monsters on platforms like Bilibili, Wei-bo, and Douyin, with a duration of two minutes and forty seconds.

The video opened with a sequence set on a Warring States battlefield in an ink-wash style, where an armored warrior slowly raised his head amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, his eye sockets burning with eerie green ghost fire.

The scene cut to a gloomy, dilapidated mansion, with the faint sound of a woman sobbing coming from deep within. Then the screen went black, and the three blood-red characters of the game's title, the records of monsters, slowly emerged from the depths of the screen.

Within less than six hours of the trailer's release, the play count on Bilibili exceeded one million, demonstrating the exaggerated popularity of the current Spark Light Project.

On Wei-bo, the topic for the records of monsters also successfully broke into the top twenty of the trending list, although its position wasn't particularly high.

But considering that no trending spots were purchased, and that today's Wei-bo hadn't yet completely degenerated into a cesspool, this level of popularity was already quite ridiculous for an indie game.

And because it was Saturday.

Jiang Yuan, who was nesting at home resting and scrolling through her phone,

also saw the records of monsters on the trending lists of various platforms while surfing the web.

She immediately checked the reactions and popularity on each platform. Seeing the players' positive reviews and intense anticipation for the game, she couldn't help but nod to herself:

"Not bad, I thought players' evaluations might be severely polarized with this kind of style."

The the records of monsters project held a unique position among the five games in the first phase of Sparklight.

Jiu Li was an action game with a national mythological theme, star ocean drift was a sci-fi simulation management game, deep sea mystery was an ocean exploration puzzle game, and immortal mountain was a cultivation sect simulation management game.

Although the themes and gameplay of the four games were different, their vibes leaned towards being positive or warm.

Generally speaking, in layman's terms, they weren't that gloomy; they were considered wholesome games.

But the records of monsters was a bit different.

The overall style and gameplay of this game were somewhat similar to Onmyoji on Earth, though the content was far less vast.

the records of monsters told tales of the supernatural from the end of the Warring States period to the beginning of the Qin Dynasty.

Players played as a Demon Hunter traveling between various states, hunting those strange entities born from the dark side of the human heart in a war-torn world.

The game's art style was a hybrid of ink-wash and woodblock prints, with an overall cold and somber tone. It made extensive use of black, white, and gray, along with small amounts of dark red and eerie green to create an oppressive and uncanny atmosphere.

The game's narrative style was also completely different from the others. It had no main storyline in the traditional sense but was composed of twenty-three independent supernatural incidents. Each incident was a tragedy occurring in the chaotic era. Players needed to find the root of the anomaly within these events and then make a choice.

When this project was first proposed for the Spark Light Project and the application was sent over, it almost failed to pass the review of the Publishing Department.

Because everyone in the Publishing Department, including Qin Gong, had very polarized opinions. Some felt the theme was too niche, some felt the narrative method was too risky, and others felt the overall vibe was too underworld-like and didn't fit the aesthetic preferences of the current mainstream market.

But after reading the project proposal, Jiang Yuan decided on the spot to let it be shortlisted.

She had even made plans back then.

If the final game turned out to be of a quality that met her expectations,

then she could consider taking full ownership of this studio and then give the Onmyoji mobile game a makeover to let them develop it. As for the game's background, she could consider changing it to a Chinese setting.

Facts proved her judgment was correct.

the records of monsters's reputation at the current stage was already better than the other games except for Jiu Li. Perhaps because its style was considered unconventional in the current domestic gaming circle, it had achieved a small-scale breakout, attracting a group of players from outside the circle.

The pre-order page for the records of monsters opened simultaneously with the release of the trailer.

By midnight on Sunday, pre-orders had rapidly surpassed 100,000 copies.

Although this figure couldn't compare to the pre-order data of Jiu Li before its launch, considering the theme and style of the records of monsters, as well as its completely unconventional narrative style, being able to achieve this result was enough to make everyone sit up and take notice.

This also indirectly proved that, at least during the promotion phase, this underworld-like game style and unique art indeed tended to generate buzz.

Although it was still unknown how the sales of the records of monsters after its official release would compare to the other three games in the first phase of the Spark Light Project besides Jiu Li,

but looking at the domestic gaming circle,

almost any fool knew that with such exaggerated popularity, hoping for the sales to flop after release was already completely impossible.

In other words,

by now, all five indie games in the first phase of the Spark Light Project, initiated and led by Jiang Yuan under Spark Games, had achieved a massive success on the Spark Game Platform that made everyone and every game company in the gaming circle look on with shock and awe.

And in a certain domestic game chat group,

most game industry practitioners who had been cynical about the Spark Game Platform when the Spark Light Project first launched were now starting to play dead:

"What do you say? It looks like the records of monsters is about to explode in sales too. Where are those people who were mocking it before? Why don't you come out and take a few steps?"

"I'm truly convinced! Jiang Yuan! Yuan Shen! She really is the only god in the domestic game industry, an unrivaled empress! She actually managed to make the Spark Game Platform a success? I have nothing more to say, only one word left in my heart!"

"With Minecraft around, the Spark Game Platform wouldn't be that bad even if it cooled down. What I didn't expect was that all five games in the first phase of Sparklight would have launch sales exceeding one million? This is just too ridiculous..."

"To be fair, indeed! I thought only Jiu Li would succeed; the others looked like they were dead on arrival! Now it seems I was too foolish!"

"Sigh, I also applied for the first phase of Sparklight, but unfortunately the quality wasn't good enough and I didn't pass. However, after listing on the Spark Platform, my launch sales also broke 30,000. Hehehe, I'm loving it!"

"I see the sky of the domestic gaming industry is about to change! Is the history of 'Tencent First, NetEase Second' also going to be rewritten?"

"Is the perennial second place, NetEase, really going to be replaced by Spark Games? My youth is ending!"

"There are people from NetEase in this group, you guys better watch what you say. If something really happens, don't blame me for not warning you!"

"What could happen? Are they going to silence us? We can't even speak anymore?"

"Although Spark and Jiang Yuan are impressive now, they're still at least ten Sparks away from NetEase's scale. You guys shouldn't be more worried than the parties involved!"