28: Chapter 28 On How Fast People Follow the Trend

While Jiang Yuan was taking everyone from the studio out for a big meal, a certain game industry chat group was quietly exploding.

Someone who liked stirring the pot posted a screenshot, interrupting the heated conversation in the group chat. It was the Steam weekly ranking.

In this image, Spark Games' new title, Slay the Spire, was ranked first, suppressing several well-known international 3A blockbusters and free-to-play games, making it exceptionally conspicuous.

The group fell silent for a moment, then began to spam messages frantically.

"???"

"It's number one?"

"Holy crap, a domestic game reached the top?"

"Is everyone above browsing from Mars? This damn thing has been at the top for several hours already!"

"Who was it that said Spark Games' Jiang Yuan was just relying on luck? Come out and show yourself!"

Someone sneakily @-ed a handle, the handle was named Royal Cat Culture Li Tianxing.

The group continued to spam:

"I distinctly remember some people saying earlier that the card game genre was niche and couldn't grow big, and that Jiang Yuan would definitely flop this time, teaching her a lesson."

"That's right, that's right. They also said that Spark Games just got lucky because a big streamer happened to play Vampire Survivors, hahahaha."

"What about now?"

"Where is he? Isn't he usually quite active? @Royal Cat Culture Li Tianxing"

Li Tianxing stared at the screen with gloomy eyes, his fingers hovering over the keyboard, trembling slightly. He couldn't type a single word for a long time.

The group kept spamming:

"Stop @-ing him. The big boss is busy with a thousand things; he doesn't have time to deal with small fries like us!"

"Hahaha hahahaha."

"This slap in the face came too fast."

"Five or six hundred thousand on the first day, it should break a million in three days, right? It's terrifying!"

"Sigh, we can't even sell that many in a year…"

"A year? Try a decade!"

Li Tianxing closed the chat and threw his phone on the table.

He was the only one left in the office; the lights were off, and only the computer screen was lit.

In the dimness, he stared at the Slay the Spire store page with a complex expression for a long time, then opened the company's project documents and found the martial arts project that hadn't been greenlit yet.

The proposal was written in great detail—gameplay, art, target audience, monetization—all the buzzwords were there.

At the time, he had only taken one look and felt that this project would definitely succeed, perhaps even becoming the company's new flagship project.

But looking at it now, he felt that something was wrong everywhere. Let alone comparing it to something like Slay the Spire, even compared to his company's previous game, which sold over 80,000 copies, it was leagues behind.

"Damn it, a bunch of losers, they can't even copy other games properly!"

The more he looked, the more frustrated he became. He cursed under his breath, leaned heavily against the back of his chair, his expression filled with defeat.

Meanwhile, in another game industry group, someone sent a message:

"I just heard that several companies are holding overnight meetings, needing to rush to launch card game projects at top speed? Both single-player and mobile?"

"It's normal, just bandwagoning. Who wouldn't want to ride such a huge wave of popularity?"

"Is there enough time?"

"Get the project approved first, we'll see if it succeeds later!"

"Spark Games really ignited a whole genre with this one, awesome!"

Someone posted a laughing-crying emoji:

"People used to say card games were niche, that even dogs wouldn't make them, and now everyone is scrambling to do it, hahahaha."

"If you ask me, they have no shame!"

"Why would you need shame? Money is the real master!"

The group burst into laughter. It was filled with people from various game companies—mobile, single-player, even web games. There were people from obscure small companies, as well as top domestic giants like Tencent and NetEase.

But regardless of their status, it didn't stop everyone from mocking these people here to have some fun and relieve boredom.

After the laughter died down, someone sent another long message:

"To be honest, I really admire that person from Spark Games. The first game was a hit, people said it was luck, but then the second one was a hit too, completely shutting everyone's mouths! Now those people who were waiting to see her make a fool of herself have all slunk away. The key is that her game is truly awesome, not some trash meant to cash grab."

Copypasta users immediately followed suit, spamming the feed. Of course, whether they actually meant it or not was unclear.

On the third day of the game's release, Jiang Yuan had just arrived at the company when she learned the good news from others that Slay the Spire had just broken one million in sales.

But before she could be happy for long, Chen Yu walked into her office with a strange expression and said:

"President Jiang, take a look at this post!"

Looking at him with some confusion, she took the phone from his hand. The first thing Jiang Yuan saw on the familiar yellowish forum, in a specific game section, was a post titled: [On the Speed of Bandwagoning]

The main post had a few screenshots attached.

The first was a recruitment notice from a well-known mobile game company. Position: Card Game Designer. Requirements: Familiar with card games like Slay the Spire, Roguelike experience preferred.

The second was an internal project registration from another company. Project name: Codename "Tower Climbing", Type: Card Roguelike.

The third was a screenshot of a game designer's social media post, featuring a crying emoji and the caption: "A miserable wage slave working overnight to revise the proposal; the boss says we have to start a card game project."

The comment section below became an ocean of joy.

"Good heavens, good heavens!"

"Slay the Spire has only been online for a few days, and the bandwagoners are already here?"

"Is this China speed?"

"Hilarious, do they really just copy whatever game becomes popular?"

"Hey, why don't I see my beloved Tencent and NetEase? Did these two change their ways?"

"The question is, can they even copy it properly?"

"Don't rush, Tencent and NetEase still want to acquire Spark Games, so they can't afford to burn bridges yet. Once they confirm they can't acquire Spark Games and Jiang Yuan herself, you'll see just how fast those two can be."

Someone posted a long comment:

"I work at a mobile game company. In this morning's meeting, the boss's first sentence was, 'Have you all played that Spark game?' Then he told everyone to go back and study it, and come up with a card game project proposal within a week. No one spoke at the meeting, but after it adjourned, everyone was complaining!

Is this something you can just make because you say so?

Card balance, numerical design, class differences—which one doesn't require long-term polishing? We don't know how long they worked on it, but it certainly wasn't something they came up with on a whim.

But the boss doesn't care, the boss only looks at the results. I've given up anyway. I'll do whatever they tell me to do. If it succeeds, it's luck; if not, so be it. At least the blame won't fall on me."

Many people replied below:

"Real life!"

"Too real!"

"This is the helplessness of a wage slave, but it's a good thing if you don't have to take the blame. If the boss has money to burn, let them burn it!"

"These idiots, do they really think Spark Games can be easily replicated by anyone?"

Another post was more direct. Title: [Internal Meeting Minutes Leaked from a Major Company]. The main post only had a few chat screenshots, authenticity unknown. The screenshots read:

"Is everyone here? Let's analyze the game Slay the Spire."

"The card design has depth, and the numerical balance is well done."

"Can we make something similar?"

"…We should be able to."

"How long?"

"…Hard to say."

"Why?"

"Because we don't know how they tuned it."

Below it was a handwritten note:

"Suggestion: Don't rush to bandwagon, study it thoroughly first!"

Comment section:

"This suggestion actually sounds like something a human would say."

"But unfortunately, the boss won't listen, hahahaha."

"Right, the boss will only say: 'Do it faster!'"

"I started laughing and ended up crying; my boss is exactly that kind of person!"