I'm Really a Superstar

Launch day.

It was still an hour away from launch.

In the morning, Zhang Ye held in his hands the documents that Fat Sis had sent to him. He went through it several times in earnest, analyzing the information for domestic sales of puzzle games in recent years. In the data, it not only included the domestically produced casual puzzle games, but also an abundance of foreign puzzle game titles.

Flying Leopard.

Casual domestic puzzle game.

Price: Free.

Sales numbers: 800 downloads on launch day.

Kamikaze.

Japanese turn-based strategy puzzle game.

Price: 9 RMB for mobile version. Not available for PC at the moment.

Sales numbers: 16,000 downloads on launch day.

Fishing Master 2.

Country of origin: America.

Price: 19 RMB for PC version, 6 RMB for mobile version.

Sales numbers: 95,000 downloads on launch day.

And so on.

This was the current distribution of numbers for the casual domestic puzzle games in China. It could clearly be seen from the data of the 27 titles of games the disparity of the domestically made games to the foreign-made ones. The domestically made game, Flying Leopard, had apparently taken a year's time and a cost of 10 million RMB to develop—and was temporarily free to play—only managed a figure of 800 downloads on launch day. Describing it as a miserable result was already a nice way to put it. Then, looking at the foreign-made games, most of the titles had downloads crossing 10,000 on their release days, with the best performer being Fishing Master 2, which built on the success of Fishing Master 1. Its popularity showed with their market share in addition to receiving close to 100,000 downloads on launch day. With this momentum, Fishing Master 2's sales figures would cross 1 million downloads in only a matter of time, and shouldn't be difficult to achieve either.

Of course, the results of Fishing Master 2 still couldn't be compared with those large-scale, famous RPG series, among other popular titles. Nor should they be mentioned in the same breath, since how could you compare a game that was measured in megabytes to one that was measured in gigabytes? And that was the status of puzzle games. The Fishing Master series had an absolute dominance in the puzzle games genre, and was also one of the most popular puzzle games as well!

After reading through the document, Zhang Ye had a heavy heart.

The situation was grim!

The domestic games market did not have much hope!

Now, it just depended on how Plants vs. Zombies would perform. Not only did he want to make a stand for himself, he also wanted to help domestically made games make a stand for themselves…Uh, although it was true that Plants vs. Zombies itself was a foreign-made game to begin with, but then who would know about that in this world?

Hmph!

If this bro says that it is a domestically made game, then it is a domestically made game!

You gonna bite me??

...

The countdown toward the release began!

Three minutes.

Two minutes.

One minute.

At 8 AM, Plants vs. Zombies was officially launched as the resources were made available for download in this world, done in accordance to this world's market conditions with a new method of distribution!

Zhang Ye clicked to download the game. The internet speed was quite slow and the game that was only several hundred megabytes actually took five minutes to download and even got stuck at 90% downloaded. Sitting at his computer, Zhang Ye did not feel like there was any progress at all. But unknown to him, at this moment, many other people were experiencing the same issue!

At a game download website, an uproar kicked up in the comments section!

"Why can't Plants vs. Zombies be downloaded!? My gosh!"

"Why don't you try a different downloader? I can download the game!"

"Me too, but it's really slow!"

"It's slower than a glacier! What's going on!?"

"Same for me, and I have a fucking 100 Mbps connection! But why does it feel like I am back in the era of dial-up? 5 kilobytes per second? Just how slow can it get!"

"Fuck, there are too many people downloading this!"

"Let's switch to a mirror and try! There should be many other servers providing this game for download!"

"Don't bother, it's all the same. I came over from a different server, but the speed over there is about the same. Hai, let's just wait a while!"

"Hahaha, my download is done! I'll go ahead and play first!"

"Fuck you, previous poster!"

"*flips table*!"

"What dogshit server is this!"

"Who the hell is causing this internet slowdown in my home?"

"It's so slow that I'm crying!"

There were countless comments!

The swearing from tens of thousands of people was a very shocking sight!

...

At Beijing Television Station.

In the program team office of Do You Remember.

A loud shout of surprise rang out in the office. "I succeeded in downloading it!"

It was Hou Ge. After his exclamation, he quickly proceeded to install the game. It didn't take long for the game to be installed. Within thirty seconds, he was at the game's menu.

In that moment, Dafei, Hou Di, Xiao Lu, and a few others all surrounded him immediately.

Xiao Lu said in frustration, "We're all on the same network! Why is my download taking so long?"

Hou Ge chuckled, "It's down to character, our character!"

Dafei urged, "Hurry up and start the game!"

Hou Di said, "I can't wait any longer. Since this game was produced by Teacher Zhang, it definitely has to be fun! I've even resisted playing the demo!"

Hou Ge clicked his mouse with a swagger. "It's starting, it's starting!"

The game commenced!

Unlike the demo, this full version of Plants vs. Zombies did not bring the player directly into the game mode. Instead, there was a tutorial mode to help players become familiarized with game, and the game character that appeared to guide the player made Xiao Lu, Dafei, and everyone else freeze!

Was this Zhang Ye?

An NPC?

Crazy Zhang Ye?

Looking at that 2D cartoon character that vaguely resembled like Zhang Ye, everyone suddenly didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Why is Teacher Zhang also appearing in the game as a guest character!"

"Seems like this video game company really respects Teacher Zhang a lot."

"No duh. This game was designed by Zhang Ye in the first place. Do you think it would be difficult for him to make an appearance in it?"

"Hehehe, Teacher Zhang's pretty smart about it, even endorsing himself all the way into the game. Can you imagine if this game really blows up? How much would Teacher Zhang's popularity increase by? This is goddamn equivalent to pervasive soft advertising for him. You can't shut him out even if you wanted to!"

"I was still wondering why Teacher Zhang crossed over to making games. So it was because he had ulterior motives instead. Who says that Teacher Zhang is being too much of a jack of all trades? In fact, I think that rather than a jack of all trades, he knows exactly what he is doing. Even though taking the bar exam and making games do not seem like logical moves, all those activities actually affect his popularity and exposure to the media!"

"Stop rambling and just play the game!"

...

Peking University.

School had reopened, but on this day, the campus was quieter than usual. The people who would usually take a stroll beside the artificial lake were nowhere to be seen.

Some students who were passing by the area were surprised at this.

"Eh, why is it so quiet around here today?"

"Everyone's in their dorms."

"In their dorms? Aren't they going to get breakfast?"

"Don't you know? Today is the launch day of Plants vs. Zombies!"

"Aiyo! It's today?"

"So do you understand now? Teacher Zhang has always been good to us in the past, teaching us his knowledge and leading us to scold the foreign dignitaries. Even during the recent student recruitment, he helped Peking University stop Tsinghua University's antics. Knowing this, who among us do not appreciate him? Who wouldn't be moved? We don't know when Teacher Zhang can come back to teach us. Since he's releasing a new product now, we must support him even if it kills us! The Vice Chairman of the Student Council of Peking University and a few other officers of the council have already started calling on everyone to show their support for Plants vs. Zombies!"

"That's right! I won't acknowledge any teachers in the school except Zhang Ye!"

"We must give our support! No two ways about it!"

"Fuck, I better get back to my room then! I have to download the game and purchase a serial code as well!"

...

At one of the female dormitories.

Crosstalk actor Yao Jiancai's daughter, Yao Mi, had already started playing Plants vs. Zombies with a few of her friends. All that could be heard coming from the dorm room were exclamations, laughter, and excited voices.

"Aiya, the zombie is approaching, it's approaching!"

"Are you stupid! Plant the Peashooter!"

"Haha, you got the zombie! Ah, another wave is coming!"

"Ah, I don't have enough 'sun' anymore! I have no resources!"

"Why are you guys so terrible? I've already passed the third level!"

Yao Mi was the first to pass the first three levels of the game. After she had completed the third level, a popup appeared and prompted her to enter a serial code. She needed to buy a serial code before she could continue playing. Without even hesitating, Yao Mi immediately made the payment online. It was only a few yuan, an amount that not too many people would care about. Afterwards, she continued clicking her mouse excitedly as she began the fourth level. The more she played, the more addicted and excited she got!

"This is so fun!"

"I can't stop at all!"

"Mimi, tell us why our Teacher Zhang Ye is so awesome!"

...

A video game company in Beijing.

The Gaming Research Department employees had arrived early for work today. No one was idle as all of them were here to do the same thing: download Plants vs. Zombies! Other people might play games for entertainment and leisure, but for them, it was for work, in order to learn from the experience of others.

In the office, the game's soundtrack reverberated.

"Hai, the full version of the game is quite different from the demo!"

"You've only just realized? There are so many game modes, but they're still grayed out at the moment!"

"The levels are also different. They're much richer than in the demo. I was just mentioning that if the levels are just going to continue on so monotonously, the repetitive levels will surely cause gameplay fatigue. But after I said that, the next level immediately went into night mode. There's a difference in the strategy of fighting and the type of plants that can be planted in night mode as compared to day mode? How interesting!"

"The person who designed this game must definitely be an expert! If you go on further in the game, there's even a pool mode. Reading from the introduction, there's also a roof mode. There are different strategies for fighting in each mode, so not only does that increase the playability of the game, it also does not cause gameplay fatigue to the player! Is…is this really a creation of Zhang Ye's? Without seven or eight years of experience in game design, how can he possibly have grasped the mind of a player so well? The demo was already amazing, but this full version is even better. After completing a level, I want to go on to the next one immediately. I think that after this level, it's be enough. But then somehow, I still go ahead and click to start the next level!"

"If this game doesn't go viral, I could never justify that!"

"Zhang Ye is indeed just like his reputation!"

"Who knows, Plants vs. Zombies could really lead the charge for our domestically developed video games!"

"This is such a godly game! It's really too goddamn godly! There's actually a day when our domestically made games could come up with such a godly work!? How encouraging!"

The industry insiders were exploding with excitement!

The Internet also exploded with comments from the netizens!

"This is so fun!"

"So the demo really was just the tip of the iceberg!"

"Is this really a game made by a domestic video game company? Did Zhang Ye really come up with the entire design of this game? This is too incredible! I can't believe this!"

"A boost for our domestically made games!"

"I've already recommended it to friends and relatives!"

"This game truly is constantly full of surprises! The more I play it, the more fun I have!"

There were also celebrities who posted on Weibo.

A C-list singer named Wang Qiqi posted a link to Plants vs. Zombies with the accompanying words: "It's so good I'm crying!"

A movie star named Chen Qi posted: "Recommending a good game my friend recommended to me. It's called Plants vs. Zombies. Please support domestically made games!"

Zhang Ye did not know those two people, neither had he come across them before. The reason for their recommendation posts was clearly because this game had truly touched them.

Naturally, Zhang Ye's friends did not idle around either.

Chen Guang and Fan Wenli highly recommended it!

Yao Jiancai highly recommended it!

Dong Shanshan highly recommended it!

At the same time, the media was also making its moves!

A few video game websites had already published their analyses and review of the full version of Plants vs. Zombies. The reviews were very good, just like how the industry insiders rated it! Websites, newspapers, and other entertainment media's reporters did not idle around either. A puzzle game that clearly had nothing to do with the entertainment circle had actually been pushed to the front page or into the headlines as the topic generated massive interest! It was like a wildfire!

"An amazing, classic domestically created puzzle game! "

"Can Zhang Ye continue writing his cross-industry legend?"

"Some industry insiders frank opinions: Not optimistic of Plants vs. Zombies' sale figures!"

"Good but unable to attract an audience?"

"A legend of a domestically made puzzle video game might have begun! "

"Possibility of poor sales? Don't be too pessimistic, don't speak too soon, just remember! The creator of this game is—Zhang, Zhang Ye! "

"The turnaround of domestically made video games? "