Inside the office, Ichin was currently reviewing the release performance of Salt and Sanctuary from last night's launch up until this morning.
The game's launch performance was very good. Since preorders had only been open for about a month, preorder sales had reached just over ninety thousand copies. However, after the media review scores came out and the game officially released, sales had directly surged past two hundred thousand, showing a very obvious increase.
The game's rating on Steam was also excellent. Across all global regional stores combined, the average positive review rate had reached 94%.
Of course, there was no way to control random negative reviews left carelessly by some people, but the overwhelming number of positive reviews made them insignificant. On top of that, the game's hardware requirements were extremely lightweight, so there were almost no complaints about players being unable to run the game.
When it came to making games, Ichin had always insisted on ensuring enough content volume, and Salt and Sanctuary was no exception. Even though the development cost was not especially high, an average player would still need around twenty hours to complete a normal playthrough. Even experienced action game players would still take roughly twelve hours unless they were specifically speedrunning.
Because of that, Ichin still had not seen any players clearing the game in the backend data yet, though by noon there would probably be some already.
After finishing his review, Ichin asked Hazuki to announce the game's sales performance internally within the company. At the same time, he planned to launch a new round of the company's creative competition during next Monday's company meeting.
After so much time had passed, some employees had definitely already come up with interesting ideas. It was time for everyone's creativity to clash together again.
And this time, Ichin did not plan to review everything by himself. Instead, he wanted to hold an open presentation-style competition where everyone could freely discuss ideas together.
Right after he finished reviewing the release data, the Utaha who had been waiting beside him immediately sat down on his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck, and said, "You're done now, right? So can I finally ask about the progress of the wedding photos?"
Ever since finishing the wedding photoshoot and waiting for the final edited versions, Utaha had practically been suffering through every single day.
Left with no choice, Ichin took out his phone and called the photography team again to ask about the progress.
After asking, he learned there were still about three days left before all the editing would be finished. Mainly because they had simply taken way too many photos. Only a very small number had been cut out, while most of them were kept, making the editing process slower than usual.
After hanging up, Ichin looked at the Utaha in his arms and said, "You heard them, right? About three more days. Once the package gets delivered, you'll finally get to see everything. They'll send over a few digital sample photos later though, so you can at least satisfy yourself a little for now."
The moment Utaha heard that, she happily narrowed her eyes and kissed Ichin several times in a row.
"Now I can finally relax. Then I'm heading downstairs to check out the new skins the Fall Guys team is making. Ichin, keep working for now. Once the photos arrive, send them to me immediately so I can see them!"
"Alright, go have fun."
After Utaha left, Ichin stretched lazily before continuing his work.
Around noon, players finally started clearing Salt and Sanctuary. These were all players who had stayed up all night playing ever since the game unlocked last night.
As a 2D Souls-like game, Salt and Sanctuary was far from easy. And because it was a side-scrolling game, the controls fundamentally felt different from fully 3D games like Dark Souls, making things more difficult even for veteran Dark Souls players.
Meanwhile, players who had spent years playing side-scrolling action games adapted much more quickly.
For example, longtime Hollow Knight players picked up the gameplay especially fast.
As clear videos began appearing online, discussions about the game's content once again exploded in popularity. Many players who had completed the game started sharing the most exciting parts of the experience, along with tips for progressing through difficult sections.
Salt and Sanctuary's popularity was extremely high, which once again attracted many game developers to study the company and analyze its game development strategies.
This rising game development company was steadily marching toward the position of a top-tier major studio, and every single game they released achieved impressive sales and popularity.
The games they developed were incredibly varied, covering all sorts of genres, with budgets ranging from small to large.
How exactly were they pulling this off?
After countless analyses, some players eventually gave the simplest answer.
Because the games were fun.
Players were actually very easy to satisfy. As long as a game was genuinely fun, whether it was free-to-play, priced at 58 yuan, 128 yuan, or even 468 yuan, players would still willingly pay for it.
Take Nintendo's Mario series for example. Even after all these years, every new game featuring that short plumber still attracted massive numbers of players eager to buy and experience it, regardless of the price.
Wasn't it simply because the games were fun?
I give you money, you give me a fun game. Don't pull weird nonsense. Simple and straightforward.
And right now, that was exactly what the company was doing.
Making games, and not bothering with anything else.
As for nonsense like what happened with "Mass Effect: Ugly Andromeda," Ichin completely looked down on that kind of approach. If you deliberately made the characters in your game ugly, how could you still expect players to buy it?
Visual presentation had always been the most important part of games. Beyond graphics quality, art style and character design were equally critical.
If a studio could not even handle such basic fundamentals properly, what right did they have to expect success making games? No wonder an old IP like Mass Effect had ended up ruining its reputation.
At least for Ichin, aside from games like Slay the Spire and Monster Train, character design would always be the number one priority for every game his company released.
Even that remake of The Last of Us Part I had started making important female characters look older. Ichin did not know whether they were chasing so-called "next-generation realism" or "age-appropriate details," but personally, he would never go down that route.
Who knew what kind of direction The Elder Scrolls VI would end up taking in the future.
Half an hour later, Ichin received several electronic sample photos from the photography team in his email. After looking through them himself, he immediately forwarded the files to Utaha downstairs.
Utaha, who had just been testing the new skins with a controller in hand, saw her phone light up on the table and immediately grabbed it excitedly.
Eriri, who had come over with her, curiously leaned closer.
"What happened? Huh? The wedding photos are done already?"
Eriri's surprised shout instantly attracted everyone else from the development team over as well, and they all gathered around to look at the photos on Utaha's phone.
In the photo, Utaha, dressed in a pure white wedding gown, stood embracing Ichin, who wore a suit, both smiling happily together on a grassy field.
"Ohhh! Wedding photos!"
"They turned out so beautiful!"
"Are there more?"
Utaha smiled and said, "Don't rush. These are only sample photos. The complete set still needs another three days. I'll show you all the full collection then."
Even as she said that, her fingers were already sliding across the screen to look at the next photo.
...