- Theo POV -
'Finally this system is ready! ' I thought excitedly as I tested all the functions of it.
Flashy Battle Pass-style interface to encourage Players to invite 10 friends...
'Check!
Simple, accessible menus that any person with minimal knowledge of technology can use...
Check!
Automatic code generator that links the accounts of both Players...
Check!
And finally, 10 different evolutions of the same card background skin...
Check!
'Everything is working perfectly, now the only thing I need to do is get it online! ' I thought excitedly.
Leaving the Game Core and looking at the clock, I saw that it was already almost 08:00 pm and I was surprised.
'I was so entertained developing this that I didn't see the time go by!
Looking at the number of Players online, a smile appeared on my face.
From the 161 Players online in the game when I woke up, now that it was evening, the time when most Players had already returned from the dungeons, the number of Players had almost doubled!
| Active Players: 307
Seeing that there were so many players playing now, I quickly went to look at the college's website and saw that my game had risen from the bottom of the third page to the middle of the second page!
Looking at the last place on the first page I saw that it had only 415 Players online, the chance of me passing it tomorrow was very high!
Not only has the number of active players gone up, but obviously the number of total players in the game has also increased a lot.
| Total Players: 215 -> 405
In just over 24 hours since the game's launch, more than 400 people had downloaded and played the game, even if only for a short time.
Player retention was very high!
Compared to the games on the front page, most of them had more than 3,000 total players.
With that amount of Players and my conversion rate from people just testing the game to active players, my game would have at least 1,500 Players, a number totally off the charts.
Looking at first place, Tyler Evans' game, I realized that it wouldn't be impossible to pass him.
Even more so with the new invite-a-friend system I was about to launch, the chances were even greater.
[Knife Throwing Training in the Dark!] - 1,890 Players Online
1,890 Players online was an absurd number, second place had only 1,200 Players, while third place didn't even have four digits, but I was confident that in the next few days I would be able to pass him.
The problem I had to solve now was... how do I launch this new feature?
'Do I just drop it into the game as a notification? ' I thought, reclining my chair back and staring at the ceiling. 'I guess I don't have much to run on other than that, right?
The only thing I could think of was announcing it on a social media page, but I didn't have any social media accounts, and the Players didn't even know who I was...
'I guess I'll have to release the update anyway, but this is a warning that it's time to create a public profile, even if the use is exclusively professional, in the future this will be of great help in publicizing my new games...'
Having decided this, I quickly turned my attention to Game Core and prepared to release the new function as a new icon in the corner of the board, but then I realized another problem...
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Not only did the game not have a friends list system so Players could play with friends, it didn't even have a Username system!
As the game didn't require an account to log in, since the Player already had a Federation account for paying the monthly fee to play Game Creators games, I didn't remember that the game needed something like that!
'Okay, I'd better not rush anything. First I'll develop the username system and a friendship list, then I can launch the mechanics for Players to invite friends.' I thought to myself.
Thinking about the buddy list system and remembering how empty the taverns were in the game, it wouldn't be a problem to make it so that Players could create groups in the game and share the tavern with friends, so it wouldn't be so lonely to be in a place like that alone.
But that was something I would have to develop in the future, now I had to recover my mana and get back to the game as soon as possible to update these features.
Could I launch the invite friends system before these other things? Yes, but remembering how I was treated as a Player in the other world by companies that only thought about making money and didn't care about the user experience, I decided to prioritize quality over profit.
As long as my game is good, Players will come endlessly, so why rush things?
Going to my bed, I closed my eyes and began to meditate.
My current Mana wasn't enough to do all this right now, but if I regained some Mana I could try to start developing the system today and finish it tomorrow morning, losing only 12 hours of running time.
- Natalie POV -
Looking at the number of players online in Runestone, a smile appeared on my face.
From the moment I left home to raid dungeons until now, when I got home, the only thing I could think about was how I would change my deck, what cards I could win, how much fun it was to rank up...
So many thoughts about this game almost made me make a mistake in the dungeon, luckily I'm only the Mage of the group, so I was in a safe position to make a mistake without the chance of having a limb severed by a monster.
When I finally got home and saw that the game had over 300 Players online, my smile got big and I quickly connected to Game Core.
Unfortunately I only had 2 MP left over from today's dungeon, so I would only be able to play for two hours, but luckily tomorrow I won't be working, so I'll be able to spend the whole day playing!
Before entering the game, I opened my bedroom door a little and shouted, “I'm going to train, Mom! Good night, sleep well!”
“Good night Natt, sleep well my love, I love you!” My mother shouted from the living room, where she was watching an oriental drama.
Hearing her reply, I quickly closed the bedroom door and went into Runestone.
Unlike yesterday when I had to wait several minutes to find opponents to play Ranked Matches against me, perhaps many people had risen in Rank while I was working and now I was only waiting in line for a few seconds until the game found a Player of my level.
Without having to waste so much time in the queue, I managed to climb from Silver 2 to Silver 1 in just 40 minutes.
Moving up to Silver 1, the queue got a little longer, but it was still faster than yesterday, which meant I was able to move up to Gold 4 before my two hours of MP ran out.
Being kicked out of the game shortly after climbing to Gold Rank 4, I didn't even have the chance to experience the level of improvement that was the Gold Rank stat boost, but I was excited.
Wrapping myself in a cozy blanket, I tried to get to sleep as quickly as possible, because tomorrow as soon as I woke up, the first thing I would do would be to play Runestone and see how much my stats had improved.
-
The next morning, as soon as I woke up, feeling that my Mana was charged to the max, I quickly grabbed Player Core and logged into Runestone without even looking at how many people were playing.
Entering the tavern, I quickly went to the table where the Runestone board was and sat down.
Strangely, instead of the standard screen asking me which character I would like to choose, what appeared was a strange question box.
[Enter the Username you wish to use in Runestone: ]
Seeing this got me excited.
Before, I only had to call the other two Players who played against me in the Silver Rank the boring blonde-haired girl and the dark-skinned genius boy, now I could see their names and call them something other than just physical characteristics!
Thinking for a few seconds, an idea came to mind.
[Natt Proudstone]
That was the name I chose, thinking about how beautiful the art of Grand Magus Lyna Proudstone was, I thought that name would suit me and confirmed my choice after the game confirmed that there was no one using that name.
With my game name chosen, the game finally took me to the game mode selection screen.
But a blinking red dot drew my attention to the corner of the board.
It was an icon of two people, which, like the social networks I used, represented the game's friends list.
By clicking on the bright red dot, an empty list appeared.
In the corner of this list was a letter icon and a heart flashing red.
Curious, I clicked on it and a completely new window popped up.
In this window there was a text explaining what friend invitations were and showing how to invite or use a friend's invitation, as well as the most eye-catching, a row of rewards that users would receive for inviting friends.
And to my amazement, these rewards changed the design of the backs of the cards in your deck!
'What a beautiful thing! ' I thought excitedly as I looked at the designs, the more friends I called, the more beautiful my cards would look!
Unlike the standard white and gold design of the cards, which were already very beautiful, the reward for this event had a red background with a small golden bird.
With each friend you called, the bird got bigger and bigger and some special effects flashed on the back of the card, until on the last reward, granted only to Players who invited 10 friends, the bird turned into a phoenix and particles of fire moved constantly across the card!
"Damn it, who can I call? That was the first thing that came to mind when I thought about how much I wanted these cards.
Unbeknownst to me, this wasn't just happening to me, but also to almost everyone online in the game now!