Chapter 34: Featured on the Homepage!
If I pushed it to the limit, I could set up twenty-two cannons or even more, but Chen Mo didn’t plan to show off that much. It was way too easy to mess up, and the last thing he wanted was to give a bad example.
Besides, every formation with corn cannons required mastering the rhythm. It wasn’t just about tossing bombs around randomly to clear levels; you had to have some understanding of the zombies’ spawn patterns to react in advance.
And this formation wasn’t the only one. In fact, the formations in Plants vs. Zombies were a whole field of study. In the past life, forums had dozens of pages of high-quality posts about various formations, including some bizarre ones you could hardly imagine—like only covering half the map, arranging plants into arrow shapes or hearts, various cannonless setups, or even extreme manual-control setups with over twenty-two corn cannons.
Chen Mo knew a bit about all of these, but if he had to play them himself, he’d need some practice to pull them off.
Especially the timing for releasing corn cannons and other bombs—it was very meticulous. Players from the past life had even come up with various mnemonics to record the strategies for different formations.
Beyond that, there were plenty of other little tricks, like using ice to eliminate coral. In the endless pool mode, you could freeze the water surface at a specific time with an Ice Mushroom, preventing the coral zombie trio from emerging from the pool.
There were many more such tricks, but Chen Mo didn’t plan to spoil them all. He’d let the players figure them out on their own.
Wen Lingwei and the others had their enthusiasm reignited, diving into the endless mode to explore Chen Mo’s strategies.
“Hey, it actually works! I set it up!”
“How is it? Does it work well?”
“Great! Feels way stronger than my old formation!”
“Be careful, protect those corn cannons.”
These people were all absorbed in studying the endless mode, completely forgetting about the game’s launch.
Wasn’t the deal that they were here to cheer me on?
Chen Mo was a bit speechless. He opened the app store and continued monitoring Plants vs. Zombies’ stats.
From afternoon to evening was basically the golden period for game downloads. With data refreshing every hour, Plants vs. Zombies’ download numbers kept climbing, from an increase of 500 per hour earlier to about 800 per hour now!
Moreover, while firmly holding the top spot on the new games chart, Plants vs. Zombies was also starting to make waves on other leaderboards.
Puzzle games, strategy games, casual games—Plants vs. Zombies was showing up on multiple charts, even breaking into the top 500 of the paid games chart!
Keep in mind, it had been less than 24 hours since launch. Achieving this kind of result was like riding a rocket.
At the same time, the buzz around Plants vs. Zombies was spreading fast. Chen Mo’s Weibo post was being shared nonstop.
Major gaming media outlets were all downloading Plants vs. Zombies, eager to feature it in their reports.
And some game designers were also taking notice, downloading it with a mix of shock and curiosity to see what made this game so magical!
Now, everyone was waiting for the 24-hour data on Plants vs. Zombies!
At that moment, Plants vs. Zombies had a rating of 9.2, still holding a very high score. Player reviews were overwhelmingly positive.
“A very innovative puzzle game!”
“Feels like there’s so much content. Played for hours and still finding new stuff. Totally worth the money.”
“Love the graphics and music!”
“I used to think plants and zombies didn’t go together, but somehow they fit perfectly.”
“I downloaded this game at noon and have been playing for hours straight. Why can’t I stop?”
“I thought a game made in three months would be shoddy, but it’s not at all. This is a high-quality game. The creativity is unbeatable!”
“I’m a professional troll, but I can’t find anything to criticize. What do I do? Am I going to lose my job?”
“Upstairs, let me teach you: ‘What a garbage game, these zombies aren’t scary at all!’ (manual sarcasm)”
“Anyone else here from Weibo? Feeling sorry for Teacher Shi Huazhe?”
“Heh, who still cares about that outdated designer? Living off his past glory, criticizing everything left and right. And look at him now—can his game even compare to a toenail of Plants vs. Zombies?”
Chen Mo happily scrolled through the comments.
There were some negative reviews or opinions, and he glanced at them too. Most were just mindless rants, probably from bots or people trying to stir trouble.
Chen Mo didn’t care. This tiny minority couldn’t affect Plants vs. Zombies’ rating anyway. To leave a bad review, they’d have to buy the game first.
Once you’ve paid, feel free to rant. If I get mad, I lose.
Chen Mo’s mindset was rock solid. There was no way a few trolls would get to him.
Now, he was also a bit excited. He wanted to see just how big a splash Plants vs. Zombies—a global phenomenon in the past life—could make in this parallel world!
…
The next day, noon at 12:00.
Only three or four people, including Jia Peng, were in the experience store. Wen Lingwei and the others had stayed until the store closed at 8 PM the night before, then probably played on their phones for a long time back at the dorm, so they hadn’t shown up yet this afternoon.
Jia Peng yawned. “Boss, I tried your strategy all night last night, and it’s not working! Why do I always feel like I don’t have enough corn cannons?”
Chen Mo smiled without saying a word.
Jia Peng said, “…Boss, if you keep that up, I’m going to hit you. It’s so frustrating. How come you can breeze through 2000 levels, and I’m only at level 109?”
Chen Mo rolled his eyes. “You only climbed twenty-something levels in one night, and you’re not satisfied?”
Jia Peng thought about it—that was true—so he buried his head back in his research.
Chen Mo opened the app store to check Plants vs. Zombies’ stats.
At the same time, many gaming media outlets had already drafted their news articles, just waiting for the final data.
At exactly 12:00, the data refreshed!
Plants vs. Zombies: Downloads 23,187, Rating: 9.1!
24-hour sales broke 20,000!
Earlier, based on Chen Mo’s estimates, breaking 10,000 in 24 hours was a given, but he hadn’t dared to be too optimistic about hitting 20,000. However, when he checked the data in the morning, downloads had already surpassed 20,000, and by noon, they’d reached over 23,000.
This meant Plants vs. Zombies had experienced another explosive surge in downloads during the night!
Not only that, Plants vs. Zombies had directly climbed into the top ten of multiple category charts, including puzzle games, strategy games, and casual games, and even broke into the top 100 of the paid games chart!
As for recommendations, it was even more impressive. The official app store had given Plants vs. Zombies a homepage [Must Play Today] recommendation!
The homepage recommendation slots in the official app store were generally divided into four tiers. The best was the top [Ultra Classic Games] recommendation, which featured a scrolling banner. Only about five or six games got this slot at any given time.
Next was the [Hottest Today] recommendation, which gave a few large icons, recommending around ten games.
Below that was the [Must Play Today] recommendation, also with icons, but recommending about a dozen games.
The worst was the [Today’s Picks] recommendation, with about thirty slots.
Still, even the worst homepage recommendation was far better than any secondary page recommendation.
The [Must Play Today] recommendation that Plants vs. Zombies received was already excellent. It was rare for a new game to get this slot just one day after launch, which meant the app store’s system rating for Plants vs. Zombies was incredibly high!