Chapter 36: Leading the Casual Game Craze
Under the watchful eye of the entire gaming industry, the metrics for *Plants vs. Zombies* continued to surge.
24-hour sales: 23,187; 3-day sales: 77,409; 7-day sales: 514,580!
Throughout that month, game media outlets and designers were stunned time and again. Most games see growth in their first week, followed by a rapid decline. But *Plants vs. Zombies* was different—even into the fourth week, daily download numbers remained stable at a very high level!
500,000 units sold in the first month! What did that mean? It meant Chen Mo could earn over two million from just this one game—in a single month!
For a newcomer, this figure was so astonishing that *Plants vs. Zombies* sparked a craze across the entire gaming industry!
The player base spread like a virus, and sales climbed higher and higher!
Many players spontaneously formed various gaming communities to study strategies for *Plants vs. Zombies*, especially the endless mode. Rankings on the leaderboards changed daily.
Game media outlets released new press releases every day, and industry insiders analyzed the secrets behind *Plants vs. Zombies*' success.
On major Q&A platforms and even the official forums of the Illusion World Editor, many game designers were engaged in heated discussions.
Where exactly did the success of *Plants vs. Zombies* lie?
Could its success be replicated? Could it be used as a reference?
The level design, combat system, numerical balance, tutorials, visuals, music, and even the smallest details of *Plants vs. Zombies* were all pulled apart and studied repeatedly, making it a benchmark product for puzzle games!
An A-level game designer from Zen Interactive posted a long blog post, analyzing the brilliance of *Plants vs. Zombies* in detail and boldly declaring that the spring of puzzle games had arrived!
In the post, he wrote: "To be honest, I really admire Chen Mo, the creator of *Plants vs. Zombies*. As a rookie game designer, he’s taught a lesson to all of us who have always looked down on casual games."
"We’ve always thought casual games were trivial—only C-level or D-level designers would use them as practice. Because these puzzle-based casual games often can’t guarantee playtime or keep players hooked; players tend to get bored quickly, leading to massive churn."
"And many so-called puzzle games don’t even have that many puzzle elements. They’re like kids playing house, with far less strategy than some large-scale strategy games!"
"But *Plants vs. Zombies* overturned this conventional wisdom. Who says puzzle games can’t be complex? Who says puzzle games can’t last? The two major challenges that have always plagued puzzle games—*Plants vs. Zombies* solved them all!"
"This proves that the problem isn’t with the game genre, but with our limited thinking!"
"Moreover, *Plants vs. Zombies* has shown us the massive market for casual puzzle games. These games aren’t niche at all—they have a huge market!"
"And Chen Mo has pointed a clear path for all C-level and D-level game designers. It doesn’t matter if you have few resources or weak skills—aren’t you all boasting about your creativity? If you really have creativity, then go make a casual game like *Plants vs. Zombies*. It can still make you very satisfied—this is an achievement that most rookie designers could never hope to reach."
Of course, Lin Mao couldn’t help but envy a result like *Plants vs. Zombies*', but envy aside, he was genuinely happy for Chen Mo.
These days, Wen Lingwei and Jia Peng and the others no longer came around every day like before. After playing for a month, their passion for *Plants vs. Zombies* had cooled somewhat.
More and more strategies were being developed on the forums, and more gameplay elements were being uncovered, but people’s interest would eventually fade.
Wen Lingwei and the others were urging Chen Mo to develop subsequent versions, or even create a new game.
Chen Mo was well aware of this. *Plants vs. Zombies* was indeed a very long-lasting game—some people could play it for a year or two—but for most, they’d get bored after a month or two.
Of course, as a single-player game, whether players got bored or not didn’t really matter. The game had been sold, the money was earned, and it was time to develop the next game.
Chen Mo was also planning to shift his focus to the next project. But before that, he needed to arrange a version update for *Plants vs. Zombies*.
A genius remembers this site’s address in one second: