Almighty Video Game Designer

In the game, Abe no Seimei was in the middle of the screen, slowly waving his fan back and forth. The background looked like where an Onmyoji would live during a Heian Period, under the cold moonlight with beautiful cherry blossom trees swaying in the background with petals falling from the sky.

"Lord Seimei!"

The story started off with the calls from a mask wearing white fox Shikigami.

The graphics of the game looked really polished, and had a really clean UI unlike many other mobile card games. The characters tab, inbox, and chat function were on the top, otherwise there wasn't anything else on the screen other than an exclamation mark on the top of the character and their dialogue.

A UI like this combined with beautiful scenery, high quality models, relaxing music, and unique dubs make for an immersive game.

This was completely different compared to other games.

Every new character was accompanied by a full body sketch and an overview, allowing players to immerse easier into the story.

Following Inugami's scenes, the players started their first guided combat.

This was then the players realised that the gameplay was actually 3D, and they could even adjust their perspective.

"My goodness, I thought this was a card game? You can even change the perspective, it's actually 3D!"

"The models are so high quality too, it's comparable to a PC game!"

"The effects of the abilities and the attack animations are really high quality too!"

"I noticed that the monsters will look in the direction of the characters that are moving. It's so cute how they move around."

"It's still turn based, but you can control everything! There's so much freedom given to players!"

"I won! Oh, I can draw cards now!"

"Hmm, this method of drawing is quite interesting, you have to draw out a symbol."

"Wow, I drew a cute girl, a purple SR Yuki Onna!"

"Don't get too excited, I drew that too. Seems like it was guaranteed from the first draw…"

"Ahhh! Get this story over with, I want to put in some money and draw some cards!"

The players were soon absorbed into the game.

The first few hours of the game were also planned. Various mechanics are slowly unlocked as the players progress through the story, allowing the game to have a grip onto the players.

The Inugami and sparrow scene also gathered the attention of many players.

"This Shiba character is so interesting!"

"Wow, it seems honest and heartfelt."

"Interspecies relationships… Although this story was quite short, the ending was pretty good and very heartwarming."

"The story is great, and combined with the artwork and the voice acting, I actually think Chen Mo is an honest video game designer, he designed Warcraft afterall. Who knew money could make such a difference, in a mobile card game no less!"

"I'm trapped!"

—

Other mobile card game designers were also downloading Onmyoji to see what the person who invented this genre could add to it.

It didn't take long for them to realise that there was no comparison, even the newly released Demon Slayers 2 wasn't on the same level at all!

"The graphics and voice acting… Making a game like this probably costs tens of millions right?"

"Yeah, he must've spent a lot of money! I wonder how he's alright with that!"

"He's rich."

"Even so, you don't just spend your money like that. Is Emperor Dynasty Entertainment not right? The problem is, the core of mobile card games are in its gameplay, the graphics shouldn't make much of a difference. Wouldn't it be better if he spent that money on advertising instead?"

"Chen Mo also did advertising, and it worked wonders too."

"I thought Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was incredibly greedy, but Chen Mo had bigger ambitions than Emperor Dynasty Entertainment! Emperor Dynasty Entertainment wanted to test the waters with Demon Slayers 2 then monopolize the entire industry with different IPs, but Chen Mo was one step ahead, wanting to take over the entire mobile card game industry with one game!"

"I think it's hard to tell. Chen Mo made a bold move, this game plays completely differently from I Am MT. The combat is turned based now, and the card training system has been overhauled. Are the players able to accept that?"

"We'll only know when the statistics for the monthly income is released."

—

Qiu Bin was probably the one who was most nervous. He downloaded the game as soon as it was available and had been playing it non-stop to try and figure out this game, and see what changes Chen Mo made to mobile card games.

He was shocked, this game was on a whole different level compared to I Am MT!

Qiu bin thought that Chen Mo only changed the theme of the game, with the mechanics of the game remaining true to I Am MT. But he now realised that it wasn't just the theme, the playstyle was completely different too!

Take raising Shikigamis for example, Onmyoji completely ditched the training system of I Am MT. The level and star system was fairly easy to wrap your mind around, but this Awakening and Souls system?

There was also the concept of main characters, there were four Onmyojis, with a whole bunch of abilities.

There was also exploration elements, story, shop, and the method of drawing new cards. Although they had some resemblance to a card game, it felt entirely different, and the gameplay was completely overhauled too, you could barely tell it was a mobile card game!

Qiu Bin was most baffled at the fact that Onmyoji challenged all his previous knowledge of mobile card games. His three key points from before were completely ignored in this game.

Fragmentation, low cost, huge IP, Onmyoji didn't match a single one of them!

Fragmentation? This game was incredibly tiring to play. The players would spend five to six hours on the first day, and the players didn't feel relaxed in the later days too. As long as you were online, there were things to do, completely ignoring the concept of time fragmentation.

Low cost? This cost wasn't low at all. He spent so much money on artwork and voice acting, this game would easily enter the range of tens of millions, much more than the average PC game!

Big IP? Onmyoji didn't even have an IP. This theme might be known in some specific groups, but most games wouldn't even care about stories and monsters from that period.

You might know Abe no Seimei or Shuten Douji at most, there was no way anyone would know any of the other monsters!

Qiu Bin spent so much time and effort to summarise mobile card games into three terms, just to have Chen Mo defy all of them just like that.

"Impossible, I don't buy it. The players' tastes can't be changed that easily. Sure you innovated a whole new play style, but have you considered the cost of players learning and accepting a new game?

"It's so tiring to play this game, and the things are so expensive. There's no way this will become the new mobile card game!"