Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

There are just too many players.

Therefore, changing the PC test at the end of May to an open beta without data wipe can continue to attract players, if they can weather this wave.

So when mobile, console, and both platforms reopen in June.

It will be much better.

In addition, Xinghuo has another overt strategy: to capitalize on the popularity of "Eastern Fantasy World".

To encourage more players to try logging in and playing the game on PC.

After all, the Spark platform on PC is Spark's most important channel at present.

In fact.

Xinghuo's approach was indeed very effective; several days before the official launch of "Eastern Fantasy World," the number of PC players logging in increased significantly.

Especially in the European, American, and Japanese markets.

Also because of the importance of overseas markets.

This time, it's to cater to players worldwide.

In order to accommodate players who are at work, the server was specially opened at 7 o'clock.

There's still some time before the server opens.

Shen Jiahang ordered takeout and then casually entered the "Eastern Fantasy World" group he belonged to.

Group.

This is a feature recently launched by the Spark platform.

It's somewhat similar to QQ and WeChat.

Functionally, this group focuses more on the game than on social features that encourage players to chat within the group.

Compared to joining the group.

The left side shows the current ranking of the number of players online in the group.

From highest to lowest, members of the group can easily see which game is currently being played by the most people.

In addition, many online games have added the function of directly sending invitations to groups.

Makes it easier for players to team up.

Players can even right-click on a player's avatar in the group and request to join that player's game.

The social aspect of this type of group is actually very weak.

It's less of a chat group.

It's more like a gaming community than a gaming forum.

Chapter 97 of the Second Stroke: No Regrets in Entering the East

In the first few days after the launch of "Adventure World", such groups were very popular.

But after that...

Most of the groups fell silent.

Of course, not all groups are dormant. For example, the JX3 player groups are among the most active on the Xinghuo platform.

but.

There was practically no one talking in the group that Shen Jiahang was in.

Even if it's a large group of 100 people.

The group's name is pretty cool.

It's called the [Huaxia Oriental Fantasy World Guardian Team]

The people inside were also special; they were all fans of Touhou Project from the Spark Games Developers Alliance.

Many people believe that few people working in the gaming industry actually play games.

But in reality, that's not entirely true.

Even though Shen Jiahang works at Xinghuo, he still plays games after get off work.

Of course, this is mainly because his job is storyboarding.

On the one hand, you need to look at how others use storyboards.

On the other hand, I also really want to see the storyboards I drew.

Sometimes, he will even play games from his own project.

It's to see what the final result of my storyboard looks like.

IPs like Oriental Fantasy World are very popular within their own circles, so popular that they even have a dedicated pre-launch group for them.

This "preparatory group"

That's right.

This group was created because of an official Spark event.

Noun for activity.

It's called "Everyone's Gensokyo"

The activity itself is very simple.

The starting lineup is still the same old three items from Spark.

Invite others, check in, share.

However, this time, the Touhou fantasy world has an additional feature called "Everyone's Gensokyo".

Players can create groups, with a maximum of 200 members per group.

After the server opens.

After players complete the prologue and unlock the world map feature.

This unlocks a magical feature: "Everyone's Fantasy Land".

In this feature, all group members can enter the same large world.

Simply put.

The open world of Genshin Impact can only accommodate a maximum of 4 players at a time, while the open world of Touhou Fantasy World can accommodate 200 players online simultaneously.

This can also be understood as creating a "server" or "room" for each group.

of course.

Players can also leave this "special" world at any time and return to their own world.

Or perhaps, they could enter another world.

In short.

Because of this group function, and the ways to play that come with it.

During this period, everyone was recruiting each other.

And they're all pulling in people they really know.

Some of them are quite interesting.

For example, several voice actors from Huaxia Xingchen Studio created a large voice actor group.

It makes it easier to create special effects during live streams.

There are also content creators (UPs) on Bilibili.

Seeing how the Chinese voice acting industry is doing this.

In Japan, many voice actors have also created a group chat.

Driven by these large groups, many more groups have also emerged online.

For players who don't need much social interaction but still want to experience the multiplayer open world, Xinghuo also offers an activity where they can join the official group with one click.

Overall.

This event is quite good, serving as an extension of the game's open world.

It provides convenience for players who enjoy multiplayer games.

Some "passersby" who only knew the name of Touhou Gensokyo, as well as "celebrities" who simply wanted to ride the wave of popularity, also joined in the fun.

This behavior made the core fans of Touhou Gensokyo feel a little uncomfortable.

However, this can be considered a further expansion of the circle.

Furthermore, after several public beta tests and promotions, the Eastern Fantasy World is now, if not a household name, at least someone who knows a little about anime.

Anyone who plays games.

Most people already know that today is the open beta test for the PC version of Touhou Fantasy World.

When Shen Jiahang entered the group.

People have already started discussing how to register IDs.

"You're going to steal this too? You're really planning to use the name Dongfangli? Don't you think that's weird?"

"You don't know anything. The veterans in the beta test said that using the character's surname can trigger a hidden storyline."

"real or fake?"

"Of course it's real, absolutely genuine!"

The IDs in the Eastern Fantasy World use a UID-based interoperability system.

Use UID to distinguish players.

As for in-game IDs, there are no restrictions.

To put it simply, players can share the same name, but if two characters with the same ID meet, a distinguishing number will be displayed after the ID.

So what they were actually discussing in the group was what surname to choose.

According to legend.

When registering an ID, for example, choosing a name like Hakurei XX, there's a chance to trigger a hidden storyline. This thing is advertised in a very convincing way.

It was once very popular, but there is no video evidence to prove it.

With Shen Jiahang's online presence.

After a group of people saw him, they immediately posed this question to him.

Because he is a genuine "insider" employee of Spark.

Even though Shen Jiahang has explained countless times that he really doesn't know about this, because he is not part of the Oriental Fantasy World development team at all.

In fact, he has been working at Xinghuo for more than half a year.

He didn't even know where the Touhou Fantasy World development team was located...

However, the others in the group clearly didn't believe it.

If it is normal.

There's bound to be a lot of arguing about it.

But now.

The game was about to launch, so after a few words of discussion, they went back to talking about the launch.

to be frank.

Until the game actually launched.

Shen Jiahang still felt somewhat dazed.

Like many fans of Touhou Gensokyo, after all, Destiny's Path and Galaxy Paradise hadn't even been officially released yet. Who would have thought that among these three games, Touhou Gensokyo would be the first to launch?

"It's open!! The server is open!!"