Around noon the next day, Ruan Guangjian crawled out of bed, still feeling a bit dizzy.
Fortunately, they'd been drinking beer, so after sleeping it off, he felt mostly recovered.
"Oh, right—the game!"
Ruan Guangjian suddenly remembered: the game should've passed review by now!
Excitedly, he grabbed his phone and searched the official marketplace for Ghost General.
He and his roommates had poured their hearts into creating these illustrations, treating them like their own children. Naturally, they hoped the game would become hugely popular.
If it did, he'd rightfully earn recognition as a concept artist.
Whether job hunting or seeking investment in the future, he could confidently showcase these illustrations, knowing they'd make a strong impression.
Thus, even though he'd merely worked as a contracted illustrator, Ruan Guangjian cared more about the game's success than even Pei Qian himself.
"Hey, our game's out! Download it and check it out. Just search for Ghost General."
Ruan Guangjian called out, and his roommates eagerly grabbed their phones to download the game.
But after a closer look at the game's description page, Ruan Guangjian furrowed his brows.
Why was it so bare-bones?!
The description, in particular, was beyond basic—it seemed utterly indifferent!
"This is an ordinary card game"?
Did the producer have some grudge against their own game?
Moreover, most other games filled their detail pages with promotional images, fancy posters, and appealing artwork to attract players at first glance.
Usually, the game's best art assets were showcased upfront to lure in players—even if the actual game didn't quite match these images, at least some players would stick around.
Yet Ghost General didn't even have a single image!
So, when Ruan Guangjian searched for the game, its total download count was still at 0—not even Pei Qian had downloaded it yet.
'Maybe the game just passed review, and they haven't started promoting it yet… Yeah, that must be it.'
Comforting himself, Ruan Guangjian paid the 10 Yuan without hesitation, downloaded, and launched the game.
It was a fairly primitive card game. The gameplay reminded Ruan Guangjian of Cute Three Kingdoms from half a year ago.
But this wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Mobile games didn't require overly complex mechanics or gameplay. In this era, simple and casual mobile games were the norm.
Most players would only spend around two or three hours each day gaming, spread across short sessions throughout the day.
Thus, card-based mobile games typically focused on stage challenges and sweep mechanics, limiting player activity through stamina and stage attempts.
Introducing overly complicated systems was usually counterproductive.
However, games like Cute Three Kingdoms, which had been running for nearly a year, faced a paradox:
Updating gameplay features was tiring and thankless—the game became bloated, and players complained about the grind.
Yet, if no new features were added, players quickly got bored of the same old mechanics.
Therefore, Cute Three Kingdoms typically rolled out updates every two or three months, adding new features and cards, resulting in a bloated experience. It was an unfortunate necessity.
But as a newly released game, Ghost General wouldn't have this issue.
Although it fully adopted an older set of gameplay mechanics from Cute Three Kingdoms, these were tried-and-tested systems that players readily accepted.
As long as the skin was different, players wouldn't tire of it easily.
Moreover, the game's mechanics were straightforward, making it easy for card-game players to pick up quickly without feeling too grindy or tiring.
Ruan Guangjian soon drew a few beginner-friendly cards.
Taking a closer look at their overall effect, he was very satisfied!
When designing the illustrations, he'd known they'd be used for a card game, so he'd intentionally made the character poses dynamic, ensuring they stood out more clearly on cards.
Take Guan Yu's card, for instance: the dragon was captured mid-slash, and when combined with the card's animated effects, it felt genuinely exhilarating.
The more Ruan Guangjian looked at it, the prouder he became.
He truly was talented—he'd actually created such perfect illustrations!
Initially, he'd worried his art style might seem out of place within the game, but now it appeared those concerns were unnecessary.
These cards blended well and gave the game a unique charm.
With appealing card art, decent interface effects, and acceptable audio design, the overall gaming experience felt surprisingly good to Ruan Guangjian!
Having played other card games before, he quickly got into the flow.
Perhaps because he'd drawn these cards himself and viewed them almost like his "own children," he naturally developed a fondness for the game.
After playing for a few minutes, he inevitably reached the card-drawing phase—something almost every card game introduced early to hook players by providing at least one rare card.
Of course, to preserve the game's monetization ceiling, such starter rare cards were usually average purple cards: appealing to beginners but eventually useless in later stages.
Ruan Guangjian was fully aware of this common trick.
But after clicking on the ten-card draw, he froze.
He actually drew two orange-quality cards?!
Ruan Guangjian clearly understood the value of these cards since he'd read the requirements document thoroughly. Certain characters were marked explicitly as rare!
And now, he'd drawn two of them—Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang. These weren't just rare; they were among the rarest cards in the entire game!
Ruan Guangjian was stunned.
His first reaction was that perhaps the game was still in testing, and the probability rates had been temporarily set high.
But immediately afterward, he encountered an even more bizarre situation.
He realized, to his astonishment, that the game's shop only offered one product—a lifetime membership card!
Players without the membership could perform a ten-card draw once per day, while those with the membership could draw twice per day.
Aside from that, there were no other purchasable items—no VIP systems, no special packages, nothing.
In other words, while the game did have an in-app purchase, it strictly limited spending to 30 yuan. Players couldn't spend a single yuan more, nor could they deposit additional funds into the game!
"This… Is this also because it's still in the testing stage, and certain features aren't complete yet?"
"But wait—this is the version they already submitted to ESRO for approval!"
Ruan Guangjian sensed something wasn't right.
Once a game was submitted to ESRO for review, any updates or bug fixes required re-submission.
Additionally, there were limits on the number of submissions allowed each month, so frequent resubmissions that wasted ESRO staff's time weren't permitted.
Typically, the version submitted for review was considered the official release—it shouldn't contain such fundamental issues!
Once approved, the game would go live in official stores, available for players to purchase.
Out of responsibility towards their players, developers shouldn't carelessly alter the game's content after release.
Ruan Guangjian was completely confused.
Since these weren't basic errors, it must've been intentional!
It hadn't crossed his mind that Ghost General was designed to be such a player-friendly card game?!
Wouldn't it lose tons of money like this???