Chu Qing first focused on the elimination elements.
As a match-3 game, the elimination elements were the face of the game.
When game mechanics are largely similar, elimination elements are a key factor in players' choices.
Very quickly, Chu Qing had some ideas in mind. After a moment of thought, she opened the StarNet to do some research.
As expected, just as she had guessed, there were indeed trending themes in this world as well—like food.
Eating is an eternal theme for humans, even in the interstellar era.
Unlike the various interstellar novels Chu Qing had read before her transmigration, in this time and space, although nutrient solutions that replace food had been fully developed, cooking hadn't disappeared as those novels predicted. On the contrary, they had even developed devices like automatic cooking machines. The user only needed to set the target dish, place the ingredients inside, and press a button to cook automatically—then the final dish would be ready.
"Eating broadcasts" had become incredibly popular among streamers, often with viewer numbers that crushed every other category.
"Food" naturally carried its own heat in the entertainment industry, including the gaming sector. Even the two most popular games, Glory War and Brave Dungeon, had added some food elements to ride the trend.
Before transmigrating, Chu Qing was a well-known, experienced game producer. Regardless of trends, people would play her games just for her name alone. But now, she was a complete nobody in this world. She couldn't miss any opportunity for exposure.
Naturally, Chu Qing decided to ride the food trend.
Not only would she ride it—she would ride it to the very end!
She quickly made up her mind to base all elimination elements on delicious snacks.
And she didn't stop there—Chu Qing specifically searched the largest shopping site on StarNet and looked up the top 20 best-selling food items. She then carefully selected a few, noting down the unique characteristics of each one.
Chu Qing had always wanted to be an indie game developer, so she had invested in her drawing skills. Creating visually unified designs while capturing the unique appeal of each delicious item was no problem for her.
Guided by the tutorial in the Food Game Dev app, the translucent screen in front of her expanded continuously, growing from palm-sized to a panel as tall as she was and twice as wide.
Chu Qing reached out and began sketching on the blank interface. A semi-transparent plum jelly illustration quickly took form.
The jelly looked bouncy and glossy, with a luscious green plum embedded inside. Just looking at it made your teeth ache and your mouth water.
Next, Chu Qing applied the same method to draw many distinctive, high-traffic treats like salted egg yolk pastries, taro cream cheese balls, cat-ear crackers, spicy strips, seaweed crisps, shredded squid…
After finishing the elimination elements, Chu Qing sketched a few lines on the screen. Small, dark squares emerged, forming a 3x3 grid. She then added rectangular and square elimination boards in formats like 4x5, 3x7, and 5x5.
For first-time players, the setup shouldn't be too complicated.
Typically, match-3 games use about five types of elements.
But Chu Qing added a "collection" system. Every 50 small levels would unlock a new major level, each with different elements. An element needed to be eliminated a certain number of times to be fully "collected."
Of course, in addition to collectable items, there were also special elements. For example, eliminating more than three in one move would yield a "special" element, granting powerful effects when triggered. Or, with special methods, eliminating three pieces could tear off the outer "wrapper" layer—similar to breaking the ice in certain match-3 games.
Chu Qing also needed to hand-draw all of these assets.
It wasn't that the free official asset library didn't offer similar materials, but Chu Qing felt that these elements were too important to be generic. Using public assets would seem lazy and unpolished.
While sketching, Chu Qing brainstormed ideas, jotting down flashes of inspiration in her notebook.
By the time she had transformed all her initial concepts and later sparks of inspiration into tangible features through the Game Dev app, the basic framework of the game was complete.
As for the all-important title, she settled on it during the process:Delicious Match Frenzy ("美味消消乐").
…
In the current interstellar gaming market, the most common revenue models were time-card payments and ad-based monetization. Things like in-app purchases and gacha systems (a.k.a. exploitative monetization) were completely unheard of.
Chu Qing's Delicious Match Frenzy would use an item-based monetization model.
Initially, she planned to combine item purchases and ads, but as an unknown newcomer, she didn't expect any ad companies to generously spend money on her project. So for now, she shelved the ad route.
Still, Chu Qing believed this was temporary. Once the game was live and the download count rose, ad companies would come knocking with offers.
Like traditional match-3 games, Delicious Match Frenzy limited play with a stamina system.
Each level cost stamina to play—3 points per level, with a maximum of 15 points. No stamina? Players could either spend tokens on a "Stamina Apple" to fully refill, or (eventually) watch an ad to restore 3 points. The latter wasn't available just yet.
First-time clears didn't consume stamina, but replaying levels did.
For example, the first 50 stages counted as one major level. Starting from stage 51, players would need 140 stars to unlock the next section. If they didn't have enough, they'd have to go back and replay earlier stages to earn more stars.
Some players, like perfectionists who had to see all three stars on every stage, would grind levels over and over, using up their stamina.
Unlike traditional match-3 games, Chu Qing added some clever tricks to the level design.
Every ten stages had a small difficulty spike, often requiring a replay to pass. Every 25 stages featured a major challenge, which might need players to retry multiple times, depleting their stamina, and possibly purchasing in-game items like [Mini Sorting Arm] to get through.
These were the players who became the game's revenue core—the ones who would either "grind" by watching ads or "pay" by buying items.
This was what game developers called the "ten-stage effect."
…
Three days later, Chu Qing—used to grinding herself to death in her old life, and now with a young body—managed to complete the game's core framework through intense work.
[Your game "Delicious Match Frenzy" has completed development. Confirm? (After confirmation, the game will be compiled and submitted for review. Future versions will be built upon this one.)][Confirm.]
[Your game "Delicious Match Frenzy" used a total of 21 assets (including the music track "Leisurely Mood"), totaling 42,135 star coins. The Star Alliance Government has reimbursed you 42,135 star coins. Confirm?][Confirm.]
After hitting the final confirmation button, Chu Qing's Delicious Match Frenzy officially entered the backend review process.
Even though it was government-reimbursed, Chu Qing still winced at the number.
She had only made a very small game, drawing most of the assets herself. Even the server she chose was one of the smallest available, just enough to handle a limited user base.
If she were to develop a full-blown immersive VR game in the future… how much would that cost?
Having done all she could, Chu Qing closed the floating panel, stretched from her chair, and grabbed a bottle of colorless, tasteless nutrient solution from the shelf—taking small sips to maintain her health.
After learning that food hadn't completely disappeared in the interstellar era, Chu Qing was delighted and had planned to try out an automatic cooking machine that very evening. But when she reached the convenience store, she found that fresh ingredients were ridiculously expensive. A single egg cost 50 star coins, and a tomato was 20.
Chu Qing glanced at her account balance—less than 600—and made the same expression as that "Sorry to bother you" meme. She turned around and headed for the nutrient solution aisle.
Apparently, using the automatic cooking machine worked like this: If she wanted to make scrambled eggs with tomatoes, she only needed to place the eggs and tomatoes into the machine's ingredient compartment, and it would automatically wash, chop, beat, cook, season, and plate the dish for her.
Chu Qing swore that once she had money, she would buy out all the fresh ingredients in the store and use the auto-cooker to her heart's content.
Surely, no one from Chu Qing's era wouldn't want the joy of eating freshly made food without ever lifting a finger?
According to her research, although most of Earth's delicious foods still existed in this era, a few ingredients and recipes had clearly vanished—like potatoes and all the potato-based dishes and snacks.
Chu Qing couldn't verify the reason just yet, but guessed it might be due to slight differences in this parallel universe.
After prolonged intensive work, once she finally stopped, exhaustion hit her like a wave.
She walked over to her bed, flopped down, and immediately fell asleep.
.
After a night's rest, Chu Qing opened her smartband again.
[Congratulations! Your game "Delicious Match Frenzy" has passed review. Would you like to publish it now?]
[Note: Our system has detected a high completion level. If your game surpasses 1,000 downloads within 3 days, you will receive an official [Featured Promotion Reward].]
Chu Qing's gaze sharpened at the pop-up.
This reward was incredibly tempting for a newcomer like her.
To pre-transmigration game producer Chu Qing, getting 1,000 downloads in 3 days would be a piece of cake. But for a complete rookie in this era, it was a challenge.
[Yes.]
Chu Qing understood that new games needed time to gain traction—and on the smartband platform, it might take even longer due to low follower counts.
So this "1,000 downloads in 3 days" condition relied more on luck than skill. She had no idea how lucky she'd be this time.
Would she make a winning debut?