The overall rating score for Piano Tiles is rising fast across the internet. At the same time, its download numbers are also climbing.
Piano Tiles downloads: 27,602,022
2048 downloads: 12,892,110
The popularity of Piano Tiles has, to some extent, boosted downloads for 2048 as well. With both searches and downloads surging, there's no doubt that both Piano Tiles and 2048 have made it onto the trending downloads and new release charts of many major brands.
It turns out that even without spending money on ads, a high-quality app can promote itself through its own strength—as long as it doesn't get deliberately suppressed.
Both games were performing really well, but William didn't feel happy at all. He thought that after launching 2048, he would get a new mission like he did with Piano Tiles, but the system didn't respond at all.
"System, how can I get reputation points?"
There were only two days left. If he couldn't gather enough reputation points to unlock the download engine, making games after this wouldn't be so easy.
'You can earn reputation points through missions, milestone rewards, and the Growth Path.'
"Growth Path?"
William had already come across the first two before, but the third option was something the system had never mentioned.
'The Growth Path is your personal achievement system.'
Well, that was a pretty straightforward answer.
"What are the requirements to complete it?"
'You'll find out when it gets triggered.'
"Alright then."
Not knowing the requirements means he couldn't plan ahead—it was basically a dead end.
'I can give you a hint: it's related to the number of works you've made, your skill levels, and your game sales.'
Once the system said that, William had a better idea.
Upgrading skill levels required a lot of learning or making certain types of games to earn milestone rewards, and game sales weren't something he could control. So the most likely way to trigger achievements was by increasing the number of published games.
Since he had already made two games that only looked like educational tools on the surface, William decided to make a real learning game. With his plan set, he started searching online for materials he could use.
Somewhere else—
Markus lay flat on his bed, holding his phone high above him, his fingers swiping like crazy across the screen.
"Online?"
"Online?"
"Online?"
"Online?"
The string of messages on WeChat made him instinctively want to swipe them away. But with one wrong move, he ended up accidentally pushing the whole screen up, and just like that, the two "2048" tiles that were about to merge were split apart forever, losing the chance to combine.
"You better have a good reason for this."
As he said that, Markus sent a screenshot of his game screen to the other person.
The reply came with an awkward smile emoji, followed by: "Piano Tiles has a new mode!"
Markus instantly sat up in bed and opened Piano Tiles. The game immediately started updating.
As soon as the update was done, he opened the new mode. Having heard all three songs in the game before, he could tell right away that the update brought a brand-new track.
He and his cousin played the game for different reasons. He cared about the challenge, while his cousin played simply because she liked the music.
Gotta admit, the new song was made really well—way better than the first three.
But the flaws of the new mode were also obvious. Marcus barely had to do anything, and the song played itself to the end. After that, he could still pick Für Elise and Moonlight Sonata with no requirements or unlock conditions. It was nothing like back when he had to work to unlock Moonlight Sonata. There was zero challenge.
"Did you play it?"
"You played it?"
"You played it?"
His cousin bombarded him with messages again.
"I played it."
"The new mode is amazing, right? I love it so much!"
Marcus sent her a rope emoji—one that meant "I'm done."
"What didn't you like about it?"
"I totally agree with that comment saying this mode is made for weak players. I didn't even move my fingers and the song just played itself. How's that fun?"
"You're lying! I didn't even have auto mode on and I still messed up twice before I finally cleared it!"
"That's because your fingers are clumsy."
"..."
"You want the real experience?"
"You're home all day..."
Marcus shivered and quickly changed the topic. "Did you try 2048? It's also made by Earth Games. Super fun! That screenshot I sent you earlier was from that game."
"2048?"
Judging by her reaction, she was clearly interested. Marcus jumped in to explain how to play 2048, using the chance to steer her away from the last topic and get her hooked on something new, earning himself a bit of peace for a while.
After settling his cousin, Marcus dropped his goofy attitude and opened Piano Tiles again.
First thing he did when the game loaded was check the Moonlight Sonata duration leaderboard.
Rank 1: Marcus
Time: 5:16
No matter how many times he saw it, it never got old.
When he first started playing Piano Tiles, it was already past midnight. Right as he launched the game, a new update dropped with a leaderboard system. From that moment on, he gave up on sleep and decided he had to get his name up there.
And hard work paid off. Around 1 a.m., he made it onto the Für Elise duration leaderboard and unlocked the Moonlight Sonata leaderboard too.
(There's more to this chapter! Tap "Next Page" to continue reading—the best part's coming up!)
By a little past 4 a.m., he became the first player to completely clear Moonlight Sonata. At that time, fewer than 100 people were even on the leaderboard, and he had already unlocked the third one.
But he was so exhausted he just passed out, never imagining that the next morning, he'd be woken up by a voice call from his cousin. In that moment, he truly felt that recommending Piano Tiles to her was one of the worst decisions he ever made.
But he never expected her to bring shocking news.
His comment had been featured by the official account.
That one sentence woke him up instantly. He scrambled to check his phone and found that the official account had cheekily replied under his comment.
That instantly lit a fire in him. Even with bloodshot eyes, he wanted to beat the third song in one go. It couldn't be that much harder.
But that exact mindset made the next hour absolutely miserable.
His best record was 40 seconds. If there was any comfort at all, it was that he ranked second on the overall finger-speed leaderboard—just behind the first place record of 19 tiles per second.
That top score had already sparked a lot of online debate. Most people agreed the player must have cheated. No one believed it was humanly possible.
Marcus suddenly showing up as second place stirred up some discussion too—and his cousin was one of the people talking about it.
Marcus couldn't explain clearly, so he just sent the screen recording to his cousin. Only then did she finally believe him.
After trying for an hour with no results, he decisively chose to go to bed. When he woke up at night, he saw that Earth Games had released another new game.
After trying it out, he thought 2048 was even more addictive than Piano Tiles. Once he opened it, he couldn't stop until his cousin told him there was an update for Piano Tiles.
The leaderboard for "????" now had more than just a handful of players. Marcus's best record before had only put him outside the top fifty. If he wanted to take the top spot, he had to step up his game.