Even for veteran employees of Redbird Studios, making an online game was a complete first.
Previously, Redbird Studios' products had been either far too niche with very few dedicated fans, or almost purely single-player experiences where players didn't need to care at all whether there were other people playing the same game.
Therefore, Redbird Studios had only ever had two channels to understand what other players thought: waiting patiently for fan mail to arrive, or secretly searching for game-related keywords on various forums to see what people were saying.
"Explosive popularity" had been truly out of reach for the old Redbird Studios—completely unattainable until Evan appeared and fundamentally changed everything about the company.
So when Evan saw the daily report data that Lana brought to his office in the evening, he looked at it without showing much reaction, put it aside after reading through it once, and continued pondering what additional features to add for the official launch version.
But Owen, who was anxiously fidgeting beside him—practically bouncing in his chair—absolutely couldn't sit still any longer.
After holding back his curiosity twice and seeing that Evan had absolutely no intention of saying anything about it, he finally asked: "Evan, was that the daily revenue report just now?"
Evan nodded, confirming it was, and continued to write and sketch notes on the paper in front of him.
"Can I take a look at it?"
Evan waved his hand casually, indicating Owen could go ahead.
Owen cautiously took the report from the desk, thinking to himself that the first day's data probably wasn't very impressive, since Evan had shown absolutely no change in expression whatsoever.
His fingertips fumbled slightly as Owen turned to the next page, and his hand immediately started trembling.
"Evan, our first day's revenue was five hundred and sixty thousand dollars?"
"Mm." Evan remained completely unmoved and continued working.
"That's five hundred and sixty thousand dollars!" Owen was practically suffocating with shock.
For the former Redbird Studios, this would have been the stuff of absolute legend.
Due to the nature of their previous game types, Redbird Studios' romance games had mostly been long-term projects, but even those games, accumulated over a long period of half a year, would only yield about this much in net profit total.
And now, a single game, on its very first day of beta testing—though from 10 AM until now it hadn't even been a full twenty hours yet—had already generated $560,000 in revenue.
Owen had only one overwhelming feeling: he had truly wasted his entire life making games before this moment.
Evan finally looked up from his notebook, seeing Owen's flushed face, and chuckled. "Online games have always been the main drivers of consumption in the industry. This is quite normal, actually.
I estimated roughly this figure beforehand, so it's a little higher than my expectation, but not by much."
Owen's gaze towards Evan was now filled with completely undisguised admiration and respect.
Although Evan still had half a year remaining until graduation, his strength and achievements were absolutely undeniable.
"Moreover," Evan continued explaining, "this is also a combination of many different factors all working together.
On one hand, it's the very first day of launch. On the other hand, there's our promise of double premium currency returns for the official server.
At the same time, we must also consider the success of all the previous promotional campaigns, and so on. All of these elements led to the current revenue amount."
"However, this is probably also the practical limit of our players' overall consumption capacity right now.
The only real variable is likely the big-spending whale users, who are extremely rare and fundamentally unpredictable—we'll just have to see how that develops.
This data is indeed impressive and very memorable, but ultimately, we should look at the average value over three days, as that number is more important for understanding sustainable performance."
Owen nodded enthusiastically like a pecking chicken. "Then, Evan, should we publicly announce this?"
"It might make the entire industry re-evaluate us and take us seriously."
Evan twisted his neck to relieve the soreness, thought for a moment, and said: "Logan also has access to this data.
He'll decide on the specific promotional strategies later.
If you have ideas, you can absolutely suggest them to him, but ultimately, he'll make the final decision."
Upon hearing this, Owen excitedly grabbed the report and left the office, most likely heading straight to Logan's department to brag about the numbers.
Evan, on the other hand, didn't have many thoughts about it.
For him, this game was ultimately just a game—merely the first step in realizing his dream.
Moreover, he had borrowed far too many successful elements and mechanics from his previous life for this game, so it would have been genuinely strange if it hadn't achieved its current level of success.
Therefore, what Evan said about it being close to his expectations wasn't false at all. From the very beginning, he'd had the ambition to create this world record.
His phone buzzed.
Evan picked it up and opened it.
It was a text message from Rachel:
"How's the revenue?"
"Guess?"
"..."
"Alright, the first day's revenue is $560,000. We'll have to see the next three days for the specifics."
"Got it!"
Rachel's reply rarely used an exclamation mark, indicating that even she wasn't completely calm about this news.
Evan could easily guess Rachel's thoughts.
When she first met him, she'd said that the media industry could also invest in people, and he was her potential stock.
Naturally, today she had to confirm whether her potential stock could truly take off and deliver returns.
If Swallowing Heaven and Earth had crashed and failed today, Rachel would probably have forgotten about him entirely.
So it was best to have genuine strength himself.
Evan sighed inwardly and continued writing his new development proposal.
Evan was roused from his concentration by a knock on the door.
He turned to look. Outside the window, it was pitch black night, and standing at the doorway was a visibly helpless Emily.
"Are you seriously planning to spend the entire night at the company?"
"What time is it?" Evan asked while starting to pack up his things.
"It's almost ten PM.
Owen called me, saying he couldn't get any reaction from you and didn't dare interrupt your work, so he asked me to run an errand and come get you."
Speaking of which, Emily had a bit of resentment in her voice.
She'd already applied a face mask and was ready to sleep when she'd been called in.
"Then it's truly hard on you, Miss Warren." Evan said with a grin. "But I'm happy today, so how about I treat you to a late-night snack?"
When the game's success was mentioned, Emily's resentment lessened a bit.
In fact, she'd also been startled when she learned of the achievement today, but then she'd been excited in the office for quite a while afterward.
The entire data model for Swallowing Heaven and Earth had been built by her little by little.
She knew exactly how much effort she'd put in, and now that her efforts were being rewarded, she was very happy.
"You should just order takeout for yourself.
I don't eat after dinner time."
"No wonder..." Evan eyed Emily's figure thoughtfully, then ordered himself a spicy hot pot.
Only after Emily woke him up did he realize his stomach was uncomfortably empty.
Emily's eyebrows shot up, ready to flare up at his comment, but then she remembered something, and her expression softened:
"Have you started planning what to do after today?"
Evan responded while drooling over the customer photos of the takeout, "Hmm, actually, there's no specific detailed plan.
Simply put, we'll first make two more games to earn money, and at the same time, gather players to build our user base.
Then we can challenge some more technically difficult big productions.
After all, when I first brought you into the company, I said we would make our own big productions, and then you would be the lead planner to help me find and fix any shortcomings."
Hearing this, Emily felt a tiny bit touched: "I thought you were just joking at the time."
Evan turned back and said earnestly: "I would never lie about this.
And, I truly want to make a game for you, to showcase your talent, and let Constellation Games, who once neglected you, know what a brilliant planner they missed."
Hearing Evan say this, Emily suddenly felt a little teary-eyed.
How long had it been since she'd met someone willing to give her a stage like this...
"Is this your true thought right now?"
"Do you really want to know what I'm thinking right now?"
"Yes!"
"Why isn't the takeout here yet?"
"I'm starving to death."
"Get lost!"
Plz throw Powerstones.