"Phew, that was unexpected!"
Inside the small apartment, Lucas looked at the sales numbers on the backend of the official platform and was a little surprised.
The growth in numbers was far beyond what he had expected.
On the first day, he sold 162 copies. Not a high number, but not bad either.
But on the second day, sales shot up to around 610 copies—nearly four times more.
The main reason? His marketing strategy.
With only a 2000 dollar budget, normal ads weren't really an option.
Not just because of the lack of money, but also because the game had a... special kind of content.
So Lucas Hart decided to target an overseas forum that many gentlemen frequent.
After all, what he really needed was exposure.
And his method? The classic elite shill post strategy.
He never planned on doing wide-scale spam campaigns.
They're usually not very effective, and can even backfire.
Instead, Lucas went with a more focused plan—buying old, reputable accounts and using them to post review-style threads.
After posting, he had some backup accounts on other platforms help push the threads up with replies.
Of course, the most important part of this plan was still the quality of the game.
Without a solid product, this kind of promotion wouldn't work at all—might even be worse than mass spamming.
The real key was turning curious players into loyal fans, who would then recommend the game to their friends and fellow gentlemen.
As someone who used to be a professional game planner in his past life—and also a loyal, honest gamer—Lucas Hart knew one thing very well:
What are players really interested in?
It's a pretty simple idea: most players love doing the opposite of what's expected.
In a normal game, they love sneaking in naughty stuff.
In a naughty game, they enjoy doing normal things.
That kind of contrast is exactly what hooks them.
Just like that popular joke online: "Men have two main hobbies—dragging good girls into the dark, and convincing bad girls to be good."
Gamers are the same.
There are always players who love pulling off weird and creative stuff in games.
Of course, that alone isn't enough to make a game succeed. In the end, it still comes down to quality.
But if that contrast can catch players' attention and pull them in, then it's already doing its job.
And judging by Mirror's sales, this marketing plan is definitely working.
Lucas didn't pick Mirror on a whim—it was a well-thought-out choice.
He had already researched how similar games were doing on the market, whether modern players still liked the same kind of content as in his past life, and whether the platforms and promotion methods were realistic.
He planned for everything.
With all that, the success of Mirror was already well within Lucas's control.
The only thing he didn't expect was just how passionate the gentlemen were.
Selling 610 copies on the second day—Lucas believed that was just the beginning.
As time went on and more players started spreading the word, Mirror's sales would only keep rising.
"Yeah… at this rate, I can pay off the debt on the payment app by next week."
"Good thing the overseas platform pays out in real time—once the refund period ends, the money gets sent straight to my account."
"But just like in my past life, the cut that third-party platforms take is really hard to swallow."
Thinking of that, Lucas Hart smacked his lips.
The official game platform takes a 30% cut, mostly to cover platform maintenance, engine updates, and development of new tech.
As for the other third-party platforms, they're way worse.
Especially on mobile platforms, where the cut usually starts at 50%.
Some even go as far as a 70/30 split — and of course, that's 70 for the platform, 30 for the developer.
That's pretty much the same as the big companies and app stores from his past life.
But to be fair, there are some benefits — like the huge user base on those third-party platforms. Also, official platforms don't promote much, and their recommendation systems aren't that smart.
So even though those platforms take a big cut, studios and companies can still make money.
It's just that all the meat gets eaten by the platforms, and the devs are left drinking soup.
But for Lucas right now, he just looked into those platforms a little — they didn't seem very useful.
It's not that he thought they were too greedy and didn't want to use them.
In fact, if he really used them, it would definitely help bring in money faster at the start.
The main problem was that Mirror was a bit of a special case. Even if it got on those platforms, it wouldn't get any real promotion spots.
.........
From the afternoon into the evening, Lucas kept an eye on the game's sales numbers.
This time period was the peak for new sales.
Every hour, he refreshed the backend and watched the numbers go up.
From around 100 new copies sold per hour earlier, the number climbed to over 200 during this peak time.
Clearly, word about Mirror was slowly spreading through all kinds of "gentlemen's" circles.
Every bit of sales growth came from these friendly "gentlemen" supporting the game.
And once player reviews were unlocked, the rating for Mirror was finally revealed.
9.7 — a score that could only be called explosive.
But Lucas Hart wasn't overly excited.
The main reason was simple: as an 18+ game, players tend to be much more forgiving and accepting.
Compared to regular games, this score didn't mean all that much.
Just like how some forums are full of fighting and negativity, the forums where these "gentlemen" hang out are totally different.
There, the comments are super friendly — either thanking the original poster, or sharing viewing tips and praising certain "teachers."
The only thing Mirror's rating really proved was that, in the eyes of the players, this was a game worth buying and recommending.
After all, who could say no to a fun, cute-girl match-three game?
(End of this chapter)