Mirror was a hit—there was no doubt about that.
Of course, it wasn't going to reach the level of a AAA blockbuster or become some cultural phenomenon.
But based on the current trend, Mirror had the potential to influence its entire category.
Maybe even the future of this specific genre.
In fact, even in his past life, after Mirror came out, it sparked a short-lived boom in adult games.
During that time, almost every adult game started using the match-3 + galgame combo.
Of course, the quality varied a lot—some were good, some were just there to cash in.
For a long time, the general impression of 18+ games—both among players and in the game industry—was that they were low-quality.
Aside from a few "special elements," they really didn't have much to be proud of.
But Mirror was different.
The match-3 gameplay wasn't new, but Mirror added a full battle and character progression system on top of it.
You'd fight, earn gold, then buy new skills and items.
On top of that, the voice acting and character art were surprisingly touching. The story even made people reflect—and this was an 18+ game!
Not only that, the game's rating stayed around 9.2.
Even as more players joined and the score started to shift a little, it remained impressively stable.
This shows just how popular the game is.
Also, since it's a short game with only a few characters, it's possible for some people to play it just to take advantage of the refund window.
But very few players actually asked for refunds after buying Mirror.
Of course, part of that is because Mirror only costs 10 bucks.
So no matter how you look at it, Mirror really did become a hit.
Because of its unique content, it's impossible for mainstream media and platforms to cover it.
But in the adult game community, Mirror is without a doubt the biggest star right now.
A lot of people in that circle even say it's a groundbreaking adult game.
Compared to other poorly made games in the same genre, Mirror shines the brightest.
And even within the industry, Mirror has inspired many adult game developers with new ideas.
They realized this kind of adult game could actually sell this well.
Mirror's arrival was like a shining lighthouse in the dark sea of the adult game industry.
Like an oasis appearing out of nowhere in a burning desert.
It's clear that Mirror is that lighthouse, that oasis.
The strong demand from its target audience showed up clearly in the game's numbers.
Sales just kept climbing.
70,000 copies sold in the first week, 160,000 total by the second week.
By the end of its second week, according to third-party sales data, Mirror had sold 230,000 copies.
For an adult game, that's unbelievable.
Even compared to some high-quality indie games, those numbers are impressive.
It made a lot of indie devs in the wider game industry take notice.
It was just that shocking. And even though sales had started to slow down,
that was just the normal trend of the market.
After all, Mirror is a pretty niche game, meant for a very specific type of player.
......
While the industry was amazed by Mirror's performance,
Lucas also analyzed why it managed to do so well.
As a game developer, he didn't believe that a game that succeeded in his past life would succeed again just because it had before.
In fact, a lot of games that blew up back then had very limited reasons for their success.
For example, if he remade Legend from his past life, Lucas figured there'd only be one outcome:
It'd flop completely. The art isn't competitive, the gameplay isn't fresh, and the story and worldbuilding are basically nothing.
That was clearly a game that relied more on its era than on its quality.
As for Mirror, Lucas believed it succeeded because it stood out.
It's an 18+ game, but it mixes a galgame experience with match-3 gameplay.
Of course, as either a pure match-3 or pure galgame, it wouldn't have been enough. But as a game for a thirsty niche audience, it hit the mark.
It was that contrast and mix that made Mirror work.
It's just like how players enjoy building systems in adult games, or sneaking adult content into normal games.
Looking at the sales numbers, Lucas knew he'd made the right call.
Even if this game wouldn't bring him fame in the mainstream (since it's an 18+ title), it got noticed in the industry.
To most regular players, a $10 adult game wouldn't get much attention outside of its target group.
Lucas also didn't plan to keep making this kind of game—this was just a way to get some initial funding.
And the most important thing was: it made money.
The game was priced at 10 dollar, and by now had sold nearly 230,000 copies.
After taxes and the platform's cut, the first month's revenue was around 2.3 million dollar.
Lucas rubbed his chin and nodded slightly.
With this, he now had his initial funding. Plus, with his title as a game designer, he got an official notice at the end of Mirror's first release week to go register with the game department in Magic City.
As for the emotional points from the system, Lucas wasn't too satisfied.
So far, he'd only collected enough for one 7-pull, which was around 700,000 points.
But thinking about it more, that made sense. The emotional peak for players probably only lasted a minute or two.
Some maybe only felt it for a few dozen seconds. Lucas figured the longest might've been five minutes tops.
Given that... whatever, it was understandable.
Looking at the game store's backend stats, Lucas leaned back on the couch at home, thinking about what to do next.
His current plan was still to focus on selling single-player games.
Partly for reputation, and partly to keep growing on his own.
Why not make a pay-to-win game? The reason was simple.
It wasn't that he was scared of backlash. In fact, his past life had plenty of decent-quality gacha games.
But after thinking it through, Lucas decided not to go down that road.
Mainly because it wasn't the right time. Also, the gaming environment in this parallel world was quite different from the one he remembered.
Back then, mobile games ruled the market, and the free-to-play with in-app purchases model was the norm.
But in this world, paid games with one-time purchases were more common.
On top of that, gacha games had a lot of limitations.
Take card games for example—they went through several key phases in his past world.
It started with titles like I Am MT, Great Master, and Million Arthur, which made card games popular. Then Dota Legends revolutionized things, kicking off the action-card genre.
Later, KOF 98 Ultimate Match OL saved the struggling SNK company, boosting its annual profits sixfold. That helped spark the wave of IP-based card games.
That's when the genre started to diversify.
Traditional stat-based games like Three Kingdoms, polished games like Onmyoji, and IP-driven ones like FGO were all key examples.
Lucas had also done his research on this world's card-based mobile games.
Right now, they were somewhere between high-quality development and IP branding.
A mature industry chain had already formed.
For Nebula Games, jumping into that space now wasn't as good as just making a new game from scratch.
The reasons were the same: no money and no connections.
Even if they could make the game, without a big enough marketing budget—
If it didn't go viral when it launched, it would just become free material for other game companies.
Card games are different from other genres.
Their gameplay and stat-based reward systems are easily copied.
If this world didn't already have mature ideas about gacha and card games, that would be good news for Lucas.
But right now? There were too many unknowns.
(End of chapter)