Locking In With My Life System

Aiden pulled up the comments section which had cumulatively tallied to over 30+ comments, he and his buddies staring intently at the screen.

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TuesYourAdventurer: Rock OGs, assemble here! Let’s show our support!

Bri-ish Tea: A crime sim, with a full story campaign and original music? On my wee lil’ smartphone?! That’s a match made in heaven, I tell ya! Bloody hell!

Philip J. Fry: Shut the fuck up and take my money!

GoonerGate: I’m not even a fan of 2D games, but I’m really tempted to play this. It actually looks like a lot of fun. Should be a nice little break from the gacha games I’ve been playing in recent memory.

60FPS or Nothing: I’m sold. Would be nice if there’s a PC port down the line though. Wasted potential to just have it on mobile alone.

JustPassingBy: Me wondering why I got a mobile game recommended on my feed... only to immediately wishlist it a few seconds after.

Stardew Villager: I’m a sucker for 2D indie games like this, but we only get them on PC and consoles so it’s nice to see one that’s mobile-centric without all the microtransaction slop. I really hope this sells well too.

Master_Baiter: Meh. It looks average at best. Mobile game stories are usually also wack as fuck so I’m pretty sure the so-called campaign’s gonna be a shitty, sloppy snooze fest.

I’m Kenough: Someone from our school made this???! Bro! I’m speechless. I can’t wait to lay my hands on it!

Oompa Loompa: Man, I hope we get at least get a little demo or something. This looks sick for a game made for mobile.

Monocle Emoji: What I believe will make or break this game is the pricing. Unless it stays around a dollar or two, people are gonna pirate it to oblivion.

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To that very comment, Aiden and the rest of the gang literally remarked in sync;

”That’s a service issue.”

Genuinely surprised, all six glanced over to each other and then dapped themselves up in shared pride, much to the amusement of Richard who simply crossed his arms over his chest.

Granted, they’d settled on a fair price point of $4.99 for the game, they also understood perfectly that people whom were going to sail the high seas, were usually bound to sail the high seas nonetheless.

As for those whom were actually willing, paying customers, they just had to make sure that they felt that they were getting their money’s worth.

That essentially was why even though they were done with the base game which was already chockful of meaningful content that would last them a little over fifteen hours, they already had plans to work on post-launch content and a couple DLCs here and there completely for free.

In any case, Aiden then asked of Theo;

”How are the numbers looking?”

Considering the youth had already navigated over to AppSphere--the major and most used app store for all smartphones--he immediately responded with an excited smile;

”We already had a few hundred before the trailer dropped, but now we have just over three thousand. And that’s just on AppSphere alone.”

Considering the trailer had now accumulated over five thousand views in fifteen minutes, it was an indication of a very high conversion rate from viewers who watched the trailer to those who wishlisted the game itself.

”Alright, alright!” Casper excitedly rubbed his palms together, his lips stretching into a wide grin.

”Yeah, if things continue like this, we should probably have one to two hundred thousand wishlists before the end of the month.” Clyde audibly mused, a palpable sense of anticipation on his features.

Benjamin and Larry bobbed their heads in acknowledgement to that, as did Aiden himself who thoughtfully pointed out a moment after;

”And considering we’re planning to drop a one-hour demo a week before its release, we just might be able to convert most of those wishlists into actual paying customers.”

Once again, everyone in the room--Richard included--nodded in agreement.

Considering he was just as informed as the youths as his son had been keeping him up to date on what they’d been doing, he could easily follow along.

Usually, 10% to 20% of wishlists often converted into sales for a mobile game’s product during the first week of release.

From there on out, its success was usually dependent on how good the product itself was, and how well the post-release traction was.

Still, Aiden had figured that if they happened to drop a demo for the game a week to its release, it would surely generate more hype and bump up that conversion rate to 30% to 40%... perhaps even 50% if the reception was overwhelmingly positive.

And if that ended up happening, they could rake in some serious greens in the game’s very first week alone.

’Would be really nice if that could be the case.’ he inwardly remarked whilst rubbing his chin with a contemplative look.

It didn’t even take a minute after that.

Aiden suddenly sniffed at the air, as did everyone else... only for their eyes to widen in realization as the coal-haired youth rushed to the kitchen lest their food turned into charred remains!

In any case, the main event of the day had brought with it a sign of good things to come.

And as they all sat around the dining table a couple minutes later after Aiden had dished their meals, they remained in notably high spirits as they engaged in mundane discussions.

”When are you all set to have your final exams again?” Richard asked of the lively teens.

”Late May, I guess?” Larry replied while scooping a mouthful of his food, his eyes looking over to his buddies for confirmation.

Seeing that he was right, he continued eating with a little nod to himself.

”Theo and I have our AP exams in the first week of May, though.” Aiden casually remarked, his spoon pointed in the curly-haired youth’s direction from across the table.

”And just before that, we have the Decathlon in the last week of April.” Theo nodded, a small sigh escaping his lips.

Much like Aiden, he was starting to realize how packed their schedule was set to be in the coming months.

”Don’t forget Prom.” Clyde wiped a smudgy stain from his glasses whilst squinting his eyes.

”Ah, right. That.” Aiden nonchalantly muttered as he chewed on his food.

”And then we’re home free by the first week of June.” Benjamin stated, earning a chuckle from everyone around the table...

...everyone asides Casper, whom had surprisingly remained quiet all this while as he audibly muttered;

”Graduation, huh?”

”It feels so surreal that it’s already knocking on our doors.” he added with a wistful smile.

Immediately, the gang picked up on the underlying sense of worry that he rarely ever let slip.

However, before they could manage to say anything, and before the atmosphere shifted, Casper had picked himself up as well as he looked around the table and said with an upbeat tone;

”Well at least we still have a spring break in March and a field trip to look forward to in May, so I guess we’ll just have to make the most of it, eh?”

Without thinking twice, the gang responded in the affirmative, their expressions assuring and jovial.

Soon, they returned to other mundane but interesting conversations.

As Richard watched it all play out though, a fatherly smile had touched his lips.

For as much as he wanted to tell them to cherish these last few months of their time in high school, he knew well enough that the youths were just as aware.

As a result, he simply kept eating, engaging with them and partaking in their conversations from time to time as he allowed for the blissful moment to simply remain as is.

*

The next couple weeks couldn’t have gone any slower for Aiden and the gang.

With every day that came, they were following the metrics like overexcited toddlers and their moods were practically skyrocketing day in, day out.

And who could blame them, really.

What they’d assumed would be a lead up to a relatively successful launch, was gearing up to be far more than they could’ve ever anticipated.

First was their ViewTube video, one that had managed to snag just over a million views in two weeks, the reception overwhelmingly positive.

Obviously, this was a combination of the strong traction the video had gotten at the beginning from Aiden’s marketing strategy, and then a more organic increment due to how engaging the game’s trailer itself was after the algorithm had picked it up.

That alone, had brought [Crashout: Sin City’s] wishlist numbers to a staggering 650K+ within that same span of time.

Naturally, AppSphere’s algorithm had also picked up on the numbers it was generating and it was promptly pushed to the forefront of the main page as the most wishlisted game of the month.

In addition to the demo they’d ended up releasing a week before the game’s launch, it had synergized to bring their wishlist numbers to a maddening 850K+!

With how positively received that was as well, the gang’s excitement was completely valid as they drummed their fingers on the table in feverish anticipation for the first week of March.

Afterall, even if they didn’t manage to convert 30% to 40% of their wishlist numbers into sales, they could rest easy knowing that just 10% alone, would guarantee them a successful launch.

But for Aiden who had a quest to complete and required a solid capital to kick off his plans, he had his fingers crossed in hopes that they had managed to retain not just 20%, but somewhere between 30% to 40% at the very least.