As for the remaining players... of course, they were still frantically grinding for points.

Henry Green noticed that William Clark, who was sitting next to him, didn’t look so well and asked with concern, “What’s wrong, are you feeling unwell?”

William Clark shook his head. “Oh, it’s nothing.”

Henry Green felt that William Clark’s gaze was a bit evasive, and he seemed to be hiding something, which made him curious.

Then, he happened to glance at William Clark’s screen and saw the score panel for “Flappy Bird”: “Current score: 4, Best score: 4.”

Henry Green quickly turned his head away, almost bursting out laughing. So William Clark was upset about this. Honestly, after playing for a full ten minutes and only getting a best score of 4, not even making it into the top 200 on the leaderboard—anyone would be furious.

Henry Green wisely didn’t ask any more questions.

The game trial session continued. The whole session lasted an hour, and only a little over ten minutes had passed.

Out of the 700 audience members, nearly 600 had already played “Flappy Bird,” but only a small portion of them were still at it; the rest had moved on to other games.

Adam Brooks wasn’t worried. When the host introduced the games earlier, he had already gotten a general sense of the quality of the other entries—most of them were simply unwatchable.

Except for one or two that were passable, Adam Brooks didn’t think much of the rest. Compare them to “Flappy Bird”?

Well, let’s put it this way: these games had much better graphics, more resources, and richer content than “Flappy Bird.” But if you really compare playtime and how fast they spread?

I’m not targeting anyone in particular, but everyone here is basically a noob.

Sure enough, after trying out the other games, the vast majority of the audience quickly closed them and reopened “Flappy Bird.”

It’s not that this game is so much fun—it’s mainly about grinding for points!

That’s why people say this game is addictive. After playing for a while, it does feel pretty dull and boring, and it’s quite punishing, but as soon as you close it for five minutes, you want to open it again.

Seeing the audience’s reactions, Adam Brooks felt confident. Now, the only thing he was worried about was the opinions of the three judges.

If all three judges agreed and rejected his game outright? Then it would be over for him!

But as long as even one judge recognized his game, then first place would be his!

Chapter 7: Can This Even Be Called a Game?

The one-hour game trial period was up.

The host came to the front of the stage.

“Alright, the game trial period is over! I wonder if everyone has found a game they like?”

“Now, let’s move on to the next stage of the competition. First, let’s take a look at the results achieved by each of the twenty games. Please look at the big screen.”

The audience looked up at the big screen, which displayed the total online time and number of recommendations for each of the twenty games.

The audience was in an uproar!

“No way, is this for real?”

“This—this game is so ridiculous? Are they crazy?”

“How could the numbers be so different?”

“My god! Host, is there something shady going on?”

On the big screen, everyone’s attention was drawn to the data for “Flappy Bird,” which read: Total playtime 349 hours, recommendations 544!

Meanwhile, the second-place game, “Hunter Island,” only had a total playtime of 92 hours and 330 recommendations!

The host was stunned too. He had just learned these numbers himself, and like the audience, his first reaction was that there must be a mistake!

The three judges looked at each other, hardly able to believe the numbers.

What did these numbers mean? There were 700 people in the audience, and on average, each person had spent half an hour on this game!

Out of 700 people, 544 were willing to recommend this game to others.

These numbers were simply off the charts!

Adam Brooks wasn’t too surprised; these results were pretty much what he had expected.

Actually, “Flappy Bird” wasn’t a game that was especially addictive. On the contrary, it was quite punishing. If this game were released on an app store for players, most people would probably close it after five minutes.

But right now, the audience was at the design competition, and “Flappy Bird”’s competitors weren’t mature games, but rather a bunch of poorly made beginner projects.

The other entries basically couldn’t hold the audience’s attention for long, so most people ended up coming back to grind for points on “Flappy Bird.” Some particularly persistent audience members even spent all their time grinding on it.

As a result, it was perfectly normal for “Flappy Bird” to rack up so much playtime.

The host whispered a few words into his earpiece, and after a moment, he looked up and said to the audience, “Everyone, I’ve just confirmed with the technical staff backstage—the numbers are correct. These are the final results for the twenty games.”

There was still a commotion in the hall.

Many audience members still didn’t believe that “Flappy Bird” could achieve such results, especially those who didn’t care for this kind of game and closed it right after trying it.

However, most of the audience accepted the facts.