The second week, Plants vs Zombies sales continued climbing.
As gameplay progressed, many subsequent modes were discovered, and more people got hooked.
Especially the mini-game levels.
They completely subverted Adventure Mode's gameplay.
For instance, one mode had attacking zombies sprout plant heads, gaining partial plant abilities.
Some could spit peas, others had Wall-nut heads.
One mode let you play whack-a-mole, except the moles were zombies.
Some modes turned into Bejeweled.
You could say this single game encompassed many classic mini-games from his previous life.
Most interesting was the Zen Garden, this farming-style gameplay also attracted many people. Drop plant seeds from defeating monsters, then harvest coins through cultivation.
Though the mechanics were simple, it was a first for this world.
However, just when everything was looking great!
Reggie Trading Company, allied with multiple merchant guilds, suddenly announced they'd be releasing a new work: [Heroes vs Dragons].
This work was personally crafted by Tier 5 designer Henry.
On the battlefield, place heroes of different classes to jointly resist dragons and their monster armies.
Simultaneously, a promotional page for Heroes vs Dragons appeared in the Dream Corridor.
Noticing this sudden development, Joseph from Saint Oros Trading Company immediately notified Alto.
By the time he received the news, the game was already on sale in the market.
"This is blatant plagiarism!"
Joseph was currently cursing furiously through the communicator.
"Mr. Alto, you need to check it out quickly!"
"These shameless bastards completely plagiarized your work."
"They slapped a hero skin on the plants, swapped zombies for monster armies, and voilà, a 'new' work!"
Alto's brow furrowed slightly.
These bastards moved fast.
Though admittedly, Plants vs Zombies could only be considered a small-scale work without overly complex design techniques, replicating it was quite simple.
Plagiarism, in his previous life, it was an unavoidable topic for any excellent work.
When something exploded in the market, copycats would appear before long.
Thus things like patent protection laws and copyright protection laws were born.
But with creative works, sometimes it's very difficult to define whether something was plagiarism or inspiration.
There were so many cases of plagiarism controversies in his previous life, that some lawsuits dragged on for years without resolution.
Here, even less so.
Lunaria had similar regulatory institutions, but how to put it...
The boundaries were extremely blurred.
After all, gameplay was similar, as long as you didn't completely copy-paste the plot, it didn't count as plagiarism.
Did Plants vs Zombies have a plot?
Practically none.
So at most, it was gameplay plagiarism.
"Don't worry. For now, just continue normal sales as planned," Alto said calmly.
He entered the Dreamscape.
Plants vs Zombies' 7-day promotional period had expired.
Now a Heroes vs Dragons trial channel appeared in the Dream Corridor.
Clearly, this so-called Tier 5 designer Henry had also invested a lot.
Generating a trial channel in the Dream Corridor consumed massive amounts of dream faith power.
It could even severely impact the dream world tier advancement.
Plus Reggie Trading Company's all-out promotional blitz...
It had already sparked major discussion.
Alto tried it directly.
Game opening, similar layout to Plants vs Zombies, except the field changed from a garden to a plains battlefield.
A hero card appeared, an Elven Archer.
Click to place, then monsters began appearing on the right.
An ugly goblin wielding a club slowly approached.
Typical puzzle tower defense elements.
The opening was fine, following a similar flow to Plants vs Zombies.
But in later levels...
Alto clearly felt some card and monster stat settings were slightly unreasonable.
Wyverns flew too fast with poorly controlled speed, ogre models were too large, scene effects were dazzling and chaotic, even causing visual pollution.
Of course, this was just a demo with very limited content and these characteristics weren't super obvious.
Alto's lips curved into a slight smile. That's it?
Looking at this obviously rushed, inferior knockoff, he wasn't worried in the slightest.
Recently, Plants vs Zombies' growth had slowed. Perhaps this game's appearance was actually an opportunity.
Elves were already noticing this game.
Plants vs Zombies sales had now reached 1.63 million.
Due to lack of promotion and recognition, it could only be said to still have limited spread.
Some people hadn't noticed Plants vs Zombies for various reasons. Now seeing Heroes vs Dragons, they were attracted and entered.
Then became fans of this novel gameplay.
While many who'd played Plants vs Zombies, seeing this counterfeit knockoff appear, cursed furiously.
"Absolutely shameless! This work completely plagiarizes Plants vs Zombies!"
"Level design is identical, definitely plagiarism!"
"What's Plants vs Zombies?"
"Who cares if it's copied? As long as it's fun, right? Let me try it first."
"I already played it. The elf archer girl inside is seriously hot! What's this Plants vs Zombies garbage? Never played it."
"Whatever, I'll buy a copy and try it! It only costs 23 after all!"
Among these were staunch Plants vs Zombies supporters, some who'd never heard of Plants vs Zombies, and others who'd tried Heroes vs Dragons and found it quite interesting!
Just like that, Plants vs Zombies' momentum stalled.
Large quantities of Heroes vs Dragons appeared in the market.
Since Plants vs Zombies was exclusively distributed by Saint Oros Trading Company...
Many other small-to-medium merchant companies hadn't gotten a piece of the pie and chose to partner with Heroes vs Dragons instead.
In an instant, the entire market was promoting Heroes vs Dragons everywhere.
It even faintly showed momentum to surpass Plants vs Zombies.
Joseph was already frantic.
Watching helplessly as Heroes vs Dragons bit off a huge chunk of the market.
All that hard work building momentum and promoting, was that the end?
He approached Lunaria's Elven Tribunal, submitting materials on Heroes vs Dragons plagiarizing Plants vs Zombies.
But the result made him explode with rage.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Joseph."
"After evaluation, Heroes vs Dragons has its own style in visuals and characters, with no plot overlap. Only the gameplay is slightly similar, this doesn't constitute plagiarism!"
As long as plagiarism wasn't obvious, then obviously it wasn't plagiarism.
"You're full of [censored]... isn't this plagiarism obvious enough?!"
"How much did Reggie Trading Company pay you?!"
"Insulting a tribunal official! Guards, guards! Arrest him!"
Joseph was arrested.