I had nothing to do today. I was wandering around on a small forum in a corner, and I happened to see someone recommending "School Beauty Dream Factory". It was said to be "independent games", "hanging up to nourish the liver", "fighting side by side with beautiful girls"... I thought that there are indeed a lot of good things popping up in the independent game circle recently. I clicked in and took a look. Oh my god, I almost sprayed the water I just drank on the keyboard🤮
Let's talk about the game configuration first: Platform 5.0, developer Chengdu Qijiuyou Technology-Baidu, oh, I understand, a company specializing in "Android mini-games". The charging mode said 0. I laughed. Now the idle game says there is no charge. It's like a scumbag saying I can't get in. I understand. The first time I entered the game, the UI, the font, and the 999-for-a-buck texture hit my face. The whole page seemed to be shouting to me: "Brother, make your first deposit, and you will get a purple tutor for your first deposit✨"
This is not an indie game.
This is a new-age cyber-harvester, wrapped in the guise of campus love, but inside it still has the same set of idle values, automatic combat, physical strength, physical strength, and ranking recharge routines. The introduction says "Escape rooms, numerous levels, and endless adventures." In actual play, you just click on the screen a few times to watch the villain fight his own battle animation, and then the numbers jump up. Oh, by the way, there is also "Call the school beauty to go shopping and watch movies" - it sounds like a love simulation, but it is actually a scheduled delivery of food. You go online to receive a gift and hang up your goodwill, but it's gone.
If I recommended this game to independent gamers who are still struggling with Hollow Knight, mining for Terraria, and fighting for Slay the Spire, I would probably be blocked for the rest of my life. What is a true indie game? It is full of passion, it speaks with gameplay, and it is a mechanism innovation. It's not about making a shell of a card and focusing on the word “independence”.
But having said that, does this game have any merit? It's fair to say - its method of defrauding krypton is quite direct, not hiding it, and openly robbing it like a web game, which is at least more respectable than those who pretend to be free and secretly steal money to death. Moreover, hanging up does not require you to worry about anything. It is suitable for players who have free time at work and don't want to use their brains, but just want to watch some beautiful girls draw numbers. As a time-killing electronic pickle, it's barely edible.
But I still say the same thing: My time is not garbage, and I don't want to waste it on the false demand of “nourishing and protecting the liver”. If you want to live an ordinary life with a beautiful girl, you might as well play "Along with You". If you want to explore adventures, go to "Celeste" or "Ori". There are so many geniuses in independent games, so don't waste your data downloading on rough-skinned mobile games.
This "journey of discovery" is really a surprise, so I've arranged it for you, thank you. Next time you encounter something packaged like an independent game, I suggest you search the name of the developer first to see if it is "Technology Co., Ltd." and then to see if there is the word "game" in it. A true indie game never needs to tell you "we are an indie game" in its name.
Anyway, I jumped into this pit for you, so don't jump down. ☕️