The Dot Hero Phenomenon
Adam, a 31-year-old unemployed game reviewer living in Arizona, rested his chin on his hand and frowned at the community board.
“How foolish.”
Ever since some unheard-of game studio started getting mentioned, Dot Hero had taken over the entire gaming forum.
It was absurd enough to make his blood boil.
His carefully written review of the hidden gem Twilight Samurai, which he had dug up from Stormworks, sat buried and ignored.
Yet this ridiculous game was getting all the attention.
“It’s just a mobile game. What’s the big deal?”
To Adam, real games meant console and PC titles. Mobile games were nothing more than childish, low-effort distractions for kids.
“And if it were actually good, it would already be on the App Store.”
From what he had read, getting an app onto Apple’s store was incredibly difficult. He had seen dozens of posts complaining about the process.
So a game that had not even made it onto the App Store was supposedly amazing? That was impossible in Adam’s world.
“Adam! Dinner’s ready!”
“Coming!”
At the sound of his parents’ voices, Adam stood up but instinctively refreshed the forum first. He planned to skim any new posts before heading downstairs.
The board was filled with nothing but nonsense.
Just as he was about to close the tab, one post caught his eye.
The very game he had been mentally tearing apart had just been listed.
“Ha.”
He tried to ignore it, but his hand moved on its own and picked up his phone.
He searched for Dot Hero in the store. Just as the users had said, the game was there.
The title he had dismissed as too low-quality for the App Store had somehow made it in.
“Must have gotten lucky.”
One of his reasons for dismissing the game had vanished, yet Adam refused to change his opinion. If it were truly good, it would have launched as an App Store exclusive.
“Still… I might as well install it.”
He had been annoyed by how the entire community talked about nothing but Dot Hero. Now he could finally join the conversation.
“Now I can write a review.”
He had never played a mobile game before, but as a reviewer he held the belief that he could not review something he had not experienced. That rule still applied.
I’ll tear it apart and expose every flaw.
The day his review went live would be the day Dot Hero died.
“Done.”
The game finished installing.
The UI is clean. Well, it is on the App Store, so that makes sense.
He tapped the play button and looked over the character selection screen. There were twenty characters, but only three were free to use.
Peacemaker, a melee hero. Abyss Magician, a ranged hero. And Force Girl, also ranged.
The designs are pretty decent.
He had assumed all pixel art looked the same, but these were surprisingly good. The artist had clearly put in effort.
Without hesitation, he chose the only female option among the free heroes—Force Girl.
This character got the most attention.
As a game reviewer, he could tell.
In truth, he simply preferred female characters over male ones, but he lied to himself.
The game was exactly what he expected—nothing special.
After a short play session, he found nothing remarkable about it.
The controls are too simple, and luck plays too big a role. There is no real sense of achievement. Ha. This is supposed to be a game?
He had been right all along.
After dinner, he would write a review based on his analysis and reveal the game’s true nature to the world.
He walked downstairs with light steps.
“Mom?”
The kitchen was empty.
There was not even the smell of food that should have been waiting at dinnertime.
“What the—? She called me down but nothing is ready?”
Annoyed, he headed toward his parents’ bedroom.
Knock, knock.
He knocked and swung the door open. His mother was lying in bed. It was early evening, yet she had skipped dinner prep and gone straight to sleep. The sight irritated him further.
“Adam? What is it?”
“Mom, you said dinner was ready! Nothing is even prepared. What am I supposed to eat?”
“What? You said you were not eating earlier, so I put everything away. What are you talking about?”
“When did I say that? Ah, I get it. You are mad because I did not come down right away? Ten minutes is not that late! Did you really have to clear everything?”
“Ten minutes? Look at the time!”
He was the one who should be annoyed, yet his mother was the one getting angry. He turned his head in disbelief.
“Huh?”
“It is ten o’clock! I came upstairs because you never came down, and you told me yourself that you were not eating. Why are you making up stories now?”
“Uh… uh?”
“Enough. We will talk tomorrow. Close the door.”
Still dazed, Adam shut the door.
Ten o’clock? It was only around five when I started…?
He returned to his room in a daze and stared blankly at the ceiling. His stomach growled, and anger surged again.
This is all because of Dot Hero.
He had been so focused on analyzing the game that he had lost track of time.
He would pour that anger into his review.
He opened the forum to write, then paused.
Come to think of it, I only tried the free characters.
If someone pointed that out, he would have no defense. There were still seventeen locked characters. A review that at least sampled some of them would carry more weight.
“2.99 dollars. Not bad.”
The price was reasonable. He could think of it as buying credibility for his review at a low cost.
This character looks like it got a lot of work too.
He bought Ninetale.
“Oh.”
He bought Moon Angel.
“Heh heh.”
He bought Wolf Lady.
“Huh?”
When he opened the character screen again to try the next hero, he froze. Every single character had been unlocked.
Chirp. Chirp chirp.
Sunlight streamed through the window.
The analysis had taken far longer than he thought.
“I… I did it for the sake of review credibility.”
Now that he had tried every character, he had no more excuses. He sat down to write a scathing review of Dot Hero, but his fingers refused to move.
“The words won’t come out…”
His head and heart were not in sync.
How could he criticize something he had genuinely enjoyed?
He typed a few lines, deleted them, and stared at the screen. Eventually a simple question rose in his mind.
Why am I forcing this?
I can just admit it.
The game had been fun. The character designs were appealing, and the dopamine rush from pulling high-grade cards or items right when things looked hopeless had been incredible.
After a moment of hesitation, he began typing again.
He had decided to be honest.
*
One week after Dot Hero launched on the App Store, the game was performing exceptionally well.
It had reached second place in the Android market’s game category and was rapidly climbing the App Store charts, pushing aside established titles.
Combined downloads across both major stores: 500,000.
Even I was surprised by the massive achievement in just one month since release.
The download numbers showed no sign of slowing.
Revenue was also impressive.
After store fees, that is 190 million won…!
The paid conversion rate had reached nearly 14 percent.
Out of every hundred downloads, fourteen players had purchased at least one character. Compared to the industry average of one to three percent, 14 percent was practically mythical.
Purry Bird, which had hit ten million downloads this month, sat at eight percent. Even at its peak I remembered it reaching ten percent, but there was a world of difference between ten and fourteen.
I did not expect it to go this high…
At launch I had set a target of five percent.
Given that one-touch payments were not yet common and many people still believed mobile games should be free, five percent had already felt optimistic.
The rate will probably drop as downloads keep rising. Still, fourteen percent…
The game being fun came first, but the monetization strategy had worked perfectly.
“Fuck! We are rich, Yihan! Rich! Two hundred million in one month!”
Daniel, who owned fifteen percent of Dot Hero, grabbed my shoulders and shook me in excitement. Earning close to an average person’s annual salary in a single month from shares alone was enough to make anyone ecstatic.
“Stop. I am going to throw up.”
“Oops. Sorry.”
I calmed my churning stomach and spoke to Daniel, who was still refreshing both stores obsessively.
“You cannot withdraw that money yet anyway.”
“What?! Why?!”
“If you want to get hit with a massive tax bill, go ahead.”
“Oh…. I forgot about the fucking tax.”
If he was satisfied with this success and planned to quit developing, he could withdraw the money. The tax would be heavy, but it would have to be paid regardless.
However, I had no intention of stopping here.
“Daniel. I am going to start a game studio.”
“A studio…. You will let me join, right?”
“I would like that. But I cannot give you shares like last time.”
Dot Hero had allowed me to share equity.
But I could not divide ownership of the company itself. The money earned from games had to be used as a stepping stone for the next project. Splitting shares would only invite unnecessary complaints later.
“Of course, you will still receive your fifteen percent of revenue from Dot Hero. That is not changing. But if we are going to keep working together, you will have to join as an employee.”
“Hmm…. How much salary are we talking?”
“The highest in the industry.”
I had no idea how Daniel would take the offer to go from partner to employee. If he got angry and walked out, I would understand.
Instead, he nodded without hesitation.
“Sure, why not.”
“You are okay with it?”
“Of course. The music I made for Dot Hero turned out great. Even I think it is good. But I know now that good music alone does not make a game succeed. I just rode on your coattails. Is that how you say it?”
“You are basically Korean now.”
“Honestly, when you did that viral marketing I thought you were insane. I realized how serious you were about running a business. A company started by someone like you? I cannot picture it failing.”
“I have no plans to fail.”
“Even if you become my boss, we are still friends, right? That is enough for me. You will pay me well anyway. I trust you.”
“Of course.”
The conversation had gone better than expected.
“So we are finally leaving this studio apartment?”
“We need to find an office. And hire people.”
I was human too.
No matter how much younger my body had become, working four hours of sleep a day for eight months was exhausting.
If I want to live like a normal person, I need at least five hours of sleep.
I needed to hire a dedicated artist for graphics and additional programmers.
But before any of that, there was one thing I had to do first.
I stood up abruptly. Daniel looked up at me.
“Where are you going?”
“My parents’ house.”
*
Chae Mi-yeong smiled at the sudden text from her son.
“Oh my. What could the second child want? Honey, Yihan says he is coming home.”
“I told you not to bother him while he is busy studying!”
“I did not call him over!”
Chae Mi-yeong huffed at her husband’s curt remark and stood up to check the refrigerator. She wanted to make sure there was fruit to offer her son.
Her husband had recently received some apples from a client.
Yihan always liked apples.
She selected the best ones and kept glancing at the clock and the intercom while she waited. When the doorbell finally rang, she hurried to greet him.
“Mother. I am here.”
“Son~! Come in quickly! Honey! Yihan is home!”
“Hmm. Welcome.”
Chae Mi-yeong quickly peeled the apples, arranged them neatly on a plate, and carried them into the living room where her son and husband waited.
“Son, these apples are very sweet. Try one.”
“Ah. Thank you.”
She watched him eat with a warm smile and sat down on the sofa.
The smile did not last long.
“Mother. Father. The truth is… I never went back to university. I have been making games this whole time.”
Clink.
The sound of her husband’s fork hitting the marble floor echoed loudly in her ears.