Recently, the long dormant veteran casual game manufacturer Zenlife has finally made a new move. It has been launched in nearly 170 countries and regions around the world and has focused on small-scale testing of its new game "My Journey - Puzzles&Stories" (hereinafter referred to as "My Journey") in the United States.

Zenlife was initially incubated internally by the leisure game company Zenjoy in Beijing, and has released popular products such as Cooking Madness, My Little Home, and Decor Match. However, after the release of Decor Match in early 2022, there have been almost no new games released. The opening test of My Journey is more like a serious return of Zenlife.

01

The first test of 'My Journey' has been launched, with a cumulative download of about 100000 in 20 days

There is a difference in the amount of plot between the promotional and experiential sides, but the level design is innovative

DianDian data shows that 'My Journey' was first listed on the App Store under the 'ZenLife Games' account in mid to late April 2026, and will be available on Google Play around 4 days later.

At the same time, the game also launched external advertising on the Apple platform. However, there was a slight decline in the slow improvement guidance in the past few days. In the past 30 days, the advertising creativity on the Apple platform has reached around 600 after deduplication, and the market share in the United States is as high as 98%.

In addition, the official account of the game was updated on various social media platforms 10 days before it was launched, but the frequency was not high and there were no activities or promotions with high dissemination.

In terms of market data, although the download volume on the first day of testing was less than a hundred, it has maintained a suitable growth rate since then, with daily downloads approaching five digits in the past four days.

After 20 days of testing, the estimated cumulative download volume of "My Journey" is around 100000. In the US market, it is far ahead of the contribution chart with a 98.52% share. During this period, it peaked at 211th place on the US iOS game free list, but has now fallen outside the 500th place. Of course, this is clearly related to the slowdown in advertising.

It is worth mentioning that the small-scale public testing of "My Journey" on the first day did not generate any statistically significant IAP flow.

Turning our attention back to the game level, first and foremost to the art, the scene is dominated by high saturation and warm tones. The characters adopt a European and American cartoon style, but the proportions are closer to real people and more realistic. The UI that eliminates elements follows the same path as most similar products, with rounded corners, shallow projections, and likable designs.

At the bottom level of the gameplay framework, Zenlife's expertise lies in the three elimination game. Currently, there are thousands of levels, with special levels such as lightning and meteor showers set on the surface. Props include bombs, rainbow balls, and rockets. The differences in this aspect are not prominent, but at the same time, the game also integrates elements of decoration and plot.

Currently, many "triple play+" products follow the model of "royal match", pursuing both excitement and fast pace, thus abandoning the plot. This includes Zenlife's previous popular product "Decor Match". However, from the development of the dual play track, many female players are actually attracted by the plot.

Most likely based on this consideration, "My Journey" has relatively more promotion for the plot side, seemingly hoping to connect it with space decoration and global travel exploration.

In terms of store copy promotion and video materials, the game plot is macroscopically described as Olivia, a top socialite and travel blogger, experiencing various changes such as her father's death, family inheritance being taken away, and commercial fraud quality control. After falling into the abyss, she could only return to an old property left by her father. During the process of cleaning up the old objects and renovating the ruins, she discovered clues indicating that her father had scattered the key evidence to prove her innocence in secret assets around the world. At this point, the female protagonist decided to regain her social influence and embark on a global journey to find the truth.

The overall framework of the main storyline seems to be to investigate conspiracies, clear up grievances, and find the truth. At the same time, as the female protagonist travels around the world, she will also embark on many side storylines due to encountering various characters. Different choices seem to create different stories.

Under such promotion, the core cycle of "My Journey" follows a closed loop of "main storyline generating decoration goals" → "three elimination levels providing resources such as gold coins and materials" → "executing specific decoration actions" → "unlocking new plotlines, maps, clues, characters, or likes".

However, in the specific experience, the above plot did not seem to unfold in the early stage. The female protagonist directly embarked on a global journey in New York. Due to accidental damage during the journey, she had to break through levels to repair the ship before continuing to fulfill her duties. The subsequent plot is relatively plain and closer to the theme of travel, with obvious AI sense. Fortunately, the level design is clever, and the player experience is enjoyable. At the same time, operational activities have also been launched.

Although the current depth of plot integration gives the impression that promotion does not match reality, it is unclear whether the project team will optimize and adjust it in the future.

02

Chuangzhi Youpin has experienced two core business monetization experiences

Zenlife has changed hands twice and needs to prove itself with a popular product first

As for the importance of "My Journey" to Zenlife, it needs to be traced back to the "ancient" game manufacturer Beijing Chuangzhi Youpin.

According to public information, in 2010, Tsinghua Master's degree holder Xia Cao founded Zentertain (predecessor of Chuangzhi Youpin) in Beijing, and his first music game Tapic topped the free list on the Japanese App Store that same year; The following year, Hong Kan joined the company and launched applications such as Ringtone Maker, Free Music Download, and Girl Story Launch for product development;

Around April 2012, Beijing Chuangzhi Youpin Technology Co., Ltd. was officially registered, and the team was basically formed. In terms of business, it began to enter the gaming field more, especially the Slot Game (early versions of Slot Game, Slot Fantasy, etc.) and card (such as Reign of Summoners) track;

In 2013, Chuangzhi Youpin received an angel round financing of $1 million from Sequoia Capital; In 2014, the company received a Series A financing of $1 million from Sequoia Capital and Source Code Capital. Its three elimination game "Forest Mania" was launched in South Korea, and the food three elimination game "Yummy Mania" was also launched. The leisure market gradually opened up, and the Vegas style "Slot Fantasy" was released ™》 Also performed fairly well; In 2015, Zentertain officially changed its name to Zenjoy to complete a brand upgrade and launched a series of long-term popular slots games, "Double Hit Casino" (with an annual revenue of $4.41 million last year, approximately RMB 30 million or more) and "Classic Vegas Casino Slot" (with an annual revenue of approximately $5.13 million last year, approximately RMB 35 million).

The emergence of the two popular products mentioned above prompted Zenjoy, a leading brand in China, to inject its Slot related business into the new company Lucky Zen in 2016. In the same year, "Vegas Slot" was launched. Given the continued positive performance of Lezen's products in the Slot track, in 2017, the South Korean gaming company ME2ON acquired Lezen Technology and officially renamed it Mingtu Zhen (Mingtu Zhen was listed on the South Korean Growth Enterprise Market in August 2020).

Since the acquisition of the core business Slot, Zenjoy has shifted its focus to major leisure categories such as text, social media, and simulation management, and has launched many popular products.

In 2017, it launched the time management game "Cooking Madness: A Chef's Game" that integrated simulation management elements. This game was one of the few products that could compete with "Cooking Craze" at that time. Before June 2023, its monthly revenue had never dropped more than $1 million, and currently it has stable monthly revenue of over $300000.

The time has come, and in 2018, the text link hit "Word Connect" topped the US download chart. The annual revenue of the game in 2025 is still 5.85 million US dollars (about 40 million yuan), which is extremely promising in the long run.

In the same year, Zenjoy utilized its previous accumulation in the three elimination track and integrated decoration elements to launch "My Home". The game's data growth was astonishing, and it entered the global exchange three elimination TOP10. Prior to 2022, its monthly revenue had never fallen below one million US dollars. However, in the summer of 2022, the game was hastily taken down, which was related to Zenjoy's second core asset acquisition.

In June 2020, AppLovin was aggressively expanding its "first party game studio" territory. It valued the strong performance and research and development capabilities of Creative and Intelligent Products in the three consumer+and simulation operations, and therefore officially acquired Zenlife, an overseas entity of Zenjoy located in Singapore, and the intellectual property rights of its games such as "Cooking Joy" (Zenjoy brand retained popular text-based products such as "Word Connect"), through a cash advance of $160 million and subsequent performance rewards.

After the acquisition was completed, "My Home" was taken down due to updates to Google/Apple's privacy policy and strategic changes after the migration of the AppLovin Unified Account System (SDK). However, in early 2022, Zenlife quickly launched a similar product, "Decor Match," and the team successfully completed a smooth migration of user assets.

The latter's revenue grew rapidly in the second half of 2023, with a peak monthly revenue of 1.82 million US dollars (approximately 12.34 million yuan). However, the data began to decline significantly in 2024, and the current monthly revenue is less than 100000 US dollars.

It is worth mentioning that although ZenLife has separated from Zenjoy, the two are still closely related.

However, things are unpredictable. Later, due to AppLovin's strategic contraction, in May 2025, AppLovin sold ZenLife and other studios under its umbrella to Tripledot Studios in the UK for a consideration of $800 million (the transaction price was $400 million in cash+20% equity of Tripledot).

After the release of Decor Match, ZenLife is no longer capable of creating new games. Currently, it is the core Asian R&D center under Tripledot. As ZenLife's latest flagship work, "My Journey - Puzzles&Stories," the success or failure of this game is of great significance in proving its own value.

03 Summary

Overall, although the gameplay of "My Journey - Puzzles&Stories" is already very comprehensive and the experience is good, it is still in the small-scale testing stage, and further observation is needed. If the game optimizes the plot experience and achieves certain results in the market, it may prove that the plot elements have obvious positive feedback on the triple play market, just like on the dual play track, which can open up new horizons for more triple play manufacturers.