Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: Zhu Siqi

"it feels like I'm back in high school."

Editor's note: not long ago, we decided to start a series of planners called "our 2019-2022". As you can see, this series is mainly about us, the experiences of people in the gaming industry from 2019 to 2022. Our plan is to ask one (or a group) of interviewees to talk about their past few years in each issue.

China's game industry has undergone drastic changes in recent years-of course, to be honest, China's game industry is changing dramatically every year, and this series should have been done earlier. We want this series to cover all aspects of the gaming industry-both in breadth and depth. We hope to cover enough people, from managers to grass-roots employees, from planners to marketers, to plug-in studio members, we want to know their lives and ideas. Our best hope is to systematically record the work and life of game practitioners over the years. In the future, maybe these things can help people in another era understand us.

Series one: our 2019-2022: Xiao Qi and her two cities

This is the second article in this series, and today's story comes from candy and Jenny. They were good friends in high school and had common creative dreams. After graduating from college in 2020, they coincidentally joined the same independent game studio, and after a period of accumulation, they were given the opportunity to develop their own projects.

Compared with the previous article in this series, and many of the articles we wrote in 2022, this story is more relaxed and even dreamy, full of vitality and hope. Through them, we may be able to touch some words that have been forgotten for a long time in the Chinese game industry last year, such as dream, love and friendship.

Here are their stories.

2019-2020: candy and Jenny have been good friends since high school. Candy likes to write and Jenny likes to draw.

"I was deserting in class at that time. I don't know what I'm doing, but I just get some of my own things every day." Looking back on the interesting events of that year, Candy was still happy, "but I didn't have much chance to get in touch with the game at that time. My mother is a teacher, and she is strict with me. In short, I absolutely do not support me to play games. I just play some very small, leisure things on my mobile phone."

Jenny didn't play games very much at the time. "I didn't get in touch with more until I started playing games myself." "Candy really loves to play," Jenny said. "I saw her playing there with her cell phone at noon. I usually read books, movies and comics by myself."

In high school, the two girls had no particularly clear idea of what to do in the future. Jenny may be relatively more specific. During a chat, she told Candy: "I must draw in the future. It will be very uncomfortable if I can't draw one day." Candy was still in a daze at that time, wanted to do some creative work, but did not know exactly in which field.

Near the graduation of high school, because I want to apply to an American school, Candy has its own computer. During the trip to the United States to visit the school and visit the campus, a friend of her colleagues bought an online version of Famine, saying that she could give candy. Candy asked, what platform is it on? In this way, Candy downloaded Steam for the first time, and this friend became Candy's first Steam friend. But the last time Candy went to see it, she hadn't logged in for 3 years and now she doesn't play games at all.

In college, Candy played a lot of independent games on Steam and was particularly interested in narrative games. She majored in philosophy, and her major had nothing to do with games. "but we teach people very well and allow me to put game-related content in my homework. So in a course called philosophy in Pop Culture, I wrote" Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy "in it." Sugar said, "the game is very difficult. You have to manipulate a man sitting in a jar and let him chisel all the way to the top of the mountain with a hammer." I happened to be learning Camus's Sisyphus mythology, so I put these two things together to write a paper, which the professor liked very much. "

The game experience of "digging for promotion" is very maddening, and if you are not careful, you and the people in the jar will fall straight back to the foot of the mountain. These experiences make candy feel that independent games are a good space for people to express and create. During her junior and senior year, she joined an online volunteer Sinicization group at indienova and met some industry insiders. "A lot of people in there are really talking about the cold winter of the version number, but there are more people who play independent games on PC, and they don't particularly rely on the version number to survive." As a result, candy has a deeper understanding of the industry, "so my impression of the industry at that time was that although there were many policy restrictions, it was getting better and better on the whole, and more and more people wanted to know and work in this field. I became more and more determined that I wanted to enter the game industry and play independent games in the future."

In May and June 2020, Candy and Jenny each graduated from American universities. Because of the epidemic, the graduation ceremony was cancelled and all gathering activities were banned. Everyone packed up and scrambled for tickets to return home. "I really ran back like a flight. My ticket was cancelled more than a dozen times and I bought it a dozen times." Now that I think about it, Jenny still thinks it's a little ridiculous. After returning home, they all rested at home for a while. "for about three or four months, I haven't figured out what to do next. The original plan was to go to graduate school, but in essence, it was also because I didn't know what job I could find." The candy said.

In September 2020, "Mountain and Sea Traveler" from Shanghai Yunshan Xiaoyu Studio released its first trailer, setting off a craze on Weibo. After seeing the candy, I found it very interesting and followed their official account. After a month, the studio recruited interns, and Candy threw himself into the position of planner with the mentality of trying. Another week later, the studio began to recruit art, and she immediately thought of Jenny. "Jenny went to college in the United States like me, but at another school. I knew she was at home after graduation, so I told her, why don't you try it?"

The "Pixel National style" art of "Mountain and Sea Traveler" has no special connection with Jenny when they are in college. After all, they live in different cities and have different majors. "but that's what true old friends are like. Even after a long time, it still feels like they haven't been separated." Jenny said. When she got the news from the candy, she thought it was a good opportunity and quickly sent her resume.

They did not expect that after a round of screening and interview, both of them successfully entered the studio and began to work together in October.

When Candy and Jenny joined in, there were only five of them in Yunshan Xiaoyu Studio. "actually, I don't know why Xinyu (Wei Xinyu, producer of 'Mountain and Sea Traveler') recruited us. I guess he might prefer that the people around him have their own ideas." Sugar said, "the resume I sent to the studio included some content that I wouldn't show to other companies, such as the account of the game video I made, and the antique lyrics that I wrote in high school and now look awkward."... later, the prompts for "flowers" in "Mountain and Sea Traveler" were all poems, and I happened to use those experiences. "

Jenny also felt that being admitted was a pleasant surprise: "because Mountain and Sea Traveler is a pixel game, there are no pixel paintings in my collection, and I've never painted it before. But I have a Silk Road painting, which is very similar to the Dunhuang-style opening picture of Mountain and Sea Traveler. I think I may have been chosen because of that painting."

Jenny's Silk Road work on her resume is even more coincidental that Carla, who soundtrack "Mountain and Sea Traveler", and two girls graduated from the same high school and are alumni of each other. It's just that when she graduated, Candy and Jenny hadn't enrolled yet, and they didn't know each other before.

All in all, 2020 will be a year of surprises for candy and Jenny, whether it's entering the gaming industry or joining the same company. Of course, everything is just an introduction. When I really started playing games, the job showed a less dreamy side.

2021: launch of Mountain and Sea Traveler in September 2021, when Candy and Jenny spent most of that year working on the project.

In their eyes, the atmosphere of the studio is quite good. Not only the two of them, it can be said that everyone in the studio is new, playing games for the first time, a lot of things rely on their own groping and learning. Candy writes and plans with the boss, and Jenny follows the master beauty to learn pixel painting. Fortunately, in the studio, everyone's idea is very simple, that is, "want to make a good game, want to make something."

Because of the lack of experience, do not know what can be done, what can not be done, the team has experienced a period of running-in. For example, candy has mentioned some particularly outrageous needs. She once went to Jung Mei and Jenny and said she wanted two people to fight. A cave collapsed in the picture, and finally two people fell down. Zhu Mei and Jenny immediately said: no, it's too complicated, it's hard to draw.

"of course, we actually did the cave collapse in the end, but it was a relatively crude version." Jenny said with a smile that her tacit understanding with candy makes work a little easier. "most of the time, when we communicate, we find that two people are aesthetically identical and understand what each other wants."

The photo taken by the production team of "Mountain and Sea Traveler" at the exhibition, from left to right, was Jenny, candy, producer Wei Xinyu and chief beauty Zac, who found that the game development work was different from what they had expected. "you have to know a little about everything, especially in an independent team, where everyone basically has multiple jobs and will encounter some unexpected troubles." "for example, I sometimes have to be responsible for the English translation of part of the game," Tang said. "Jenny not only does art, but also has to contact with the release of new games, and now he has to take care of the promotion of new games. I haven't touched it before. It's like changing my brain."

"Mountain and Sea Traveler" was launched in early September 2022, and Candy was most impressed one night a week before it was officially launched. The studio suddenly found that there was a problem with the English translation of the game, and some of it had to be redone. It is too late to find outsourcing again, so we can only change it ourselves. So she took the computer home and sat down at the table to change every sentence.

"Carla and the interns from the studio were there, and they said," We came to support you, and then we came to Jenny's house and cooked for us in the kitchen, making pork belly chicken. " Candy described the scene at that time, "they were busy over there, I changed here, and they were watching TV while I was eating. Although there is really a burning feeling, put down the bowl and have to go back to work late into the night, but the feeling of everyone working together to support you is really good." Finally, she did not forget to emphasize: "tripe chicken is also very delicious."

The game of pork belly chicken and other dishes that Carla made for everyone was officially launched on that day, because it was in a hurry, some places did not change well, and everyone was very nervous. The anchor "Xiaoyao scattered people" usually played independent games, and on the day he went online, he also played "Mountain and Sea Traveler". Candy stared in his studio and watched him play a Bug. "I hurriedly used my official account to send out a barrage in his studio:'it's changing, it's changing!'" Come to think of it, candy is still very grateful for the player's tolerance and support.

After the launch of "Mountain and Sea Traveler", the studio gave everyone a week off. Plus the National Day holiday, candy and Jenny have half a month of free time. When they returned from vacation, they officially began to brainstorm and planned to do their own project.

Candy recalled that the idea of working on his own project began in April and May 2021. If traced back earlier, she and Jenny wanted to "create something together" since high school. "Mountain and Sea Traveler" has given them a lot of experience when they first entered the game industry. In October, the studio agreed to let them try to do the project on their own, and the development cost was borne by the studio, but apart from that, the two were on their own.

The double-blind trick was made at that time. Candy introduction says that structurally, it will be a non-linear detective AVG game, somewhat similar to the "reverse referee" series. Players can explore a case in a circus from the perspective of two characters. In terms of style and theme, it is almost the exact opposite of "Mountain and Sea Traveler". It is a very "American" work that hopes to attract more interest from overseas players.

2022: try candy and Jenny envisioned a development cycle of one year. According to the original plan, the double-blind trick should be released in late 2022 or early 2023, but so far, they have just launched the Steam page and the first trailer.

There are indeed some difficulties in development. There are only two of them, one planner, one art, no program. AVG was chosen because there are many ready-made plug-ins available, but they soon found that some specific features still need to be supported by professional programmers.

At first, they turn to programmers in the studio for help, but most of their time is allocated to other projects and it is difficult to do both. Later, Candy managed to hire a part-time programmer. "coincidentally, this little brother was a fan of my Weibo account at first. He may see that I sometimes post content about independent games and mention that he is playing games, so he sends me a private message." Sugar said, "he said that he wrote programs for mobile games in some big factory, wanted to know about the independent game industry, and hoped to participate in the project."

"double-blind trick" generally chooses American retro art style, but part-time programmers are usually very busy and often need to work overtime. This means that Candy and Jenny have to follow his pace, and any changes must be made very carefully. "for example, if Jenny wants to make some animation changes, or do some process optimization, he can only wait for him, or sacrifice some of our needs. It's rather tied up in this respect. however, the other party will take the initiative to give us people who do not understand the program some popular science knowledge, we are also very grateful to him." From the candy's point of view, this is a necessary compromise.

It also took a lot of time to find a release. Last May, Candy and Jenny took the earliest version of the package and contacted all the publishers they knew. Some releases responded and gave them to Offer, but the two wanted to wait-when Shanghai was silent, feedback from publishers was generally delayed, they wanted to meet new potential partners, and new releases kept looking for information. But the process dragged on for a long time to the publishers of Offer, and finally came to an end.

Publishers give a variety of reasons. Some feel that they are at odds with the style of the "double-blind trick", while others are worried about the AVG audience and think that "it is too niche".

Candy and Jenny took the opportunity to get in touch with more upstream and downstream people in the industry. They began to learn to identify the sincerity of the people they found. "many people are very friendly and willing to help even if they don't have a deal, and everyone has an encouraging attitude. so I think there are still quite a lot of professional publishers in China who really want to develop domestic independent games." The candy said. Correspondingly, there are people who are not so sincere. "some people may not know the game industry or AVG, but simply satisfy their KPI as a business. when the game is given to them, the feedback will be very strange, such as whether the pure background and conversation are too boring, more play and so on, as if they don't realize that this is an AVG game."

In the double-blind trick, players can investigate events from the perspective of two characters in 2022, and the haze of the industry's winter did not fall directly on candy and Jenny. From time to time, they also hear rumors about which project teams can no longer do it and which publishers are out of money. Many people live in anxiety, but among independent game developers, this anxiety is mostly expressed in private. Usually meet and chat, developers seldom discuss what to do when they run out of money and what to do if they can't sell games. People are more willing to communicate with each other about game production and give their Demo to each other for advice and opinions.

No matter whether the negotiations you have experienced are friendly and sincere, it takes a lot of energy to deal with these things when taking into account the development. At the end of 2022, seeing that it could not be delayed any longer, Candy and Jenny made a decision to make their own distribution.

"We know that we are certainly not as secure as professional companies, but it is too long to wait for the right Offer. In addition, the English of the two of us is good, the game theme is more international, and we are still on Steam, so we want to try some overseas promotion ourselves, so we may be able to accumulate some experience and use it in the future." Candy talked about her thoughts. And foreign support for independent game developers is very comprehensive, how to get on the Steam, how to contact the media, how to promote, a little look for a very detailed English tutorial.

Their biggest anxiety still comes from time. Sugar says, on the one hand, it's a matter of cost: "you sit there burning money every day, and although the cost is borne by the studio now, there is no possibility of getting your money back as long as the game is not online." On the other hand, it is the lack of feedback that leads to "mental uncertainty": "everyone can see whether the art is good or not as soon as the PV comes out, but it is difficult to verify whether the script is good or not before it is launched." double-blind trick is not a traditional linear narrative structure, it is difficult to summarize the story in the publicity stage, or many plots directly tell the effect is not so good, need someone to experience. "

Candy spent a lot of energy designing the non-linear narrative of the friendship between the two girls in the double-blind trick, which became the most valuable emotional support in 2022.

This support begins with encouragement. Usually at work, no matter what Jenny draws, the candy will be there and say, "Great, genius!" If candy wrote something to Jenny, Jenny would also say, "Great, amazing, genius!" They hope that this attitude will form a quality of life.

This does not mean that they are as confident as they say they are, but their depressed time is often staggered. Jenny described a rather interesting situation: "maybe the candy said to me at night, 'what are we going to do? is this thing going to work or not?' I told her it was fine. The next day, I said to her,'I got up to sleep and thought that no one might really buy the game.'by this time the mood of candy had recovered and became very confident, which would encourage me in turn."

Both men put honesty at the top of their communication. When the schedule is tight, Jenny sees candy touching fish at work and directly reminds her of how the script is going and what to finish this week. "if you don't communicate directly, there are a lot of things or opinions buried in your heart, which may have a greater impact later." Jenny said.

They not only work together, but also live together. Neither of them is from Shanghai and the house is shared. Usually Jenny is responsible for cooking, candy is responsible for washing dishes and other housework. Candy feels that it's a bit like going back to high school, when we were simply doing some creative work together. Of course, they don't stick together 24 hours a day. After going home, as soon as the door is closed, there is a need to find each other to keep their own personal space.

Candy and Jenny found the feeling of good friends in high school at work. After several months of "silence" in Shanghai in early 2022, they were locked up at home together. At first, game development was not greatly affected because "two people were working". But soon they were in trouble: there was no food at home.

"at first, I didn't expect it to last so long. I only bought food for a week, and I thought I was very smart, but later I found that I didn't have enough to eat at all." Jenny said, "I lie in bed every day thinking about what to eat tomorrow, what to eat the day after tomorrow, how to save is not enough, anxiety is not enough." They could not find a way to replenish food, and the group buying group in the community could not be added, because the group owner's aunt said, "only locals are added."

They had no choice but to knock on their neighbor's door and ask if they could spare some food. The first house knocked for a long time to open, a beautiful woman in full makeup said she was live, do not disturb. The second family said that there were many people in the family and there was no surplus food. After an hour, the hostess came over with a large bag of kimchi and several bags of instant noodles. The second family later sent several packets of instant noodles. Finally, other residents in the community quietly pulled them into the group purchase group before they had a meal.

Today, Candy and Jenny can bring up the experience as an interesting thing. " That feeling is very similar to the game announcement, "Jenny said." now we do our own publicity. I call it a 'cyber kowtow'. It's like knocking on a neighbor's door, one by one looking for that kind of 'big video game' on the Internet and asking them if they are interested in the game. Can you help promote it? We also went to find relatives and friends who have a bit of a fan base, and they asked for 'one button and three companies' or forwarded them in private messages. I'm really sorry. "

2023: after making up their mind to release their own double-blind trick, Candy and Jenny immediately began to prepare all the materials, including writing Steam page content, starting the Steam review process and editing trailers, which took no more than a week. In January this year, the Steam page was officially launched and the trailer was made public online.

"as I said before, our game has dragged on for a long time and has been very anxious. coupled with the lack of external feedback, there is no psychological bottom at all. After the trailer was posted in early January, I felt a lot more comfortable. after all, the work was seen." Candy feels relieved.

The primary goal of the two is still to finish the game and go online, and they don't have many ideas for the time being.

"there is indeed some real pressure. We came to a first-tier city like Shanghai as soon as we graduated, and we are not so well-off economically." Sugar said, "for example, we wanted to rent a house with a living room before, but the budget was not enough. Now we live in a large room, but there is only one corridor in the middle. The refrigerator can only be kept in the room, and the buzzing sound is very noisy at night. Fortunately, we are both single, and if we have a family, we may have higher requirements for the living environment."

Map in the double-blind trick in career planning, Candy and Jenny hope to use independent games as a more pragmatic career path. They have heard of independent developers who want to do what they most want to do in the first place, but that goal may be difficult to achieve, and they will feel too tired to do it. This is a negative consumption for developers themselves.

They hope that their careers can reach a state of sustainable development, that they can support their next work financially, and that they do not have to overwork and burn themselves in their lives. "A lot of people think that independent game developers work overtime and burn their lives," they don't like the saying, "No matter how awesome the work is, it's not as important as the creator itself."

"We are quite idealistic in this respect. we don't know if the industry will get better and better. but I hope we can keep doing it ourselves, and do it better and better." The candy said. This is the hope of both of them for the future, and it may also be the hope that the whole industry needs to uphold in such a year.

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