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

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: Liu Wengyi

How to price "love"?

Ten days after the word game "the wrong thing" was launched, developer Xiao Li published an article on his personal account entitled "the story of me as an independent game developer forced to work and pay my debts because of a personal setting."

The title of this light novel is the same as the title of the book, which basically gives a general account of the matter. Here, "human setting" refers to the setting map of the heroine. According to Xiao Li, the painter of the setting map, A Kuan, offered him a commercial price of 12000 yuan, and if he refused to pay, he would be revoked the right to use the set map.

Xiao Li, a former copywriter in the mobile game industry, quit his job last year and returned to his hometown to develop independent word games full-time. Xiao Li and A Huang are friends who have known each other for seven or eight years. They began to play games together in mid-2022. Ah Huang is in charge of drawing, and he is in charge of programs, scripts and other parts. However, according to Xiao Li, during the whole development period, A Huang only provided him with four human pictures and facial expressions, and did not give him more art resources. The two broke up in discord, blocked each other's accounts, disbanded the game production group, and even quarreled in another novel group. It was in this group that A Huang offered him an offer of 12000 yuan.

Xiao Li described the development process of "the wrong thing" as a painful experience. Xiao Li's development studio "Coffee Studio" started with five people, but he did almost all the actual work. In Xiao Li's opinion, apart from himself, no one in the studio cares about the progress of development. Xiao Li "hated this game very much" because of the dispute caused by the human setting.

"since the second half of last year, this game has bothered me very much. It feels like putting a lot of enthusiasm, time and energy into doing annoying things for annoying companies and annoying people. I don't know why I want to finish it." When he talked to me about it, Xiao Li was still very excited. "I think I've been in prison for more than half a year, torturing myself for a stupid game from beginning to end."

"after all, I'm the only one who cares about the game, and no one cares about the game. they can just pat their buttocks and leave, find out you're really done, and then stab you in the back for $12,000."

Xiao Li told me that he didn't know why the other person had set up a map for such a high amount. "I guess it's because the industry is under a lot of pressure. He spent 12,000 on training courses and wanted to get his money back."

We found another protagonist of the story, A Huang. At first, he didn't want to talk about it, but after reading Xiao Li's article, he was very angry. "he deleted all the remarks against him." Ah Huang told me.

Ah Huang told another version of the story. He said that at first he only wanted to charge 2000, but as soon as the other person asked him, "how many tens of thousands do you want?" he quoted a price of 12, 000. "wouldn't I look down on him if I had less?"

Xiao Li finally sent him an exclusive red packet of 400 yuan in the group and there was no news. Ah Huang was very dissatisfied. Ah Huang said that what he handed over was not just a picture of a person, but three standing drawings of different hand movements, a vertical painting of different clothes, and more than a dozen facial expressions.

The manuscript handed over by A Huang contains some facial expressions, but Xiao Li himself also revised and painted a lot of extra expressions. "I drew that manuscript for him for a month. I earned 400 yuan a month according to working hours. Do you think it's expensive?"

Talking about money, Xiao Li said that when he started playing games, he made it clear in advance that word games did not make money. At first, they discussed it in a very general way, saying only that they would split the money equally after making money, but after Ah Huang had finished setting up four pictures, he would no longer give anything. A word game like this with vision as the main selling point could not even have an illustration. Xiao Li had no choice but to make his own manuscript. Xiao Li calculated that the price of "the wrong thing" was 16 yuan, and there was a 40 per cent discount in the first week of the sale. Excluding the commission and tax on the Steam platform, the final income was only more than 1000. After paying for three illustrations in the game, there is basically little left.

In Xiao Li's plan, A Huang is in charge of three plot illustrations, but the other party withdraws from the project. The program and UI are still reliable and self-taught, but illustration is not a problem that can be solved by cramming.

If there are no painters on the development team, it will be a big expense to buy art resources such as vertical paintings and illustrations. According to the price calculation on the regular manuscript trading platform, such as rice painter, the price of a vertical painting ranges from 100 yuan to 2000 yuan, with scene illustrations starting at least 500 yuan-this is the price of personal non-commercial manuscripts, which will double if commercial. According to this estimate, a word game priced at about 10 yuan and with a volume of 2 hours and 4 hours will bring an additional cost of nearly 3000 yuan for game production if it requires three illustrations and one vertical drawing. Such a relatively small number of word games, back to Ben will become more hopeless.

Xiao Li told me that most word game production groups have painters involved or have stable outsourcing channels, but "quality and cheap" painters often have limited time and full schedules. Xiao Li also tried to ask some friends and former colleagues, and most of them got an euphemistic refusal. Art practitioners with real jobs generally do not accept this demand for manuscripts, and Xiao Li can only choose to look for college students who have not joined the profession.

In the manuscript, Xiao Li suffered a lot. On Wechat, he was introduced by friends to find several painters, the results are not ideal, the finished product does not meet the demand. He has the experience of docking with painters in the mobile game company, writing a lot of requirements documents, and the experience of docking with commercial painters makes him feel a huge gap at the moment. "my requirements documents are based on the standards of the company (before), with less nonsense and more reference pictures, and only written descriptions where they are not clear, but many of my artists like to read my painstakingly written requirements documents."

Xiao Li's illustration demand document: "some painters have to pay a deposit in advance, and he secretly paints without feedback. He still has a temper when he urges too much. He can't wait to hand in the manuscript according to his own will, and then he says that when it is finished, he will return the manuscript and add more money." Xiao Li described his failed request for manuscript. "this was the case with the painter I met in Wechat. Finally, I took the manuscript and wondered if I could fix it, so I went to my former colleague. He said that the layering was at sixes and sevens, so it would be better to redraw it." so, it's like paying a deposit to buy useless manuscripts. "

"[these people] are just like Ah Fang." He finally added.

The outbreak of a famine does not agree with these claims. In his opinion, there is a good reason for what he has done.

"I have already said that I may not have time in the second half of last year and the first half of this year." He argued.

When Xiao Li looked around for a painter, A Huang was receiving centralized training in an offline original painting training course. Ah Huang said that when he was painting, he had no time to look at his cell phone and chat. On the night of December 8 last year, he suddenly found that their game development group had been disbanded and Xiao Li had deleted his friends. Thinking that he had been "unloaded and killed the donkey", he was so angry that he vowed to ask Xiao Li for an explanation, and then the scene of "asking for 12,000" happened.

Ah Huang said that he did not intend to ask for so much money, and the biggest problem between them was not the remuneration, and what really annoyed him was Xiao Li's attitude. What do you mean by disbanding the studio and blocking yourself? Do you think all your previous efforts have been wasted? Xiao Li explained that he had explained the reason in a group chat in the studio: he was dissatisfied with the few people who were not involved in the project and decided to work on his own. He handed out a red packet in the group and disbanded the group at 9 o'clock. Ah Huang could not accept this explanation: "when I was studying painting, I didn't see the news at all. I didn't open the QQ group at all."

"the salary is easy to say. If you say clearly that I am incompetent, I can also give in and withdraw from the project. Now I am deleted without saying a word, and my manuscript is still used in the game. When it's over, go out and hang me after the fight."

Without even thinking about it, A Huang decided to withdraw the right to use the painting and refused to work for the other side for free, while Xiao Li could not accept the result anyway: "ripping up this person is tantamount to invalidating my script, code, sound effects and illustrations for half a year, do you know? you want tens of thousands, you say."

Ah Huang said: "Commercial 12,000."

Xiao Li handed out 400 yuan in exclusive red envelopes in the group, writing a long sentence accusing Ah Huang of being casual, irresponsible, and that he met someone unkindly, saying that "this is even." Ah Huang thought 400 yuan was too low, but he didn't ask any further questions. He thought that 400 would put an end to this "evil fate".

After handing out exclusive red envelopes, Xiao Li no longer paid attention to Ah Huang's request. He did not expect that the matter would be written by the other party and posted on the public platform. "I shouldn't have worked with him at that time. I didn't even have to be hung up. I didn't know it happened when I was poked in the spine."

They quarreled again in another group of novels, arguing about who was right and who was wrong, but in the end there was no final conclusion.

Contradictions and contradictions arose two days before the "12,000 incident".

When Ah Huang was still in the training class that day, Xiao Li sent him a message asking him to help him see the illustrations of the New Testament and give him some advice. Mr. A said he was so tired of practice that he failed to reply to the message in time and asked if he could read it on Sunday. "he had to let me see it that day, and then he said I didn't care about the project and didn't help, he was the only one trying to make it better." Ah Huang could not see the news that day, but he saw it the next day and quarreled with Xiao Li.

"it's not a partnership at all, just like an employee and a boss."

In A Huang's eyes, Xiao Li didn't care about the opinions of him and others when playing games. At first, they would put forward suggestions in the group, but after being repeatedly ignored by Xiao Li, they stopped talking. The same is true of the contradictions in the illustrations. When drawing the first illustration, A Huang handed in several versions of the sketches, but Xiao Li was not satisfied, and the progress of the illustrations was shelved.

Ah Huang promised that when he finished his training, the level of painting would increase, and the rest of the illustrations would be completed next year. But Xiao Li felt that it was impossible to shelve the development progress because of this matter, so he decided to make an offer out of his own pocket, and Ah Huang had no problem with it.

Xiao Li had a great opinion about Akuo's first illustration. Xiao Li said that he wrote clearly the composition in the requirements document, and also given the horizontal resolution requirements. Ah Huang dawdled for a month but sent a vertical composition, and the heroine occupied almost the whole picture, which meant that it was difficult for him to show the illustration completely in the game, and it was difficult to continue to cut. Xiao Li said, "I can only calm down and pretend it's not a big problem, but he says he wants to go to training, stop painting and leave this mess to me."

After several failures in soliciting draft illustrations, Xiao Li finally found a former colleague who was "fairly reliable", and all three illustrations were handed over to former colleagues. During this period of time, whenever the illustrations made progress, Xiao Li would still ask A Huang to have a look and give him some advice. Ah Huang complained about this: "every time he comes to me, I will respond seriously and ask where there is a problem. Sometimes I think the painting is good and there is no problem, but I think all the illustrations with no problem have been rejected by him."

In the end, Ah Huang was unwilling to express his opinion. "I think it's useless for me to say anything. I just leave it to him. He's not satisfied and wants us to give our opinions. Too formal."

As for why Xiao Li kept asking for his opinion, A Huang said that he didn't understand either.

Xiao Li thought that he had no reservations about Ah Huang. Before the game was made, he shared all the pre-written scripts with A Huang. Seeing the good response, he decided to start the project. When he first took the "work other than art", he did not expect that it would be so hard to learn game production from scratch.

Among all kinds of word game engines, Xiao Li chose Renpy. This engine is easy to use, and the most important thing is that it can meet the performance effect he wants, but most of the users of the engine are English users, and there are not many Chinese tutorials he can find, so he can only learn foreign language documents. When you meet Bug, who crashes the game, you can only use the stupidest way to do it: copy the wrong code into another new project file one by one, and see which one goes wrong.

Of course, he is also in charge of UI and music. It is true that there are a lot of free music materials available on the Internet, but they may not be able to meet the needs of the plot, so they can only arrange their own music. Xiao Li studied guitar for some time and knew a little about syllables and chords, but he was basically an outsider in music theory. After listening to the same melody, it is easy for his ears to become unable to distinguish between good and bad tunes.

Of course, what pains him most is art. The first request for manuscript on Wechat was not smooth, the other party seldom communicated with him at the sketch stage, and the final delivery of the picture and demand were very different. In the end, the manuscript was not used, and he only paid a deposit of 200. The second time I found another painter. It was originally agreed that the total price of the two pictures was 800, but the pictures still did not meet the demand. Finally, I found a former colleague and met a painter who was willing to communicate repeatedly in the sketch stage and seriously complete the composition requirements. The game was originally scheduled to launch in December, but the sudden contradiction and epidemic disrupted Xiao Li's plan, and he and his former colleagues were positive one after another. "I can't get out of bed, I can't turn on the computer, and I have to check the progress of art."

Even though he suffered setbacks, Xiao Li still thought that he had made the right decision to leave the mobile game company. He prefers to write a complete story on his own rather than create a likable character. When he first left the company, what he wanted to do was a longer apocalyptic fantasy girl word game. The script had been written, but there were too many characters, machine armor designs and too much work, so he decided to start with a simple short story, that is, this "wrong thing."

Akuo and Xiao Li have different ideas.

"he may not care about the rest of his life. I just graduated. I care about my future." Ah Huang said.

In July 2022, when the production of "the wrong thing" began, A Huang had just graduated from animation design. He wants to work as an art in a game company, but he feels that his level and accumulation are far from qualified. He asked me, "which company would want me at my level?" The project experience of the two internships had nothing to do with the game company, and the content taught by the teachers in the school could not keep up with the demand for employment. Ah Kang, who was unemployed at home, decided to spend money to sign up for another training course to improve his level.

Ah Huang applied for offline physical classes, which cost a total of NT $30,000 to NT $40,000 for tuition, room and board. The daily arrangement is to draw their own pictures during the day, revise them for the teacher when they are finished, and then refine them deeply. In the training class, there are few teachers and many students. It is common to go home at one or two o'clock every day when the drawn pictures are handed over to the teacher for correction.

In the training course, A Huang stayed from August to January. He also spent the time when the epidemic broke out in the dormitory of the training class. "it was so hard when I was so positive that I almost died there." But after only four days off, he continued to go back to painting, and the teacher was almost all hit, so he had no choice but to change the picture by himself. "I'm burning money every day."

After the training course, A Huang still didn't get the Offer of the game company. Some of his friends in the same period had found jobs, but he didn't ask what he was looking for. When I asked if the training course would offer intruding qualifications, he still didn't look very confident: "it also depends on how well the painting is."

"I can't help it," he told me. "the art industry is too much, too much."

It has been a month since the launch of "wrong things", with mixed reviews on Steam and 58 per cent of the 17 reviews.

Players' complaints about the game mainly focus on the design of the archive that will be deleted if the game takes the wrong route, as well as the overly personal narrative style. Xiao Li told me that the deletion of the archive was a last resort in order to achieve a hidden ending. Due to the limited technology, he can only let the player do it all over again in this way, reaching the trigger condition of the hidden ending. He also realized that he had done something wrong and added the ability to skip the plot for the game a few days after its release.

The income from the game is just enough to cover the contribution fees made by former colleagues, plus the 400 yuan given to Ah Huang, but if you include the deposit of several failed requests, it has exceeded the budget. As for the time and energy invested, the conflicts caused by the games, the tribulations they suffered, and their seven or eight years of friendship are difficult to measure in terms of money.

Xiao Li told me that he also longed for the peer community culture in Japan. A group of like-minded people get together and carry out creative activities for the sake of self-expression, which is an ideal mode of co-creation. However, when this creative model is gradually commercialized, friendship and commitment can not replace the contract, developers have to face the risk of time limit and quality. For Xiao Li, his trust finally turned into a muddle account of 12,000 yuan, an experience he didn't want to mention again.

Cause when I asked why I decided to play games together, both of them answered vaguely.

Xiao Li said that they had known each other for several years and decided to develop together after seeing each other's will, but he "far underestimated the workload and each other's frivolous attitude."

Ah Huang's story is different. He said that it was because reading Gao at 03:00 and Xiao Li had an appointment to play games. To develop together is not to practice or enrich the portfolio, but to fulfill the original promise. As for why he agreed to this in the first place, he said, maybe it was because he had a good time, but he had forgotten the specific reason.

After another quarrel in the group, the two lost touch again.

Xiao Li also plans to continue to play word games, but he doesn't want to be a partner in the next one. Art is still a problem, and he intends to compromise and try AI. At the end of the article, he said: "the next one may be more crude than this one."... anyway, I'm going to make the next one, and I want to make a more interesting game by making good use of this experience and this loss. "

Ah Huang does not have a very clear plan for his future. At present, he has not submitted his resume, nor is he in a hurry. He is drawing a private order from a client. I asked him about his future career plans, and it took him a while to reply.

"No." He said, "I just want to draw."

(at the request of the interviewees, A Huang and Xiao Li are aliases. )

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