Per reporter: Dong Xingsheng Per editor: Song Hong
The last time I met Tian Haibo was in May 2019, when he was struggling with his company Dongji Six Senses and the game products he had invested three years in research and development.
At that time, Tian Haibo's game "The Fifth Invention", developed by Tian Haibo on the theme of Chinese woodworking "mortise and mortise", was waiting for the approval of the game version number. At that time, Tian Haibo faced a loss of nearly 200,000 yuan every month, and invested 2 million yuan before and after.
The second time I saw Tian Haibo was at the end of November 2021. At this time, he has lost his previous anxiety, he moved the company into a larger office space, and the number of teams has expanded from 7 to 23, more than three times.
Tian Haibo
Every reporter learned that in March 2020, "The Fifth Invention" was renamed "Craftsman Wood", successfully obtained the game version number, and was launched in the domestic game market. Not long ago, "Craftsman Wood" was simultaneously launched in 175 overseas countries. Not only that, Dongji Six Senses also received investment from the two giants of Tencent and Station B in early 2021.
This also makes Tian Haibo more determined to promote traditional Chinese culture through games. At present, the company is making every effort to create a new product - "Twenty-four Solar Terms".
Insist on polishing a product for 5 years
In 2018, Xinjiang ren tian haibo came to Chengdu alone to create the Six Senses of the East Pole. At that time, he came with a game product that he had been thinking about for more than two years.
As early as 2016, when the "Forbidden City X Tencent" Game Entrepreneurship Competition was recruiting entrepreneurial projects, Tian Bohai decided to use the connecting component of the Chinese wooden frame structure - "Mortise And Tenon" as the theme to show the exquisite architectural pieces in the Forbidden City, so that people can see the other side of the Forbidden City. In the end, the project won the gold medal of the competition.
Coming to Chengdu, Tian Haibo is interested in Chengdu's good game industry environment and rich game talents. But what Tian Haibo did not expect was that the game version number control that began in 2018 put him and the company into a long wait and dilemma.
But Tian Haibo stubbornly believes that his game products will definitely get the version number. Sure enough, after the submission, it took less than 3 months before and after, and "Craftsman Wood" successfully got the version number. A few months later, in June 2020, "Craftsman Wood" was launched in China.
A year and a half later, "Craftsman Wood" has 6 million registered users in China, with more than 100,000 new users every month. On November 20 this year, "Craftsman Wood" was launched in 175 overseas countries.
"Our numbers aren't great compared to successful business games, but I think we've achieved our goal." Tian Haibo said.
From the beginning, Tian Haibo knew that making cultural games, "it is difficult to make money with it." "So we made the product relatively mild, mainly because we wanted to expose everyone to some cultural games."
After the game was launched, several colleges and universities approached Tian Haibo and asked him to help develop special engineering drawing teaching products. But unfortunately, the other party could not provide enough fees and had to give up. However, the school eventually used "Craftsman Wood" as a demonstration tool for classroom teaching. "Our company is relatively small, if the company is bigger, it will lose money." Tian Haibo said somewhat helplessly.
Last year, another player who had just finished the college entrance examination left a message saying that it was because of playing "Craftsman Wood" that he chose to major in ancient building restoration in college. These feedbacks made Tian Haibo feel that his persistence for more than 5 years and the investment of nearly 2 million yuan were worth it.
Although the company is not profitable for the time being, at least there is hope for a return to the capital. "We came out of the red sea of the game from a small team of several people, at least one hole." Tian Bohai laughed.
Culture is the bottom line First choose the culture and then determine the gameplay
Now, Tian Haibo prefers to see The Six Senses of the East Pole as a cultural communication company. He felt that games were the most convenient tool for spreading culture.
The launch of "Craftsman Wood" also made Tian Haibo firm in his determination to make cultural game products. At present, the team is working hard to create the second cultural game - "Twenty-four Solar Terms", and half a year after the project was established, the technical design has been completed.
The reason why he chose the twenty-four solar terms is because Tian Haibo feels that the twenty-four solar terms are also the excellent traditional Chinese culture worth inheriting. "The twenty-four solar terms have a very profound impact on the food, clothing, shelter and transportation of Chinese, and many folk customs are also related to the twenty-four solar terms."
When it comes to the game's gameplay design, Tian Haibo said that his understanding of games and culture is very different from other game manufacturers. In his view, many of the current game products in the name of culture have only turned culture into a game package. "Obviously, the content of the game is still fighting and killing, and the role of culture in it is like putting a wet towel with a Shu embroidery pattern next to it when eating, and everyone is still concerned about this table dish."
"For example, a game maker and a museum cooperated to launch a game, and finally found that the artifacts were just scraps in the game." Tian Haibo said that this kind of commercial game disguised as a culture will be misleading to gamers, especially young players.
"Asking today's children about ancient characters, the first thing they think of may be the characters in the game, which has a negative effect on cultural inheritance." Tian Haibo said. From the beginning of the game project, Dongji Six Senses is different from other manufacturers. "We start from the theme of the project, first choose a cultural theme worth inheriting, and then study the characteristics of this theme, its application in life, and its impact on everyone, and finally design the gameplay according to the theme."
In this way, cultural elements are avoided from becoming the "scraps" of the game. Taking the twenty-four solar terms theme currently under development, after a lot of reading, searching and collision, "seven or eight times before and after overturning", the team found that all the twenty-four solar terms related props are related to folk activities.
Therefore, Tian Haibo hopes that players can discover phenology and feel the changes of the four seasons during the game; while experiencing folk activities, players can get together and have a deeper understanding and understanding of traditional culture.
From the culture itself to design the game play, the traditional culture is passed on, this is the original intention of Tian Haibo's entrepreneurship.
There is hope in life
When Tian Bohai was 30 years old, he earned 10 million in cash, but soon lost everything.
For a long time after that, Tian Bohai was in a depressed state. Every day, he thinks about why people live and questions the value of his existence.
In the end, it is traditional culture that allows Tian Haibo to gain inner peace and find the direction of life.
In fact, as early as when he was studying abroad, Tian Haibo firmly believed in spreading Chinese culture.
"At the beginning, we felt that the most important thing about culture is inheritance, but in addition to inheritance, culture also has a very large social value." Tian Haibo said that there are still huge cultural barriers between different countries.
Better results can be achieved by disseminating culture through games, especially to young people and in the process of disseminating it to the outside world. "It's hard to make a movie that goes global, but making a game that can spread around the world in minutes. And domestic and foreign players will not think that this is a cultural product, but in the process of playing, it will subtly affect them. ”
But when the core of the game becomes culture, choosing such a niche track is bound to be an easy road.
When it comes to plans for the future, Tian Bohai believes that everything will get better and better. "Sometimes I feel too hard, but sometimes I feel very happy. Looking back, at the beginning there were only seven or eight of us, crammed into a small house, didn't we also survive? ”
Tian Haibo and the company's employees
Tian Haibo also felt a sense of accomplishment from the people around him. When it comes to making games, some people will feel that they are "mistaken for others". But some employee parents understand what their children are doing and "care about how we are doing."
The respect gained from the people around him made the whole team's belief stronger, and also gave Tian Bohai more motivation to insist on doing this meaningful thing.
The survival of the fittest in the gaming market is taking place every minute and every second. Regarding the survival of the company, when he was a person in the past, Tian Bohai could still take the ideal as bread, but with the increase of the company's personnel, the responsibility on his shoulders became heavier and heavier.
In the face of huge pressure, Tian Bohai has a good mentality. "Some of the game companies that were founded at the same time are now dead." Tian Haibo feels that he has not only persisted until now, but also continues to develop new cultural games, "still alive, I feel very lucky."
In the next step, Tian Haibo aimed at a series of cultural themes such as abacus, Chinese characters, and Sichuan opera. He feels that Chinese culture is broad and profound, and he will also have an inexhaustible source of subject matter.
Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee
Daily economic news