The white hair is three thousand feet, and the fate seems to be long.
In the domestic stand-alone games released in the past two years, "Public Enemy of the Whole Network" is a bit like a "pearl in the sea".
It has more than 7600 reviews on Steam, with a praise rate of 94% - just one step away from "praise", many players commented that "The Enemy of the Whole Network" was made with heart and novel ideas, which is a masterpiece of independent games. It is reasonable to say that "The Enemy of the Whole Network" should have a certain voice in China, but I have asked many stand-alone players around me, and most of them do not even know that it comes from the hands of the Chinese team.
Also less well known is the poignant process behind "Enemy of the Whole Network": the studio founder and game producer BY set up a team for the ideal house sale, the game burned out before the money came out, UNDER heavy pressure, BY was worried about a night of whiteheads, and then relied on selling the EA version to return to the blood a little... As an indie game, Enemies of the Whole Web collects almost all the "depressing" tags you can imagine. But BY believes that compared to those domestic indie games that did not make a splash after they came out, perhaps "Enemy of the Whole Network" is much luckier.
A team created to fight for domestic games
In his early years, he joined the army and did financial work, and BY said that he had not received a very good education or systematically learned game development knowledge. Entering the game industry more than a decade ago, BY first came into contact with commercial games at a JAVA mobile game company in Qingdao, and then engaged in the custom development of game products such as H5 and App. From an industry white, to a tester, planner, project manager, producer, the biggest belief that has supported him along the way is the sheer love of games.
Like all the post-80s hardcore old players, from the earliest home host Atari, Yusan host, to the domestic cottage machine, each generation of host BY almost never fell, through the electronic screen he saw an incomparably wonderful world. BY also wanted to create great games with his own hands, but reality gave him a slap in the face.
Once, he happened to see an article recommending excellent domestic independent games, and then forwarded it to several game groups. However, when the players in the group saw the label of "domestic games", they did not even open the article and unjustifiably rebuked: "Domestic games are garbage" and "It is better to buy AAA masterpieces with this money.". In the face of all kinds of cynicism, BY only had a full sense of powerlessness after a series of arguments. He knows that he can't be harsh on his friends - there are indeed a large number of low-quality works in the early stage of the development of domestic games, which inevitably makes players stereotype, thus putting a "garbage" hat on domestic games.
"Enemy of the Whole Network" self-deprecating "garbage game"
That experience deeply touched BY, and after thinking about it, out of his love for the game, he wanted to take off the hat with his own practical actions.
In 2019, BY pulled up a few like-minded old colleagues to set up an independent game team in Qingdao, and the name of the studio is also quite meaningful: ALUBA (interested friends can check the meaning of the word). None of the 8 members of the start-up have any experience in indie game development, and the reason why they are so ironclad is "actually to compete for a breath". To this end, BY did not hesitate to sell a house worth 1.1 million, in his view, if a person really wants to do a thing, he must make certain sacrifices and force himself.
Indie games in bystander's understanding go something like this: Creators can communicate a value through game content that, in turn, influences players. Just as "Enemies of the Whole Network" uses virtual stories to expose the real problems of society, causing players to be vigilant. "An indie game must have real connotation and depth in order to be a truly successful indie game."
But by than it happened, in order to achieve this seemingly simple goal, in order to make a work that satisfies both the team and the players, he will have to pay a much heavier price than a house.
Days of exhaustion to keep the team alive
At the beginning of the establishment of the team, BY did not consider many problems, he believed that as long as it can ensure that everyone's basic food and clothing, the 1.1 million start-up capital should not be a problem. But after really starting the company's operation, BY found that from the rent and water and electricity to the company's qualifications and game research and development, each of which was a lot of overhead. Even more difficult, making indie games comes with a huge risk of trial and error.
The road is paved by the predecessors, and the posterity walks, and someone must always stand up and play the role of the predecessors. The production cost of independent games is difficult to calculate like a commercial game in a set of frameworks and research, not to mention that "Public Enemy of the Whole Network" also uses a rare theme and gameplay on the market, and few similar games can be used to learn from it, and can only rely on the team itself to grope a little bit, overturn and redo again and again, so more expenditure is spent on labor costs. From the establishment of the project to the determination of the project direction, the team spent nearly 800,000 yuan in 8 months of trial and error alone.
What is even more fatal is that when the game is hard to polish out of the prototype, and coincides with the full outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, business trips, searching for distribution and business negotiations cannot be carried out as scheduled, and the entire studio has fallen into an unprecedented passive situation.
In order to save costs, the songs in the game are also composed and sung by the head of the screenwriting, Kaoru Kaoru
At the beginning of 2021, ALUBA Studio's funds were basically exhausted, not only did the promise made when selling the house that "I would make money back in two years" become a piece of paper, but the team was still in a state of serious loss. In the toughest days, ALUBA Studio is facing closures every day, and the projects that have been done for nearly two years may die at any time.
Anxiety, confusion, helplessness, self-doubt, all kinds of negative emotions like mountains, once full of black hair BY rushed to the night whitehead.
Recalling this unforgettable past today, BY still sighs: "People who make indie games tend to invest a lot of emotions, and even abandon their families. But you have obviously devoted yourself to this matter with all your heart, and when you are about to make it, you suddenly have no hope. There was a lot of stress at a time, and it felt very desperate."
The only good thing is that the EA version of the game works quite well. BY recalled that at the 2020 F5 domestic game conference, "Public Enemy of the Whole Network" received a lot of exposure and accumulated a large number of wish lists, which also laid the foundation for the future release of the EA version. In fact, for the plot-oriented indie game, releasing the EA version is not a wise move, but in the case of studio funds almost bottoming out, BY has no choice. In August 2020, the EA version of "Public Enemy of the Whole Network" was officially released, and "every major update and release of DLC can drive the sales of the body". Since then, ALUBA studio funds have slowly returned, and the team has gradually ushered in a turnaround. At present, ALUBA Studio has just returned to the capital. At the end of last year, BY rarely sighed in the circle of friends, and a thousand words converged into a bitter and very very word: indie games are really difficult to make money.
Those who have been "beaten" have summed up their experience
Knowing that it is not easy to operate an independent game team, establishing the differentiated advantages of the team and products has become the best solution for ALUBA Studio to survive and seek market breakthrough. In the eight months of trial and error in the early days of the development of "Enemy of the Whole Network", ALUBA Studio gradually explored a unique basic framework - "hourglass model", relying on this model, their game can reasonably mobilize player emotions. Take "Enemy of the Whole Network" for example, the game structure is divided into a fog layer, a truth layer, a clue layer, a reasoning layer and a result layer, and players need to find clues and piece together the truth of the event little by little. ALUBA Studios has carried out scientific and rigorous planning of the game structure, according to the "hourglass model", to ensure that each chapter can make the player have a strong sense of substitution and immersion.
What's more, the "hourglass model" can also be reused for other projects in the studio, and with the help of this model, the game's development speed has been greatly improved. According to BY, in the past, a chapter of "Public Enemy of the Whole Network" generally needed to be developed for four months, but after the "hourglass model" matured, the development cycle of a single chapter has been compressed to about two months. On the other hand, since the studio is located in Qingdao, BY is well aware that it is difficult for the team to compete with games produced from first-tier cities in terms of technology and art. Therefore, ALUBA Studios has set up a separate drama department dedicated to the project. All projects developed by the studio are created by the screenwriter in the first wave, and when the story is completed, the planner takes over the design of the relevant gameplay around it, and finally hands over to the art and program to realize. Story-driven games will be the focus of ALBA Studios' development, and in addition to being good at realistic themes, they also hope to try magic, fantasy and even horror genres in the future.
Most players gave a high evaluation of the plot of "Enemies of the Whole Network"
In the process of venturing into the Steam market alone, ALUBA Studios also has a clearer understanding of distribution. "Public Enemy of the Whole Network" was ambitious at the beginning of the project, based on comprehensive factors such as globalization and risk aversion, the game's world view details and art style are relatively Partial to European and American styles. If by-10 is conceived, the game's overseas sales should account for more than 50% of the total sales. However, the overseas results of "Enemies of the Whole Network" are not ideal, "probably only accounting for 20% to 30% of the total sales - this result is actually not proportional to the game's overseas reputation." BY recalled that in February last year, "Enemy of the Whole Network" was recommended by the official editor of Steam, and the proportion of overseas sales once reached about 70%, and many overseas players also reflected that the innovation, brain hole and overall quality of the game were very good. However, the team has zero experience in publicity, has not done any publicity overseas, and even if it wants to participate in overseas game competitions, it cannot find a way to register, resulting in sales not opening.
Overseas Player Reviews
So BY realized: "The success or failure of a game is likely not entirely dependent on the quality of the content of the work, and publicity and distribution also require more experienced planning to maximize sales results." No matter how confident an indie game team is, it is very important to find a strong and reliable release. At present, ALUBA Studio is basically on the right track, and the gradual stabilization of funds and the increasingly mature team have also made BY start thinking about the next step of the team. According to BY, they plan to launch a spin-off based on the world view of "Enemies of the Whole Network" this year; in addition, the studio is also creating an action game with a thrilling suspense theme.
"All Network Public Enemy" upcoming DLC "Hello World" Steam domestic game annual hot top 15 "Sadness" Although ALBA Studio has successfully survived, "Public Enemy of the Whole Network" has also won the affirmation of the market and players, BUT always feels inexplicable sadness. BY silently calculated an account in his heart: "The Enemy of the Whole Network" has entered the hot list and ranked in the top 15 of the Steam domestic game sales list in 2020 (the EA version was released in August of that year); if you count the DLC "Sweet Home" released last year, the sales have exceeded 200,000 copies. But even so, ALUBA Studio is only able to maintain the state of returning to the cost, and it is difficult to make money. It is conceivable that the hundreds of domestic indie games that land on Steam every year and the team behind them are in a worrying situation.
"Enemy of the Whole Network" on the hot list Fortunately, with the emergence of more and more excellent works, more and more players are now paying attention to domestic independent games. At the same time, there are also many powerful large-scale issuances that have entered the market one after another, bringing funds to the market. After a difficult entrepreneurial journey, BY does not want other independent game developers to be as miserable and tired as they are, "like walking on the tip of the knife at every step, as long as one link is not done well, it is likely that the whole team will not exist." But on the one hand, BY is worried about whether the motivation of independent game developers will also be reduced once they solve the problem of funding early, "we are doing our best to build a game without any way back - because the only way to survive is to make the game good; and if the developers are not under pressure, they may not have this determination." ”
The studio is still working overtime at Christmas...
No matter how tangled, BY still longs for more developers to work in the indie game industry. In his opinion, making indie games does not have to be like him, selling the house and carrying the big burden of "taking off the garbage game hat". If you can solve your own livelihood problems and see development as an interest in life, rather than just with the purpose of making money, then you may wish to give it a try. After surviving the sale of houses to form a team, the company is facing a breakup at any time, doing games to achieve gray hair days, BY feels that he is quite stupid, "if it is not so simple and so stupid, I will not choose to do independent games." But he always believes that through his own efforts and the efforts of all independent gamers in China, the image of domestic games in the minds of players can one day be improved. More than two years of hard days are finally over, and the time left for BY and ALUBA studios is still very long.