Mask Cat is a kong ethyl who does indie games

"This is a studio on the verge of closure, the ideal is not to starve to death when making games, the ultimate ideal is to be able to make a 3A + open + sandbox + fairy super bull × game, and then let the sales hang in the top ten of the world game list."

This is the system bulletin that pops up in the game Intrusion: Source Code. The author of the game is Uncle Cat.

Uncle Cat's announcement in Intrusion: Source Code

Uncle Cat's job is to make indie games. He has a studio called "Mask Cat Personal Studio", and now the only member is himself. The studio tried to recruit people, but counting himself, there were only 3 people at most. They lasted for 3 months and "didn't do anything". Later, Uncle Cat found that this road was not feasible and disbanded the team.

Uncle Cat making games belongs to the halfway home. He has no experience in big factories, studied psychology as an undergraduate, graduated for more than ten years, and has not touched code before making games. His masterpiece is Codename: Intrusive, a cyberpunk-style mobile game with a 3-month development period and a 200,000-person reservation on the TapTap platform. The operating model is to provide free downloads and monetize ads.

TapTap homepage of Codename: Intrusion

Uncle Cat feels that "Codename: Invasion" is just a "semi-finished product", but unfortunately, he has no other works that he can do more, "open world, fairy, sandbox, 3A" is the game he desires. However, due to various limitations, he had to be busy developing semi-commercial and semi-independent mini-games, reducing the construction period and reusing materials, and the quality was not satisfactory. Someone saw that he was slipping a little bit and questioned him: "Can you play the game you make from the beginning to the end?" Uncle Cat responded: "There is no certain psychological endurance, I think it is not suitable for doing independent games, only suitable for pure technology, as a screw in the company." ”

Landslides come not only from quality, but also from the taste of the game. In order to make the game out of the circle, Uncle Cat is willing to use some less serious marketing methods, which he himself considers to be "some shameful little tricks", such as adding beautiful girls in revealing clothes to the game, using only tentacles to cover private parts.

Uncle Cat is always compromising, but he thinks he is on the right path - "Codename: Intrusion" has made money, and 200,000 users have converted into tens of thousands of yuan in revenue. He recorded his experience of making games into a video with hundreds of thousands of more clicks. However, Uncle Cat believes that what is more valuable than traffic is "meeting friends". He has built a number of QQ groups, at present, there are more than 450 people in the "Independent Game DreamWorks (developers to)" group chat, the discussion topic focuses on game production technology learning and market exchanges in the game industry, but more often, everyone just makes small talk, for example, ridiculing game losses, today there is no money to eat.

"I'm the kind of person who keeps iterating on, like I did Codename: Intrusion, I met some friends, and then I continued to ask friends for help, and then I had Intrusion: Source Code. By the time Intrusive: Source Code comes out of Steam, I can meet more friends and continue to iterate on a 'intrusive' series that I really feel will meet my psychological expectations. ”

Intrusion: Source Code is a sequel to Codename: Intruder and is the game Uncle Cat is currently working on. In fact, the two games are not much different, it is beautiful girls shuttle between neon lights and reinforced concrete, using katana to knock down enemies - even beautiful girls use the same standing painting, all in all, there is not much new content. Further ahead, Codename: Intruder also follows the art and programming of multiple games created by Uncle Cat before, and the entire development process is only one month.

Intrusion: Source Code is like a more complete Codename: Intrusion

Works developed in a short period of time are usually immature, and borrowing material from the past is not a good solution, but Uncle Cat regards it as the norm - he patches up the things from the previous game a little and puts them into the next game. In his opinion, he can't do art, the funds are limited, and he tries to use what he can use. He likens this process to the accumulation of resources, "starting with a small project, doing a medium-sized project step by step, and then making a large project." "Cut costs and publish games." He is satisfied with this: "Yes, that's probably how I transformed, and now I'm getting more and more down-to-earth. ”

It's a story I don't know how to describe, or I'm not sure what kind of text to use to record Uncle Cat. Character reports require objectivity and fairness, but in a secret place, the writer's feelings for the interviewee are always reflected. When I wrote this text, I repeatedly asked myself, how should I evaluate Uncle Cat? Should I see him as a shouter, a speculator, or just an ordinary person who struggles with life and compromises?

Go downhill, go uphill

For Uncle Cat, making indie games is a slow downhill.

The income from making games couldn't support his life, so he turned to video. Why not? The video has both traffic and certain revenue, and can also get attention, killing three birds with one stone. The problem is that Uncle Cat always makes a safe choice.

On March 8, Uncle Cat released a video "As a solo game developer, I still hope that the game version number will be suspended for 500 years!" 》。 In the video, he said that the game version number has been suspended for more than half a year, which at first glance is a disaster, and when you think about it, it is actually a happy event. He inserted a picture of a yin and yang fish, next to which it was written: "Blessings and misfortunes lie down, and misfortunes and blessings depend on them." He compares "solo travel" (indie games) to "guerrillas" and cannot compete with the "regular army", that is, the assembly line game of the big factory. The "capital of all evils" is just restricted during the period when the version number is suspended, and the game can no longer be "used as a cash machine to quickly earn money", "the version number is dead, and the solo tour is standing". A few days later, the video content was sorted out and posted on Zhihu by netizens, scolding and agreeing, and there were nearly 300 discussions.

The first time I knew Uncle Cat was because of another video, "After the studio was on the verge of bankruptcy, my indie game (with the 10,000 bonus given by Station B) was about to hit the shelves!" 》。 As you can imagine, the theme of the video is "selling miserably", mainly about the difficulties he suffered while making games. The video has almost no editing, just a quick flash of PPT. Even so, the size of the slide and the size of the picture do not match at all, the voice is a middle-aged male voice synthesized by AI, the machinery is cold, and the subtitles automatically displayed below also identify "solo tour" as "poisonous game", no matter how you look at it, it is very simple.

Uncle Cat's B station homepage

Uncle Cat's positioning of his social skills is "more social fear", and because of this, he uses voice software to generate narration and replaces his voice. At the end of the video, he put on the full trailer of the new work "Intrusion: Source Code", hoping that the audience would support it. In the video, the rhythmic electronic music is identified as subtitles of unknown significance, constantly bouncing under the screen.

Intruder: Source Code is a cyberpunk-style action game. The base of the game is "Codename: Intruder", which is not thick, but the picture is more characteristic, it is the "HD-2D" style, combining the characteristics of retro pixels and 3D, and the well-known games that use this technology are "Misguided Traveler". After watching a demo clip of the game, an audience member suggested in the comments section that Uncle Cat learn the art style of "The Wrong Way Traveler". Uncle Cat replied that he had taken inspiration from the game.

However, regardless of the graphics, Intruder: Source Code has nothing to talk about. Frankly speaking, the game's blow feel is bad, lack of hit and hit feedback; the setting of the character's level value has been criticized by the player, and in the comments section of the trailer, some people complain that the difficulty of obtaining resources required for later upgrades is "exponentially increased"; the game's system and UI are just a shelf, which is relatively rough; the skill effect is not finished - after the player casts the skill, because of the lack of articulation animation and special effects, the character seems to flash and pan on the screen.

Real-life footage of Intrusion: Source Code

Uncle Cat also inserted his views on the current state of the game industry in the video, mostly criticized and indignant. He denounced capital erosion, emotion, and words of incitement. He hates capital: "For example, the 'invasion' series I'm working on, maybe this subject is a little sensitive at home, it's a critique of capitalism... It is not called criticism, it is a kind of reflection, that is, how people should live. Uncle Cat said that "criticism of capitalism" was the starting point for his "invasion" series, but the specific content has not yet been made into the game. For him, how to sell the game is a more pressing issue than expression and criticism.

Uncle Cat is very concerned about the problem of profit and game development. If you want to continue to play, not losing money is the first priority. "Profit = revenue - cost", he felt that his technical ability was limited: "Maybe I am procedurally qualified, but on other issues, I have many shortcomings." "The quality of the game can't go up, and the sales and pricing can't be too high, but he thought about it, if you do your best to control the cost, and then sell more prolificly, small profits and high sales, can you also make a profit?"

"The first few games, I wanted to make them bigger, and then I found that I didn't make them big. I extracted the material from game A, and the material for Codename: Intruder was game A. The "A game" in Uncle Cat's mouth is called "Codename: Only Man", and the code of "Codename: Invasion" is the code of "Codename: Only Man". Codename: Only Man is the work of Uncle Cat's studio before it was disbanded, and later launched a demo on TapTap, renamed "Only Man: Sliding Hero".

The game is played by sliding your finger and controlling the character to meet the enemies that appear at both ends of the screen, and the art style is also "HD-2D". There are not many chivalrous actions in the game, but each has its own purpose, tumbling, charging, ordinary attacks... One-finger or two-finger gestures are adapted accordingly. The game is small and incompletely made, but the gameplay is simple and fun, but because the studio members run their own things, they end up in the end.

Codename: The System is more concise, straightforward, and, in some ways, more mature than the smorgasbord of Intrusion: Source Code

Uncle Cat used the material from Codename: Invasion when making Codename: Invasion, and he called the leaky use of resources his only merit: "I always thought that living in this world actually has two lines, one line is 'what no one can't do', right? Technically live, others will not be you, so you have a great advantage in this area, this is a line. In this line, I personally feel that, at least in the game circle, I have no advantage. I know more about the technology than I do with people. ”

Uncle Cat's speech became faster, and his tongue was a little knotted: "So I am now taking the second way, that is, 'endure what it can't stand', I don't know... It's you guys, it's somebody else, he can't stand this suffering, but I can endure, for example, I can make this game basically zero cost, except for my program, no cost, and then I can keep doing it. ”

Uncle Cat has made a lot of games, except for the names I have already mentioned, there are actually some. Most of these works have a shorter production cycle, a little longer three or four months, a little shorter, like "Codename: Intrusion", changing the previous game to a set of art, and you can save one in a month. In addition to their own labor costs, there is really no cost. Such a game is not good, but it is a stage victory for Uncle Cat. He told me that if you think of doing the ideal game as a progress bar, it's 30 percent right now.

Obviously, in the eyes of many people in the outside world, every game of Uncle Cat is slowly going downhill, and the bottom line is lowering a little. Uncle Cat doesn't see it that way, he feels that this is all necessary accumulation, and in the accumulation he will slowly rise.

There is a popular saying in society that recognizing reality and abandoning the original insistence is called "flexible adaptation". I thought Uncle Cat would be happy to use similar excuses, but he was surprisingly honest about reusing material, cutting game content and duration, and rubbing the sidelines. "I don't know if it can be called growth, I feel more of a compromise. That kind of helpless compromise. "Uncle Cat knows very well that he is just making compromises. But he is not averse to compromise, according to his logic, compromise does not mean that his self-requirements will always slip, more appropriately it is "expedient" - this is the best choice that can be made after considering reality.

But you can think of a better option than to learn game-making techniques in a down-to-earth manner, such as getting a job with a game maker, or starting from the basics and gradually building tall buildings — or simply giving up and not having the ability to die. Instead, Uncle Cat set a goal — to play the game, then ignore the elephants in the room, and instead consider the trivial details of chai rice oil and salt, and stubbornly complete the dream of a "middle-aged" game. Even if it is sometimes foreseeable, the direction of progress is distorted, and the compromise forced by reality is still a compromise.

As of now, after the studio is on the verge of bankruptcy, my indie game (with the 10,000 bonus given by Station B) is about to hit the shelves! The video was played 415,000 times, with thousands of discussions in the comments section. Uncle Cat clearly expressed the difficulty and determination to make independent games in the video, "although thousands of people are looking forward to it." People are happy to see the story of Icarus — flying into the sky, being roasted, and then falling. The hottest comments focused on sympathy and encouragement for Uncle Cat, and the first thing pushed by the algorithm was: "If needed, I can provide dubbing and illustration for free." ”

"I think that in the more and more uphill road, slowly abandon their weaknesses, focus on what they are good at, is getting smoother and smoother." Uncle Cat said.

"An indie game is a dead end, and the video of station B is full of doors"

Uncle Cat spent a lot of energy on the operation of Station B. Last November, Uncle Cat released the video "After making a 20w download indie game, I'm about to go out of business!" It has about 300,000 plays. Uncle Cat has sent many similar videos.

As long as you search for the right keywords, there will be many similar independent game producers spitting bitter water on the B station, complaining about the darkest videos of the industry, and even some producers have been engaged in game development for several years, and they have not seen the finished product. Uncle Cat bluntly said that this is a "gimmick to package yourself".

"I was very disgusted at first, I was very disgusted with that at first, but now I'm slowly discovering that maybe making videos is the only way out for an indie game producer like me." The change in attitude is due to the consideration of reducing costs, that is, Uncle Cat has repeatedly mentioned that "bear with what it can't tolerate".

Generally speaking, after the game has completed its development work, developers will look for interested publishers to help promote the publicity work. Uncle Cat is skeptical, arguing that publishers are only seeking to maximize profits and "essentially turning the game into a product—a product of a capitalist society." In addition, they also have to take away a certain amount of profits, which also makes him feel the shackles of capital. "How to break the chains of being trapped by capital? I think the best way is to do your own self-media. I can not rely on them, which is also a kind of freedom in terms of mode. "Uncle Cat wants to use self-media to make a name for himself first, and then promote his own game, and everything will come naturally."

Uncle Cat's latest video

Uncle Cat hates capital. He told me that the content he most wanted to add to the game was "some concerns about future capitalization." In his vision, in the future, capital might form a monopoly, become a big corporation, and then rule the world—like the Arasaka Company described in Cyberpunk 2077.

"But whether it can be added may depend on the actual situation, such as some restrictions on funds, employees, and artistic concerns, which are relatively external... What is more intrinsic is whether this subject will have some sensitivity, and I also have concerns, so I may not dare to do it. ”

Kong Yiji's sky

Uncle Cat's favorite game is Samurai Zero, because of the unique narrative method, "the plot is very ×" - "Samurai Zero" is a game known for its action system and art style, and the fragmented narrative is very distinctive, but it only tells half of the complete story.

Uncle Cat also envisions Hideo Kojima, who catches an overlapping part of their career trajectory: "I have seen his experience and feel that this producer is very personal. He was also in the company at first, but then he went it alone. Seek more self-expression than being tied to some of the company's rules. ”

Uncle Cat's biggest desire is Hideo Kojima's creative environment: "If I have a certain amount of money one day, I may make a game like 'Death Stranding' that is 'difficult to understand'." Because when you have a certain reputation and a certain economic strength, in fact, you can completely ignore the feelings of players, because there is capital to pay for you. ”

In this case, capital has become a "good thing" again. What's so good about Death Stranding? Uncle Cat likes it, but it is also a fog to see flowers, he thought for a while, and finally decided to put the bad point down to "can't understand": "'Death Stranding' I have never understood, and I have not understood it until now." ”

Uncle Cat's original job was a Japanese translator, and after graduating from college, he went to Japan to study psychology. He summed up his later career as a "jump out of a strong sense of nothingness," and during college, he felt that students should think about "the stars above their heads and the moral law of their hearts," as well as "the meaning of life." But it was a dead end, and he drilled back and forth, not only without results, but instead fell deeper and deeper. He felt that he was the kind of person that the psychology teacher said, "Out of the hundreds of students who study psychology every year, there are always a few crazy students." He felt that the profession could not continue, and the only solution that came to mind was to "learn a technology", such as programming. Of course, games were Uncle Cat's hobby when he was a teenager, and he didn't think much about it, kneading the two into one thing— making games.

Uncle Cat said that when he studied in Japan, he "fell into a sense of nothingness." He was haunted by negative thoughts and always felt anxious. He claims to have found resonance in the writings of Lu Xun and Yu Dafu — probably because they both studied in Japan and then pondered serious questions. Lu Xun's time was the era of criticism, and words had greater power at that time. Uncle Cat wants to do something, but in fact has nowhere to vent. He wanted to express concerns about reality and to think about making money. He is 32 years old, married to his lover a few years ago, and his wife has a job in a public institution, the salary is not high, but it is better than stable. Uncle Cat's net income from games is not high, but in his view, he is full of potential, he described the family's work distribution as "I do high risk and high return, she does low risk and low return." My wife didn't approve of him developing the game, "now I'm very supportive, I still have some doubts about me last year", because "I do have a little bit of achievements now, and (my wife) is starting to feel a little relieved."

Uncle Cat's office environment, as well as his cat, Uncle Cat believes that naming a studio after a cat is very intimate and can bring the audience closer

Uncle Cat's favorite writer is Lu Xun, who especially finds Kong Yiji "more interesting" and somewhat similar to him. "I used to think of myself as an intellectual, but now I find that it's not, and typing code is actually a technical job, not an intellectual." Uncle Cat continued: "When I was in college, I learned a lot of things and read a lot of books, but I couldn't do anything when I came out, it was useless. I have no use, I can only translate for others, which is also dependent on a company to create value. ”

As things stand, Uncle Cat's game is neither about making a lot of money nor pure self-expression. His latest game is Codename: Diary of a Madman, inspired by Lu Xun's short stories. The game's art style is very similar to that of Word Games, manipulating a pixelated "I" word and interacting with other words around it. To put it decently, this is inspired by "Word Game", and Uncle Cat does not shy away from it, bluntly saying that this is the most cost-saving art he can think of, "the money-saving model is borrowed, but the gameplay is completely different". Some players said they didn't see the gameplay, adding that it was the "word puzzle" type. According to Uncle Cat's usual routine, the game follows the percussion effects and sounds of Codename: Intrusion and Intrusion: Source Code, and the pixel Chinese characters touch together, emitting a science fiction blu-ray that does not match, and the metal collision sound of iron.

Uncle Cat complained in the top comments that the subject matter is sensitive and difficult to pass. Some players suggested changing to Steam, and Uncle Cat posted a "laughing and crying" expression, saying that Codename: Diary of a Madman is a "free to" game, and landing on Steam also costs a $100 release fee, meaning it is not worth it.

Codename: Diary of a Madman follows the material from Uncle Cat's first two games

Uncle Cat is very impressed with "Kong Yiji", he can easily come up with the details in the novel, and then associate many descriptive details, for example, he feels that Kong Yiji is lonely, because "he is the only one who wears a long shirt and stands and drinks", Uncle Cat feels: "He thinks he is an intellectual, but he has no power and no money, so he is ostracized by others everywhere." ”

"His situation is actually very similar to the unemployed now, or college students who can't find a job outside... Also to the extent that I feel like I've read a few books, I should care about it every day, right? ”

"I should have had some ability, but I later found myself unable to do anything in this society. I tell others about Lu Xun, and in the eyes of others, there are 4 ways to write aniji. For most people, these are meaningless. ”

"Yes, I found that in a way, I became Kong Yiji." Uncle Cat said.

Find empathy

"Hello everyone, I'm a bald cat uncle who can't make a good game, and I hope to find resonance with indie games." At the beginning of the video that sparked heated discussion, Uncle Cat greeted the audience.

Uncle Cat didn't record a voice, and as usual, he wrote text and synthesized the audio from the voice AI, but the voice was replaced by a more beautiful male voice, younger, and sounded much closer than the original middle-aged male voice.

There is chaos below the video, some people scold Uncle Cat, saying that he is narrow-minded and poor in the game, and some people suggest improvements. Uncle Cat did not reply to the person who scolded him, but on the 3rd day after the release, he updated an apology, "due to the unnecessary misunderstanding caused by my copywriting ability problems, I would like to express my most sincere apologies", and also attached 3 "kneeling" expressions.

A few days ago, another audience member left a message to Uncle Cat:

I am also a small producer, the level is not high, the first time (it was seven or eight years ago) to make a free release of the game also experienced a long period of bad reviews, bad reviews, once made me into anxiety.

But I am insisting, polishing myself, constantly iterating myself, improving myself, gradually finding my own advantages, and gradually finding the right direction of my efforts. Everyone thinks that the impact of that kind of wind evaluation, we have long since given up...

After 4 years of polishing and ups and downs, I finally handed in an answer sheet that satisfied me, and also handed in an answer sheet that satisfied my dreams.

It's a comeback battle that I can't even dream of... Although it is still a very niche mini-game, the comparison of wind reviews before and after really makes me feel that "this is the dream come true".

Is Up afraid of failure? There is still more time, so let's work harder.

The audience's ID was "Survival Fantasy", and he produced "Oriental Curtain Festival: Spring Snow". It's a well-made, clean-cut shooter that belongs to the more niche fan-to-fan game, but garnered 97% overwhelming praise on Steam. The others recognized him and exclaimed below, "Big guy! In addition to the praise, there are also players who leave a message: "Come on! ”

Uncle Cat didn't reply to him.