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Four years after resigning from Mihayou, he made an indie game that crowdfunded nearly 400,000 and has received a version number

Foreword: This article is a series of articles of Game Daily [Game Maker 100 People], if you are interested in this column and are willing to share your game production process, please contact us.

Four years ago, a UP owner called "Kick Kick" posted a video on Station B titled This is his last day of work at Miha Tour. As of now, this video has been viewed more than 500,000 times, and there are still viewers who go to the video from time to time to "punch" to leave a message, which is not the first video of "kicking" when the UP master, but it is the beginning of another part of his life.

Four years after resigning from Mihayou, he made an indie game that crowdfunded nearly 400,000 and has received a version number

In April this year, the game version number was re-released after 8 months, and of the first 45 games that passed the review, there was a story-oriented horizontal action shooter called "Mirror of Shimmering Light", and the producer of this indie game was "Kick Kick".

After Mihayou's resignation, "Kick and Kick" recorded the process of independently producing games in the form of videos, from the release of the "open pit" video to the recent release of the version number to open crowdfunding, spanning 4 years to record 13 videos, and now the "Mirror of Light" game has been crowdfunded to nearly 400,000.

Four years after resigning from Mihayou, he made an indie game that crowdfunded nearly 400,000 and has received a version number

After watching the "Kick and Kick" game development diary and the Demo demo of the Mirror of Shimmer, I couldn't help but be very interested in him, what prompted him to choose to leave Miha Tour to do indie games? What are some of these stories that are not recorded in the video? With these doubts in mind, I found "kick kick" and talked to him in depth.

My dream in elementary school was to play games, and when I graduated, I started saving up to prepare

During the exchange, "Kick and Kick" told me that when he was in elementary school, in an English class, when the teacher asked his classmates what their dreams were when they grew up, he replied that he wanted to play a game and caused the audience to laugh, but at that time he knew very well in his heart that he was very serious.

With a childhood dream, before graduating from college, he "kicked" into Mihayou as an intern, and at the beginning of his employment at Mihayou, his position was Web development in the marketing department, and he also held the dual positions of Web event planning and development. According to him, at that time, most of the websites in the early stages of "Crash Academy 2" and "Crash 3" were basically developed by him, such as the official website and the web page activities of the operation. It is precisely because I am the only one who has a relatively large decision-making power, so I have developed a large number of Web games in the web activities of the operation direction.

Speaking of which, Kick and Kick also shared with me a video he once filmed, which is also the second issue of the development diary of the "Mirror of Shimmering Light" series. In the video, he introduced a piece of his experience of working in Mihayou, which revealed several web game works he produced, such as the "Crash 3" Christmas Town Welfare to Web activity produced at the end of 2016, etc. The familiar web game also made many players suddenly realize that the bullet screen such as "It was you" covered the screen.

Four years after resigning from Mihayou, he made an indie game that crowdfunded nearly 400,000 and has received a version number

Kick Kick reveals to players the web game Crash 3 that he once made

Later, "Kick Kick" transferred within Miha Tour, mainly responsible for the development of the "Crash 3" client, but also participated in the research and development of new projects. When talking about how the idea of quitting his job to make indie games was born, "Kick Kick" told me that in addition to the dream drive of playing games as a child, more importantly, the 4 years of work experience in Mihayou gave him a certain basic support (not only technical ability, but also 4 years of savings).

"My previous experience in the Marketing Department in charge of the Web gave me a certain understanding of the market and the player base, when I developed at least 2 or 30 mini-games, and I was directly exposed to the feedback of players. Coupled with the later development of new projects and the development experience in Crash 3, I felt that the basic skills were enough for me to develop indie games. Finally, the full support of my art partners gave me the courage to work with whom I have worked with trustworthy partners. ”

Four years after resigning from Mihayou, he made an indie game that crowdfunded nearly 400,000 and has received a version number

In the second issue of the development log of "Mirror of Shimmering Light", "Kick Kick" introduced two art partners

Driven by dreams, coupled with 4 years of game development experience and the full support of two part-time art partners (their team now has 3 people, Kick kick is full-time, and two part-time art partners, namely @CiCi and @Yoko moomin with deep dark circles), let "Kick Kick" make up his mind to leave from Mihayou and officially start his "dream journey".

Resigned and worked hard for more than 4 years, and he was flattered by the online crowdfunding of more than 300,000

The establishment of "Mirror of Shimmering Light" is also related to the hobby of "kicking" team 3 people, who themselves like horizontal games very much, and feel that horizontal games can show the texture of hand-drawn very well, plus the team 3 people are very deep ACG (animation, manga, games) users, from childhood by a lot of anime game works, want to tell a complete fantasy story in the game. "In terms of narrative performances, the horizontal version of the game has a stage play-like feeling, although compared to the 3D performance, there are fewer possible storyboard angles, but it is a very unique form of expression, we like it."

Four years after resigning from Mihayou, he made an indie game that crowdfunded nearly 400,000 and has received a version number

The presentation of The Mirror of Shimmering Light adopts a horizontal mode

"On this basis, we want our game to have a strong sense of exploration, and as the ability unlocks the world that players can experience, it is most appropriate to choose the Galaxy-like Castlevania type."

In terms of inspiration for the project, "kick and kick" tells me that there are actually many sources of inspiration, such as the "Galactic Knights" series, "Hollow Knights", Ori ("Ori and the Dark Forest"), etc., plus they have loved "Adventure Island" since they were young, so they are eager to make a game with long-range combat and positioning as the core, but also full of exploration and rich plot. In his description, Mirror of Shimmer should be different from the rhythmic melee of Hollow Knight, and also different from the strong platform-jumping characteristics of Ori, full of Adventure Island's free and joyful adventure atmosphere, even non-hardcore players can play smoothly. This is also the fundamental reason why they finally positioned Mirror of Shimmer as a "story-oriented horizontal action shooter".

Four years after resigning from Mihayou, he made an indie game that crowdfunded nearly 400,000 and has received a version number

Mirror of Shimmering Light has both ranged action shooters and puzzle elements

After sketching out the general framework of the game they wanted to make in their minds, the three members of the team began the game production process. Like all independent game producers, they inevitably face many difficulties in the game prototype development stage, such as the early design of the game gameplay, "kick kick" designed a very rich and complex system, based on a large number of skills and props superimposed on each other as the core of the combat gameplay, the prototype experimental stage effect is OK, the experience is also relatively rich, but when the amount of skill props go up, they found that the complexity of the design and the difficulty of maintaining the balance of the game, greatly exceeded the ability of their team. So I could only cut this game with pain.

Four years after resigning from Mihayou, he made an indie game that crowdfunded nearly 400,000 and has received a version number

The final battle design of Mirror of Shimmer still maintains its own characteristics

The difficulties encountered outside the gameplay are summarized by "kicking and kicking" as a lack of human hands, because the team only has one program and two part-time artists, such as music, sound effects, special effects, publicity, etc. someone needs to be responsible, and he can only learn and do it by himself, like music, which involves professional knowledge and finally found a partner to help solve it.

In this way, in the early stage of the project, they continued to experiment with the pits, and made the workflow tools needed to develop the game, etc., which took them nearly two years, and "Kick Kick" revealed that the real track of "Mirror of Shimmer" was actually calculated from the beginning of 2020. He then spent 10-18 hours a day making games, and after two years of persistence, the game development finally had a phased result.

"Kick Kick" revealed that "Mirror of Light" intends to be launched in the Early Access stage, the online stage is the first half of the complete game content, in terms of the amount of EA version content, almost 85% of the content has been developed, and there will be small-scale internal testing and BUG fixes, performance optimization and other work.

Four years after resigning from Mihayou, he made an indie game that crowdfunded nearly 400,000 and has received a version number

In this context, it just happened to get the first batch of reviewed versions in 2022, so "kick kick" chose to open the crowdfunding activity of "Mirror of Shimmer". What he did not expect was that the highest unlocking level set by the original team was 120,000 yuan, which was broken in just a few days, and the current crowdfunding funds have reached nearly 400,000, and the enthusiasm of the players and fans has made him a little flattered, and then the team urgently decided to add a gratitude file to thank the players for their trust and support. When it comes to the player's enthusiasm, "Kick and Kick" also reveals what he really thinks in his heart.

"In fact, our original intention of opening the crowdfunding campaign was not to consider making money, and the planning stage was to let as many people as possible know about our game, playing a promotional role rather than aiming at profit." In the process of making crowdfunded products, we have sampled countless versions back and forth, proofing to the extent that the docking factories are impatient, and we hope to give players the quality of the surroundings is excellent. I had to dock with the factory while developing, and I felt really miserable during that time, so we were really happy to see that we spent a lot of effort on the activities and got the support of so many players. But the player's expectation is both an encouragement and a responsibility for us, the game has not yet been launched, the players are so willing to support and believe in us, we also have to do our best to make the game live up to everyone's trust when it is online, so it will go step by step steadily, polish well, and cannot rush to the line in a state of no preparation. ”

In the future, first polish the "Mirror of Shimmering Light" and rationally expand the team to chase the dream

From the beginning of the resignation to face many difficulties, to now get the version number to open the crowdfunding campaign and the goal is far beyond expectations, seemingly smooth sailing of the independent game production experience, in fact, there are problems in all aspects, in addition to the above mentioned game content level, in the entire environment, want to make a game, launch, is the "kick kick" believes that the current independent game production team the biggest problem.

In his view, it is very difficult to develop a game, 99% of independent games are terminated before birth for various reasons, lack of ability, core members give up, insufficient funds, start to do it only to find out that it is so difficult... Have a strong will, overcome external difficulties, and stick to the game until it is finished is the most difficult.

Launching the game after development is complete is also a difficult problem facing most independent game production teams, and the solution he chose in this regard is to release the "Mirror of Light" development diary on the B station. "In order to make the game, I need to announce my plans to the world and let everyone supervise me together; in order to launch it, I need video as a new media form to help me avoid self-high and dead ends." 」 Judging from the results of today's crowdfunding, the practice of "kicking and kicking" has obviously played a certain role.

Four years after resigning from Mihayou, he made an indie game that crowdfunded nearly 400,000 and has received a version number

"Kick and Kick" records the development diary of "Mirror of Shimmer", and many people watch each issue

In addition to the planned production of "Mirror of Shimmer", he also has a clear plan for the future, "Kick and Kick" told me that the biggest gain in doing indie games over the years is the improvement of game design and a broader perspective on the problem, and the development process has been exposed to various publishers, investors and other peers and players, which is an experience that he has been difficult to contact as a worker. In the future planning, first of all, polishing the "Mirror of Shimmer" and updating it until the 1.0 version is the most important thing at present, and secondly, they will choose to rationally expand the team to complete the products they want to make in the future.

At the end of the exchange, when I asked him if he now regretted leaving Mihayou, he did not answer positively, but told a story of his inner changes over the years of making indie games.

When you are in environment A, you will yearn for environment B, and when you finally arrive at environment B, you will miss the good of A. I have been working in Mihayou for several years and get along very well with my colleagues, and I am very grateful for the great improvement in my personal ability. But my career plan is to become a game producer, to be able to make a game I want completely, in a commercial company, everyone's function is relatively narrow, it is likely that my career path will become a "senior program", so eventually I decided to quit and make my own game full-time. ”

"But a lot of hard work can only be understood by experiencing it yourself, often not that you will develop, or play more games, you can develop a game smoothly, and the process of developing a game can be said to be 95% hard work and 5% happiness." In the early days of the dilemma of gameplay design, I will also doubt that the choice to resign is too conceited, is my ability not worthy of independent development of the game, is it not good to be a free-spirited migrant worker after work? ”

"But that 5 percent of happiness saved me and pulled me out of this self-doubt." When a game level or a boss is finally made through various difficulties, and the content they make themselves is super great. Every time I share the development diary to the B station, I see the players commenting on the head, whether it is everyone praising or criticizing, I feel very happy. As development has gone on, I've come out of this early period of self-doubt and suffering, and pain is a necessary process of growth. Watching my game slowly improve, there are so many friends on the Internet willing to encourage me to trust me, I am determined that I must go down this road, must make a "Mirror of Glimmer" that does not live up to my own, as long as it is made, it is a success. ”

Finally, he also gave encouragement to those friends who also developed indie games, "I hope that they can defeat their own demons, accept their imperfect selves, and stick to the day when their works can be born, and they will not regret it." 」

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