How would you feel if your game was about to launch and you were suddenly banned from Steam?
Tang Xiong, one of the creators of "Killing the Shadow", told me that he only wanted to say two words at the time:!
"Kill the Shadow" is a suspenseful and plot-oriented puzzle and detective game. Set in the post-war division of Darkwater, players will take on the role of police detective Ah Guang, using eloquence, intelligence, violence, and the ability to shadow back to the scene, investigate and deduce various bizarre cases, and gradually uncover the secrets behind them.
The art style of this game is eye-catching, and it made an impression on Grape King as early as when the team participated in the competition. At last year's New Product Festival, the demo version they released received 94% of the praise.
Although it is not uncommon for people to devote themselves to independent game development after graduating from college, after communicating with Tang Xiong, one of the main creators of "Killing the Shadow", I found that the situation of people like them who have entered a big factory after graduation but choose to quit naked after working for less than half a year is indeed a bit special.
This specialness is also reflected in the game. The first three members of the team were all computer science majors, and they never wrote scripts, novels, or played story games, but they ended up making a game that was known for its story and art.
Tang Xiong told me that the reason why they decided to make indie games was because they were still young and aggressive; Feel more free to start a business than to go to work; I want to realize my dreams and pursuits.
He believes that in the future, the market for domestic independent games and high-investment single-player games will become larger and larger, and there will be more and more developers and players.
Although Tang Xiong does not regret quitting his job to do indie games, he advises those who want to make indie games to think twice. Because in terms of company operations and game publishing, they have stepped on a lot of pitfalls. At the same time, every time they run out of money, they feel like they are standing on the line of life and death.
He advises those who ultimately decide to pursue a career in indie game development to be fully prepared and adjust their mindset. Once you have the intention of losing, you can go all out to play the game. As for the final result, it can only be judged by the market and players.
01
Why do you make a game with naked resignation?
At the end of 2022, not long after the establishment of Wuguang Lanying Studio, the team members got together and held an annual meeting.
Tang Xiong wrote a few notes for everyone to come to the lottery. As a result, someone drew millet and a hammer, and someone drew DJI and an apple - they correspond to a pack of millet, a hammer, a piece of ginger, and an apple, respectively. "At that time, everyone had just gotten together offline, and the overall mentality was better."
Photos of the "Annual Meeting".
More than a month ago, Tang Xiong was in charge of Unity client development in Polk City. The other two members of the team, one works at Tencent, and the other interns at XD.
However, when the investment in Eagle Point was finalized, they immediately quit and rented a villa in Songjiang, Shanghai, for 8,200 yuan a month, and converted the ground floor into an office, and the upper floor was used as a living area. From decision to action, the entire process took only one week.
Why such a decision? In addition to reaching an investment cooperation, Tang Xiong also gave me three reasons:
One is that he is young and aggressive.
Tang Xiong told me that the time and money required to start a business are within their acceptable range. "I'm young, I don't care about this little time, and I'm not in a hurry to make a lot of money, but making games is a very happy and long-term thing, and I definitely can't just focus on the immediate benefits."
The second is that starting a business is more free than going to work.
You can choose a time period that you feel comfortable with at your own pace, and you can start working as soon as you want to, and you can leave at any time when you need to leave, as long as you make up for the progress.
The third is the team's realization of their own dreams and pursuits.
Starting from the team of college students, the creators began to try to make their own games because they liked to play games, followed tutorials and books step by step, participated in many competitions, found their goals and pursuits in the process, and finally put a lot of effort into developing the prototype of "Kill the Shadow", they wanted to see the game finally hatched, and wanted to know what the full version would look like.
It is not difficult to find that although these reasons are not reckless and impulsive, they do have the feeling that some newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. Just as they were when they were talking to Eagle Point about investing – this was their first time making a game, and Eagle Point had just started to set up a pioneer core incubator to invest in ultra-early stage teams.
On December 1, 2022, after Xiang Fa'an joined the team, they officially started the incubation of "Kill the Shadow" based on the prototype they used when they participated in the college student competition. Soon after, another member, Xiao Fengxiang, joined the team.
At that time, the team estimated that only a budget of 500,000 yuan would be needed to complete the game in half a year.
Unexpectedly, "Killing the Shadow" ended up taking more than two years, which far exceeded the expectations of the year.
02
Where is the time and money spent?
Why was it so optimistic at first? Tang Xiong told me that the reason is that their vision of the finished game is not as complex as it is today.
The beginnings of "Kill the Shadow" can be traced back to the Global Game Jam in early 2022. During that 48-hour development challenge, they used 894 lines of code to build a prototype that "walked like soap."
Through Game Jam and various game competitions, creators from Xi'an Jiaotong University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, South China University of Technology and other schools, more than 1,000 kilometers apart, were able to get acquainted; It is also through the competitions that they gradually improve the game, and finally make a relatively complete version.
Above: The original prototype of the game, "The Light That Stole the Shadow",
Bottom: The current "Kill the Shadow"
Tang Xiong observes that teams like theirs are not uncommon now.
Compared to previous years, the number and quality of the student teams participating in the competition have improved in both quantity and quality. "If you take our works from those years, it may be difficult to compare them with their current works."
At the same time, he also said that winning a competition and commercializing a game are actually two different things. Tang Xiong recalls that in the past, he would pay special attention to the results: if a game did not get a good place in the competition, he would doubt the quality of the game.
However, after more than two years of full-time game development experience, he realized that the competition and the market are two completely different needs, and the commercialization prospect of the game is the result of players voting with real money.
This equating of competition results with commercial prospects was also present during the initial prototype development of Kill the Shadows.
After many iterations of the game, the team decided that the game was basically complete, and it only needed to upgrade the art materials, adjust the program code, and optimize the story, and the game could almost be brought to market. "When we actually started to do it, we realized that there were a lot of problems."
Tang Xiong told me that the plot and the scene are the two points they have been struggling with.
At the narrative level, the game has undergone several tweaks.
Originally, Kill the Shadow was set in a time loop, where players had to search for new clues through repeated deaths and resurrections. However, the team found that the overall experience was not fun, as players were prone to boredom and boredom with repeated deaths. So, they started to tweak the story, adding more information and side quests, so that players can experience something new all the time.
Although the script has been adjusted to become fun, they found that this kind of time loop setting is too difficult to design, and the development cost is too high for the small team to hold. They decided to change it to a common task-driven playbook.
Even so, the team felt that the quality of the script was not high enough, "like a story for thirteen or fourteen-year-olds". As a result, they started a new round of improvements, trying to add more self-expression and reflection to elevate the overall narrative.
The final plot completely reconstructs the worldview and setting, making the whole world grander and more realistic. More suspenseful plots have also been added, making the plot rhythm more ups and downs. At the same time, they also try to show the complexity of the small people compared to the flat characters, even the supporting characters, who are also vivid and individual people in the city.
The latest time backtrack
In terms of art, the team faced two main problems: on the one hand, they were not satisfied with the texture and atmosphere of the picture; On the other hand, they believe that the effect of visual communication is not good, and the overall aesthetic performance has room for improvement.
What's more, the plot and the setting complement each other. As the script is constantly changing, the scene must be modified accordingly, and many other aspects such as colors, animations, and visual effects need to be adjusted.
Take, for example, the main scene in the game, "Pig Cage Walled City". Originally, it was designed as a small fishing village with a 2D road running from left to right, with only a few shops, a supermarket, and a few restaurant stalls.
As the story continued to be revised, the team found that the spatial pattern of the small fishing village could no longer meet the needs of the plot. Therefore, they decided to completely reconstruct the small fishing village, first of all, the road became 3D, and you can walk up and down, left and right at will like the real world, which improves the sense of realism and the convenience of scene design.
Secondly, a large number of various shops and families were added, such as Nguyen Mansion, Jia Fu Gold Shop, Wang Fu Hotel, Goddess Temple, Clinic, Fisherman's Wharf, Workers' Wharf, etc., and they were interconnected with each other, forming a complete and relatively real community.
Top: Early pigpen walled, bottom: latest pigpen walled
As a result, the development time is stretched little by little. It will not be until the beginning of 2024 that the story of "Killing the Shadow" is basically determined.
In retrospect, Tang said, they should have finished the script and revised it repeatedly until they were satisfied with it, and then started developing it and integrating it into the engine. "Of course, we didn't expect the script to be so difficult to handle at first."
After a year of development, the team was almost done with the game. In July last year, they participated in the Next Product Festival and released a game demo, which received 94% special praise and the number of wishlists exceeded 40,000. The team originally planned to officially launch the game during the Spring Festival this year, and everything seems to be going well.
Then, Kill the Shadow was banned by Steam.
03
Not everyone is suitable for indie games
Tang Xiong still remembers that on January 5, 2025, he was still sleeping. When he woke up, he found that the publisher had called him three times in a row.
He went back and asked what had happened, and he was told that the game was blocked.
The studio's announcement on the small black box
Due to some actions by the publisher, their accounts were banned by Steam, and their games were also taken off the shelves.
This incident made the team realize that they simply didn't understand the distribution: how exactly does the market work? What do you need to do for distribution and R&D? What are the rights and responsibilities of both parties? What kind of conditions are more suitable for both parties? What are the pitfalls in the contract that need to be paid attention to?
Tang Xiong told me that it was a naïve idea to expect publishers to do all the publicity and distribution work. Even if there is a release, the team should be involved in the promotion so that they can understand the target audience of the game so that they can better polish the game.
Publishing wasn't the only problem the team was experiencing. At the company's operational level, they have also stepped on many pitfalls.
From the first step of opening a company, there were constantly encounters with various problems. Although the K&D Chip Incubator provided support, because the team had no experience in how to do the company, there were still mistakes in the registration process, which led to the delay in the establishment of the company and the inability to advance the investment process on time to get the investment funds; When it was time to pay my salary, I found out that the bank card still had a daily limit......
"When you make an indie game, you're bound to run into a lot of problems." Tang Xiong said. These issues can put a strain on the team, especially when you're running out of money, and the pressure is multiplied because it's like you're on the line of life and death.
In the third month of development, as the script and gameplay were adjusted, and the art quality was improved, the size of the project was also rising, and the development plan had changed a lot, and the team realized that the game could not be completed within the scheduled six months, and correspondingly, the original funds were not enough for the team to complete the work.
The team quickly communicated with K&C, showed the new direction of the project, as well as the new plan, and after the evaluation, K&K also fully expressed its recognition of the team and the project, and both parties felt that these changes would make Kill Shadow more unique and vivid, and could deliver a better story to players. Two additional investments were made until the project was completed.
Optimized plant
After the page was taken down this time, Tang Xiong told me that the pressure was one thing, but he quickly calmed down and immediately began to discuss solutions with the team and Knoxin, all in order for the studio to survive first, so that the "Kill the Shadow" project can meet players again as soon as possible.
He said that at that time, the game was almost finished, and everyone was tightening a string to do QA and fix bugs. Because of this incident, the team relaxed and went back for a good year.
"While this is a bad thing, on the other hand, we have more time to advertise, update and optimize. Through this incident, maybe more players will know about our game. ”
Game reasoning system
Previously, the team intended to launch the game on January 17. According to their schedule, if Kill the Shadow can be successfully launched before the end of the year, the team may be able to recoup the funds after the Chinese New Year to raise enough funds for the development of the next game.
However, the sudden accident disrupted the rhythm and the original funding plan, and the team fell into a financial crunch again. But this time, the team is no longer the young team that was unfazed and panicked.
After the page was taken down, the team heard a lot of support from players, and with the help of K&C, the team completed the termination of the contract with the old publisher, and also re-contacted a number of publishers, and also received a lot of feedback on the game and the team, everyone thought that the quality of the game was good, and the team grew rapidly, and expressed interest in cooperating.
At the same time, the team has been working tirelessly to communicate with each other in the hope of restoring the Steam page, although there are many difficulties, Tang Xiong said: "No matter what, we will definitely let the project we have worked on for two years meet players."
Tang Xiong told me that he doesn't regret quitting his job to play indie games two years ago. Although he has experienced many difficulties and setbacks, and stepped on a lot of pitfalls, he has learned a lot and enjoyed the process of encountering and solving problems.
In his opinion, in the future, the market for domestic independent games and high-investment single-player games will become larger and larger, and there will be more and more developers and players. But he cautions college students who want to be like him and devote themselves to indie game development that not everyone is suitable for indie games.
If you finally decide to pursue a career in indie game development, you must be well prepared and adjust your mindset.
"Be prepared for failure, and then do your best to make the best game you can, and then leave it to the market and players to judge."
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