Chinese game going overseas

It was the huge success of Black Myth:Wukong that gave Yang, who was originally in the finance industry, the idea of entering the gaming industry. Even though Yang just started his career at Tencent’s TiMi J3 Studio barely a year ago, he has already achieved amazing success in the gaming industry.What impresses us most is the energy that is shining from Yang. Despite the fact that Yang had just finished working overtime until 3 a.m. the night before, there was no sign of fatigue on his face—he seemed immune to tiredness. This kind of 10-hours work is a daily routine for him. “Youth’s greatest perk?” he quips, using the classic Captain America line, “We can do this all day.” During difficult periods especially that before a game‘s first exposure, when deadlines loom like BOSS battles in a game, he’s been known to crash at the office, laptop glowing in the dark.

Hard work has paid off. After the breakout success of his last game Delta Force, which he was in charge of the overseas promotion, Yang now throws himself into planning a new campaign for the next game.  “Our next project will debut at Gamescom in Cologne this year,” he reveals, grinning mysteriously. “But that’s all I can say.”

However, in the gaming industry, stories of the successful often overshadow the struggles of most strugglers. Working in a five-person studio, Indie game maker Ahshee is currently taking on the visual design and promotion of the game Tiny Isle while co-developing Wind & Pasture (working title) with a friend. The dual workload leaves little room for him to breathe.

“I’ve quit my last job to focus entirely on these games,” Ahshee explains. He is now funding development through his savings. To cut costs and ensure quality, he handles concept art, 3D modeling, texture design, and social media management across three platforms—while coordinating with musicians and distributors all in person. 

Yang You and Ahshee reveal a young generation driving China’s gaming revolution. Our story centres around four young gamers from different regions and different jobs who share the same love for games. Their stories show young gamers  investing time, savings, and even their well-being to propel Chinese games onto the global stage.

For them, the gamble isn’t just about success—it’s about proving that passion can rewrite the rules.

The 2024 China Gaming Industry Report from GPC alse predicts that there will still be room for growth for Chinese games to go overseas in the future, and that Chinese specialised culture may become a new advantage for going overseas. More Game makers will jump on the overseas market.

With this trend, e-sports promotion strategy may become one of the mainstream.

“What if lose?”

When facing this question, many of our interviewees fell silent. Even positive like Yang You frowned.

“Making games is a high-risk, high-cost gamble,” said Yang, “for the most majority of companies in the industry, if the return is less than the investment, the entire game and the studio will be dropped without a second thought.” Yang had an ex-colleague in another department that lost tons of money due to wrong choices in promotion strategy, and the entire project was eventually laid off. “The question now is, ‘Who’s next?'”

Ahshee’s game Tiny Isle was forced to be removed from the platform due to disagreements with the musicians he was working with. (Source: Ahshee)

What’s worse, the other game Wind & Pasture was also facing a plagiarism issue and attracted some bad comments on social media. This is fatal for indie games that focus on originality.

“It’s not fair that some might assume you’re copying just because of the similarity of some scene designs,” Ahshee explained, ‘If it’s really a copy, then I’d rather copy from Studio Ghibli instead of the game they mentioned. At least in this way it proves I have a good taste in art.”

After all, it is worthless to battle with others on social media. The only thing Ahshee could do is close the comments section and re-design the scenes as soon as possible. Ahshee needs to finish everything in time for the Steam Next Fest in June. One second slower, one more chance of failure. It’s his only chance to get into the overseas market. “Contracting an overseas publishing agency is also a significant expense,” said Ahshee, “but we don’t want to miss the chance to go overseas. The publisher predicts that our games will be more popular abroad.”

Ahshee’s game will be available on the Steam store in June this year. (Source: Steam)

Staring at the huge-size billboard of Black Myth: Wukong, Yang You got lost in thought before remembering a few moments later that he had to go home to catch up on his sleep. Next month was even harder for him, as the Gamescom in Cologne is approaching. “At least coffee is all free in my office, and I can save some money on it.” Yang remained optimistic for the next possible opportunity.

For Ahshee, he is learning to find some joy in the stress. ‘I even get so excited about finding a brilliantly romantic idea for a game’s design puzzle that sometimes I lose my sleep. This is what we call troublesome but happy.’ Ahshee said, ‘Sometimes we need some abstract inspiration.’

Li Po Ting is looking forward to the next Triple-A Chinese game called ‘Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’, and hopes to write a guide book for it. ‘I’m very optimistic about this new game. To use a Chinese saying, WuKong is the first college student in the village (It means the first successful person to overcome extreme difficulties in a particular area. In the past, when educational resources were extremely scarce in rural areas of China, raising a college student was almost impossible for rural families, thus giving rise to this saying), and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is the second college student in the village (evolution of the first saying).’

Meanwhile, Hu Tao has become an Influencer. He records his game-making journey on Bilibili (China’s YouTube equivalent), determined to post a set of instructional videos to encourage other game makers to use Ark Online. By May 25, he had posted more than 10 videos with 11,000 followers, and his latest video showing how to make a game out of the ‘Foreign Mountain and Sea Sutra’ using Ark Online has got more than 1 million views. Hu Tao was very excited to share this with us, saying, ‘I even got likes and comments from Ark Online’s official account!’