The plan was to have this done back in April and have the sequel to Castle of Blackwood Moors done by now… but China.

 

What do I mean? Well, the CCP in all their wisdom, decided that only 100 games will be available to the Chinese public PER YEAR! With well over 200 Chinese game companies, if you do the math…  you can come up with the conclusion that most game companies here came up with…

STARK RAVING PANIC!!!!

Luckily, I work for a company that makes mobile games for non-Chinese markets so we wont be affected much (I hope). But the majority of the companies here are now trying to make games for a western market… aka. they will fail horribly.

Why do I say this?

Well, pull of a tree stump little bippy and I will tell you.

China has the most draconian internet in the world (North Korea doesn’t allow their people to have internet, otherwise they would take the prize for this).  Logically, this means that Chinese people really do not have an accurate view on what outsiders are like.  How could they? The government filters everything they see and hear about anything non-Chinese.

Now imagine these people were trying to create a game that others would play passionately… or write a story that captivated the hearts of others?

Simply put, they can’t.

People might get mad at me for saying that, but in the 7+ years i have been here now, I have seen well over 100 games try to make it outside of China and SEA (south east asia) and I have seen ALL of them fail. When they do, its always the same song and dance, “They just don’t understand Chinese culture.”

This is the most ignorant reply ever. The United States is made up of ALL cultures. But its easier to blame others than to say something which would be more accurate, such as, “I guess we really did not understand what they wanted.”

But that is the underlying thought of how the Chinese game design mind works though.

One of these days, I should really write a book about my game design experiences here. I am sure some will find it interesting, while others will want to tar and feather me.

Oh. I forgot what I was talking about. Because of the above situation, things have not been stable here at all. But excuses aside, I just sent the first draft off to a proof reader (I am trying to get a few). If you want to be a play tester, please drop me a line at madoverlordmail@gmail.com and I will try to hook you up.

Be Good.

Stay Mad.