Text / Fish bubble
On station B, there is a glamorous domestic independent game producer.
He can draw two-dimensional villains, make Rougelike games, and put on women's clothes when necessary.
Xiangyan Producer--Station B @ Wang Weilun
This glamorous solo producer ♂, currently known as "father-in-law" on station B, is developing a Rougelike action shooter - "New Moon Era".
In this work, the "father-in-law" has countless children under his knees, and each of them has a flower and moon appearance, specializing in the second dimension.
Among his children, there are white-haired and double-ponytailed Japanese-style shrine maidens, as well as blonde hair and red eyes, as long as they can match XP, everyone can call themselves "cyber sons-in-law".
Some of the characters from the previous production
The number of "Cyber Son-in-law", according to the number of followers on station B, is currently about 200,000.
This number of fans is not very large, but what is more special is that these fans are attracted by the more than 600 issues of "Game Development Journal" of "father-in-law".
The "Indie Game Dev Diary" has been updated for four years and currently has 647 issues
can do more than 600 episodes of a program, I have to say that the staying power of "father-in-law" is really obvious to all.
And this form of sharing "game development logs" while making games was actually popular on Douyin in the early years, when there were entrepreneurial track authors like "Wang Xiaoxuan".
However, among these authors, there are probably only a few who are really born in the game development industry and can make games decent, including "fathers-in-law".
Footage of the game in the February test pack
According to the very beginning, the "father-in-law" himself is a famous game planner, who has drifted in Shanghai for many years, and finally drifted to Chengdu to start a business.
At that time, his tone was green, but the courage in his heart was boundless - there was no manpower, and the technology was groping, but there was enough courage to pack and give it away.
It was in this situation that on February 19, 2020, the "father-in-law" tried to post the first "game development log" on Douyin.
A game framework built with Unity
At this time, the game development log, the picture is so plain, there are no enemies, no scenes, only countless white walls and the No. 1 heroine "Alpha" wearing a vest.
But fortunately, even in that period, "Alpha" had a full stand-up + run animation, rather than a paper man with stiff limbs.
Alpha's running action
From the smoothness of the character's movements and the following movement of the rest of the parts, it can also be seen that the "father-in-law" itself has some technical foundation.
Therefore, in the 7th issue of the "Development Diary", "Father-in-law" quickly completes the previous deficiencies - those simple scenes full of "Test" are renovated into a sci-fi room.
At this time, although the character still has no normal clothes to wear, he finally has a house to live in.
The room has wallpaper, furniture, and sporadic glow effects, and the sci-fi story is set in a way that is easy to look at.
However, the overall world view of this game will only be a prototype for a long time to come, after all, the main task at the moment is to continue to improve the gameplay structure of the game.
....... Of course, there is also the favorite "dress-up" system that needs to be perfected.
So, in the 12th ~ 81st issue of the development diary, a two-dimensional loving father, under the watchful eyes of many of his "sons-in-law", changed 4 sets of clothes for the initial character "Alpha" one after another.
The 4th skirt is the result of QQ group voting
In addition to the initial character "Alpha", "Father-in-law" will actively show his new daughter to his sons-in-law in the 100th, 200th, and 300th issues of the development diary.
For example, in the 100th issue, a new character "Beta" with a white double ponytail was born; And in the 200th issue, the new character "Gamma" also appeared.
Although these new characters are always wearing an ancestral white T/white shirt, at least, the "sons-in-law" have new wives to see, right?
From left to right: Character Alpha, Beta, Gamma
Among the many children of the "father-in-law", there is one character who also has a special background - she is customized by the "cyber sons-in-law".
The "son-in-law" got a character customization form from the "father-in-law" and filled in the corresponding role settings according to his own ideas.
A brother filled in information such as "blonde hair", "red eyes", and "worship of blood", thus giving birth to a black-clothed vampire nicknamed "Xiaobai".
........ This time, of course, there was no ancestral white shirt.
Of course, these more than 200,000 "cyber sons-in-law", in addition to regularly mixing in the game characters, other weapons and equipment are also mixed with their inspiration.
For example, in the early days, the weapons of this game were basically ordinary bows and arrows, guns, swords and clubs, ordinary and simple, reflecting the traditional world view of the "father-in-law".
And around the 400th issue, the wisdom of the "cyber sons-in-law" who had nowhere to put it began to occupy the creative high ground.
In the subsequent more than 200 issues of development logs, the development of the entire weapon and equipment system was gradually mixed with a hint of chaos.
For example, in the 455th issue of the development journal, the will of the "sons-in-law" is transformed into a white alpaca spear, whose scientific name is "Kusama", which can summon a white alpaca when arched to an enemy.
Alpaca spear
This white alpaca spear is obviously not satisfied with its ordinary shape.
Therefore, after only 3 episodes of the video, this thing has launched a "rainbow version", which is more dreamy and diverse, just like the colorful and diverse creativity of the "cyber sons-in-law".
It can be said that the amazing wisdom of the "cyber sons-in-law" not only satisfies themselves, but also enriches the game.
However, there are not many places where this "son-in-law customization" mode can help in the most critical level design and gameplay system of Rougelike games.
In this regard, "Father-in-law" mainly refers to the existing meat pigeon dungeon game, and describes the relevant functional systems into his own program as much as possible.
And after more than 600 issues of development logs, the current gameplay can basically be found in the game.
Some basic systems and mechanisms in the development log
So, on the best side, the game's combat system is really comprehensive, and in some places there are even unexpected surprises.
For example, in many levels, the map scene can be destroyed, and the player will step on the plane to crash, but it is also possible to manually dig a pit to lure the enemy into crashing.
Large number of destructible plots
In addition, in the earlier 282nd issue of the development log, "Father-in-law" also added the "wall climbing" function, so that the character can "climb the wall" and "jump on the wall".
In Episode 539, players can also pull at walls and attack enemies, as if one day a Spider-Man could appear in this game.
The realization and optimization of these functions obviously require the "liver" of a large number of young people.
Therefore, in the middle and late stages of development, the "father-in-law" also recruited some partners, and successfully upgraded the total number of cattle and horses from "one person and one cat" to "three people and one cat".
Thanks to a 200% increase in manpower (approximately), New Moon Era has improved a number of system features, such as the weapon projection system, the outboard furniture growth system, and the mount system.
From the perspective of an indie game, the game is indeed rich in features and details related to combat.
However, there are also weaknesses in the game's out-of-game growth guidance, furniture placement, and the distribution of some menu functions.
Sometimes when you come out after playing a game and look at the dense variety of features in the store, in the absence of guidance, it really makes people have no motivation to delve in.
Outside the furniture growth system
However, it is still a little early to conclude the above problems, after all, the game development log of the "father-in-law" is still updated at a weekly frequency.
For example, in August of this year, "Father-in-law" showed a demonstration of giving gifts to various NPCs and obtaining resources in the outside growth system.
At the beginning of September, the new Dev Diary also showed the subsequent Glacier World Map, as well as the corresponding mobs.
The more critical news is that "New Moon Era" will participate in the recent TGS Tokyo Game Show, and the official launch time will be announced at the official game launch event.
Prior to this, the Steam store has also opened the relevant interface, and the release date is expected to be in the first quarter of 2025.
The New Moon Age interface on Steam
However, with the blessing of 200,000 "cyber sons-in-law", whether "New Moon Era" can take off smoothly is probably still a suspense.
Regarding indie games, to be honest, I personally feel that it is difficult for domestic indie games to continue to attract enough technical and artistic support.
Unity's previous additional charging strategy has also made the situation of some small-scale studios more and more awkward.
In this case, there are indeed some domestic game manufacturers who want to improve the environment and support some domestic teams to create from a non-capital perspective, such as Eagle Horn Development Core, which hosted the Game Creation Festival before.
The Game Creation Festival hosted by Knotxin
However, this kind of support plan cannot cover every city after all, and it is still more difficult for indie games to pull funds on their own.
Of course, the long-term sharing of "development log + trivial feathers" in the form of "New Moon Era" may also be a good idea for domestic independent game development.
At the very least, from a gamer's point of view, who wouldn't want to know about the development of the game they care about every day?