Since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, foreigners have been leaving China in droves to escape the country's strict "zero-COVID" restrictions, which had limited people's domestic and overseas travel for nearly three years I was surprised that NetEase said it had an expats-led studio working on a game out of Shanghai for three years.
Miaozi was created by Oscar Lopez and Eva Jobse and was launched on Steam. The game is a sci-fi game for PC that puts the player in charge of an outpost on an alien planet.
NetEase and Tencent have placed more emphasis on overseas expansion because of regulatory restrictions. The two Chinese giants have been trying to find international talent. Ti Mi kicked off its North America operation in early 2020 and its internal rival Lightspeed also set up shop in LA this year. NetEase opened a studio in Austin.
Miaozi's international employees stayed put and found the situation did not affect their work.
According to Lopez, it worked well for them. We didn't leave China during the time of Communism. China was a safe place to be and we focused on our development. In case it was necessary, the company and team had everything they needed to develop from home.
He said that you can develop anywhere. It is always easier to communicate and solve problems when you are face to face. The Pandemic didn't affect us a lot.
The team is fond of China. The team of 50 employees love the sound of cats and the filled bun that is common in China.
The daily routine of those who have worked in Shanghai is the same as it is in the office, with the exception of baozi. They like cats as well. There are a lot of street cats outdoors and people are feeding them.
Jobse said that they wanted to have something that was loved by everyone, and something that Chinese would understand.
In designing the game, the creative director sought inspiration from Chinese science fiction, which tends to convey a more uplifting message than their Western counterparts.
Jobse noted that the game is both innovative and positive. The dangers of space and alien creatures are the focus of science fiction intellectual property.
The Three-Body Problem is a short story by the author of The Wandering Earth.
We can take a lot of inspiration from it. Even if they are not from the same culture or background, they want to work together to achieve a common goal.
Foreign investments and partnerships shape the development of China's gaming sector. Chinese gaming firms were eager to learn from their Western peers because of China's rapidly growing internet population. NetEase has a long history of working with foreign publishers, and last month it ended its 14-year licensing deal with a foreign publisher.
Competition in the Chinese market has given rise to a generation of internet firms that focus on short-term earnings over long-term innovations. It is a balancing act. Lopez thinks that his team has a lot of creative freedom if certain expectations are met. We are objective-oriented within our studio. We are supposed to make a game in a timely manner. Where our freedom lies is in those boundaries.
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