I’m Weichen Lin. I used to work as a character artist and illustrator in children's book industry. With experience in concept art and background design of games and animations, I’m now a producer of a game project.

This decision came down on a simple question, which also motivated us to develop games in the first place.

What would I rather do in a 90 minutes break?

After collecting all the opinions on this topic from members at that time, we decided to combine three shared activities that we like to do during the break: see a movie, read a novel, and play a game. We want to make games that would let players have it all.

I am one of the artists. Our artists work on the in-game art asset, animation, and any illustration that is on our merchandize, social media, and many more. We have two client programmers who are working on in-game/out-game programming and two game designers who are mainly focusing on puzzle design, dialogue, and game-flow mechanics.

We are a studio of 8 members, founded in 2019. Right now our team members consist of two game designers, two programmers, and four artists and I am one of the artists. Our artists work on the in-game art asset, animation, and any illustration that we use for our merchandizes, social media, etc. Two client programmers work on in-game / out-game programming. Two game designers mainly focus on puzzle design, dialogue, and game-flow mechanics.

We made all the decisions based on a very simple reason which is to provide an even more immersive gaming experience as if the players live the story.

GStories are the heart of our games. Behind the frame is a narrative-driven game with escape room coating. Aside from the main storyline, which we hope would touch the players, we also have some breakthroughs on the display of the game scene. We adopted 2D 360°panorama for the presentation of several main scenes.

Every time anyone has an idea about an existing or new story, the person will work on the outline and organize the materials (videos, images, and music, etc.) collected on a mood board first. Then, all members will gather and throw out thoughts and similar cases to review and brainstorm for this idea. This is how we make abstract ideas into actual entries.

Though Behind the Frame is our second project, it is the first project that made it to the end and is finally about to be released. We’ve worked very hard to develop this game. There were numerous difficulties and obstacles that we faced while developing this game. However, we managed to overcome them, and gained new experiences and lesson from this hardship. We don’t expect this game to be a hit, but every lesson we have learnt and every feedback we receive are precious to us.

Behind the Frame is our first project that has been fully developed and is ready to be released. Most of the time, we were just really focused on the development process, and in the end, we found out we did not take enough chances to create connections with players and also with the whole industry. With winning this international recognition, we think we earned ourselves another precious opportunity to make up for what we did not do back then, and we are truly grateful for that.

Firstly, our budget was kind of limited and secondly, the different preferences each team members has when developing this game. Although, there were different opinions and some conflict during the discussion, we eventually understood each other's opinion and acknowledged that everyone wants the best for the project. At the moment, we hope the final products is something that we can all be proud of.

Another challenge was adapting user acquisition efforts to the characteristics of the platform. A player performs multiple steps, compared to mobile campaigns, to download the game from the Nintendo eShop.

Lastly, some of the elements of the game were out of our leagues, such as localization and SFX, so we had to outsource them. This is the first time we worked with people outside of our studio so closely. That’s when we learned that communication requires some skills. Thankfully, we all found a way to sort things out and got the job done.

Taiwan is a country that is deeply influenced by Japanese and western cultures. Some people favor anime, some people prefer feature animations. During our brainstorming session, trying to properly combine these two elements together has always been crucial to us. To find the perfect balance between the two and to visually tell our story in an artistic way, has always been our goal and our persistence.

From what I’ve observed so far, this industry is transforming.

More and more developers are trying to adopt different methods to tell a story, and the choices of narratives are even diverse. Niche themes and stories are being told and accepted by players. There are other groups of developers trying to integrate different entertaining media, movies, fictions, devices, etc. It is so that the players can experience the narratives from different angles and create more connections with the characters.

These are really game-changers, can’t wait to see how these go!

1. Passionate gamers and gaming communities.

2. Passionate developers in the industry.

3. Passionate team members.

I recommend entertainment such as movies, fiction, and manga. Playing more games would help to! AAA games or indie games, don’t matter. What matter is, the more resources you try, the better. Those classic old games are also highly recommended. They could be the Muses of a really great idea.

We have seen a lot of examples of the incorporation of movies and games, and vice versa. I think there will be more or even new technologies for movie and game creators to present what they truly see in their eyes. Games and movies that could create even deeper immersive experiences and emotional connections will definitely thrive.

Hayao Miyazaki.

He is talented and doesn’t make compromises, sticking to what he thinks to be the best. A true shokunin!

We always remind each other to take a step back and review our overall work, to see if there’s anything missing or not quite right. Great quality means great to us.

All we want to say is, don’t forget your purpose in the first place, and remember to always be determined.

Red Candle Games

Throughline Games

Thunder Lotus Games

Stay safe, stay passionate!