[Interview with the Creator of "Cold Window Study Simulator": Making Games Has Never Been Easy, Sincerely Thanking Every Player for Their Support]
"Recently, a pixel-style simulation game called 'Cold Window Study Simulator' has taken the internet by storm, becoming one of the best-selling domestic indie games this year!"
"Following 'Cold Window Study Simulator', Tianba Game Studio officially released the early access version of its latest work 'Living Under Someone's Roof Simulator' in July..."
"Why not choose a different theme? What changes does the new work have compared to the previous one? What kind of games will you make in the future? With these concerns from the players, we contacted the creator of 'Cold Window Study Simulator', Chen Ba, to talk about his views..."
Game Starry Sky acted quickly.
Chen Ba had just finished the online interview the day before, and they released the full interview news article early the next morning.
It's obvious that the editor who wrote the article must have worked overtime last night.
The interview content is extensive, besides some discussions on 'indie games', most of the Q&A revolves around the two games 'Cold Window Study Simulator' and 'Living Under Someone's Roof Simulator'.
This makes sense!
After all, interviewing Chen Ba, of course, we'd talk about the games he's made; otherwise, talk about what? Someone else's games?
The content of this interview article is almost entirely copied from the micro-messaging conversation between Chen Ba and the Game Starry Sky editor, with no alterations.
Chen Ba also answered some personal questions.
For example...
Q: Why did you choose to enter the game industry in the first place?
GameBugs: Interest was definitely the main reason. I like playing games, all sorts of games, so when I went to college, I discussed with my roommates about developing games together in the future.
Q: So have you ever regretted your initial decision?
GameBugs: Sure, I regretted it; it was pretty tough at first, with no money in my pocket and couldn't find a job, almost couldn't even pay the rent...
This interview article was published at 7:12 AM, and when Chen Ba saw it, three hours had already passed.
Game Starry Sky is indeed one of the top single-player portal websites in the country; even during weekdays, the website traffic isn't low. This interview accumulated over 50 comments below.
PikaPikaSniper: Keep it up, I'm optimistic about you becoming the light of domestic indie games!
Bull Demon Promotions [Reply]: Just a lucky shot, and you're calling it the light of domestic indie games? I feel it's not as good as Peng City's Shatangjie Studio!
Cowherding Sect Jay Chen: Cold Window Study Simulator is quite fun, might give the new game a try! Will the price go up this time?
Comments are polarized.
Some players who have played or know about 'Cold Window Study Simulator' support Tianba Game Studio, encouraging them to continue making better indie games.
Others, who haven't played or heard of 'Cold Window Study Simulator', express extreme disdain for the praise from other commenters.
Just an unknown little studio, never heard of their game, is such blatant praise even necessary? The light of domestic indie games? Ridiculous!
In my view, it's just a piece of crap!
Praise or criticism, before accepting the interview from the Game Starry Sky editor, Chen Ba already anticipated this situation, feeling perfectly calm inside.
He isn't RMB; it's impossible for everyone to like him. Anyway, his goal in accepting the interview was just to help 'Living Under Someone's Roof Simulator' gain fame.
From this perspective, the impact is quite significant.
As a well-known single-player portal site, Game Starry Sky's information, once released, is quickly picked up by various self-media and marketing accounts, then spread across the entire internet.
This is nothing new.
Marketing accounts are a bunch of shameless people; without the ability to write original articles, they spend all their time repurposing others' content.
Game news is definitely a heavily affected area!
In just a morning, this interview article initially released on Game Starry Sky got modified into over a dozen versions by various platform marketing accounts, reaching countless players.
Then...
The downloads for both 'Cold Window Study Simulator' and 'Living Under Someone's Roof Simulator' increased!
'Living Under Someone's Roof Simulator' gained the most.
After all, it's clear to see that as Tianba Game Studio's second work, 'Living Under Someone's Roof Simulator' is superior to its predecessor in every aspect.
The price is the same, so why not buy the 'far superior' new game?
Since Living Under Someone's Roof Simulator is still in the early access phase, the game isn't very polished, essentially a semi-finished product.
Chen Ba worried that new players might be dissatisfied after their experience, complaining about too many bugs or poor optimization, even putting up a 'Highlight Notice' on the game page.
It's inevitable for bugs to appear in the early access phase of a game; the challenge for game creators is managing player satisfaction to avoid a collapse of the game's reputation.
Surprisingly, despite the Game Starry Sky interview article bringing in thousands of players to 'Living Under Someone's Roof Simulator', nobody encountered any bugs.
Players felt pleasantly surprised.
Although bugs are common in early access versions, who likes bugs? Not encountering any bugs is certainly a good thing!
But Chen Ba felt something was off.
Not right!
How could there be no bugs?
Not just major bugs, even small bugs have no reports from players, making the game seem flawless except for optimization adaptation.
Something's not right!
It's impossible for a game in the early access phase to be bug-free, even if the core code is generated by the system.
Not finding any now means the bugs are deeply hidden.
This isn't good!
Given the game development progress and the approaching release date, Chen Ba couldn't sit still.
High pressure! A high-pressure test must be conducted!
If a bug isn't found soon, he's afraid he won't sleep well at night. It's like having a stunning wife at home while Huang Mao with the surname Wang lives next door.
Although for now, Huang Mao with the surname Wang behaves properly and shows no signs, you still worry every day when leaving for work.
Chen Ba is in that mindset now.
He doesn't believe the game has no bugs, nor does he believe Huang Mao will stay well-behaved; he must resolve this hidden threat to focus on work and release the game's official version with peace of mind.
Conducting a high-pressure test is imperative.
Anything from one glass of beer, 213 glasses of beer, -1 glass of beer, one glass of cola, one lizard, one footwash...even a bowl of fried rice, he has to test them all.
Only a sufficiently high-pressure test environment can reveal Huang Mao's true nature, allowing it to be caught red-handed and sent to Mars to eradicate the threat!
Meanwhile, he has to mobilize the players.
Anyone who reports a bug during the early access phase of 'Living Under Someone's Roof Simulator' will be rewarded with a thousand bucks!
With hefty rewards, there are bound to be brave individuals.
He can't believe that Huang Mao from next door could really be a good person?