Deck-building card game Yixian
Photo Credit: Roman Kierst
TECHNOLOGY

Pixel Passion: Stories of Hope and Hustle From China’s Indie Game Makers

Small game developers vie for creative and commercial success in an industry often blurring the line between work and leisure

To make his latest video game, Yang Yi had to sell his house. After his previous game had its launch delayed by a licensing freeze in China’s game market in 2018, then suffered poor sales after finally releasing in 2020, Yang and his small team were in a “pretty dire” financial situation, he says. They had to take on external software development gigs to stay afloat before they ran out of money completely in 2021.

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