Red Candle Games, famous for its unique horror games that melted Taiwan’s history and culture, such as ‘Vanity’ and ‘Reduction’, released its new Nine Sold in March last year.
Unlike the previous work, which had a psychological horror based on the story, this work, which showed the 2D side-scrolling action, which is the main counterattack and paring, also attracted users’ attention by introducing a unique ‘Tao Punk’ that melted Tao.
Red Candle Games has become one of the developers who come to Taiwan as they are made into dramas and movies, not just games.
The Taipei Game Show was absent from the Taipei Game Show, but it was possible to deliver their enthusiasm to show another possibility through Nine Sold, which is scheduled to be released this year.
■ ‘Vanity’, ‘reduction’ that solved Taiwan’s history and culture from the story of fear.
Q. If you look at anti-school and reductions, the grotesque elements were minimized and the distinctive horror of psychology was impressive.
What is the focus of creating that immersive horror?
= As a gamer, we grew up in a variety of games.
I’ve played a lot of horror games.
So I knew that Jumps and Gore elements were so frightened to appeal to the hardcore horror game users.
Also, I thought that if we put a lot of gore elements, we would like to destroy the feelings we want to convey to gamers.
So we changed directions to psychological fear, not traditional jump scars, and ‘anti-school’ and ‘reduction’ focused on the story.
In the process, I realized that pace control is very important and needs buildup to effectively express a terrifying scene.
For example, in our games, we often plead with intentionally comfortable visual elements, comfortable sounds of low bass, and low tones to loosen the psychological boundaries of gamers.
In addition, I have learned many small skills, but I think it’s more important to think that it’s a convincing story, and it’s the secret to focus on how can I tell you a good story in these two works.
Q. Wasn’t the anti-school a movie or drama?
How was your impression then?
Do you think that the point of anti-school appeals to the film and drama producers?
= It was honored and excited to get that opportunity.
I didn’t even think about it that our game came out as a movie.
Personally, I think that ‘anti-school’ attracted the attention of filmmakers because it is a unique story set in a very special period in Taiwan’s history.
At the same time, it is one of the reasons why ‘anti-school’ focuses on topics that can be interested not only in that era but also for generations.
Q. If you look at anti-school, it would not have been easy to make a game based on sensitive history. Is there a special reason for choosing the material?
= ‘Vanity’ and ‘reduction’ were both squeezed around the story.
It was the result of thinking about the definite story of the two games in the past, and then choosing the best time for the setting.
In ‘Vanity’, I wondered if Taiwan’s ‘White Terror’ period in the 60s would be an oppressive environment that would effectively portray the stories of the characters.
And the choice of Taiwan in the 80s in ‘reduction’ is a time when religious worship thrives, and it is a reasonable choice to portray Making’s childhood on the subject.
Q. Didn’t you choose the material of religion following history?
Is there a reason for dealing with this?
= We wanted to show Taiwan’s stories that could cause great repercussions to gamers around the world.
The two themes, religion and family, are very common and universal, so they can sympathize with any kind of background and cultural gamers.
I wondered if the point would be a common denominator to bring gamers into our stories and dig deep into the complex relationships between the characters.
So we drew our story based on that topic.
Q. It was amazing to draw a fairy tale scene that I read to Dummies with a 2D side-scroll, TV commercials, and stage.
I’m curious about the process of designing the details.
= In fact, not only us, but most of the indie teams may not be, but we are a team that enjoys creating something from nothing.
Of course, it has been discussed several times whether it is worth it or it will be effective or that it will be effective.
In the process, I continued to experiment several times, and at first glance, I put a crazy plan one by one.
Of course, I am grateful to the film crew who worked with us as well as us in the process.
Without their cooperation, they wouldn’t have made TV commercials or TV shows that fit our intended themes.
Q. Both works were divided into stories and endings.
What do you think while looking at those interpretations?
= I am very grateful and great for the approach of our game with our own perspective and interpretation.
In fact, one of the goals of our game is that it stimulates and encourages critical thinking, and the members have different opinions on the ending inside our studio.
So we deliberately left room for users to report and infer or guess themselves.
If we cover it with black and white, it will probably take away some joy of interpreting and interpreting that creative work.
■ New attempts that mix taoism and action in Taiwan, ‘Nine Sold’
Q. After making a game with realistic materials, Nine Sold did not use a completely different world of fantasy.
I wonder why I changed so.
= There are many reasons.
First, did our team make a horror game twice in a row?
It’s a bit different, but I was a bit tired and tired as I created a similar ‘fear’ experience anyway.
So I thought it was the way to restore our energy to take a little hand and take a rest and see another genre.
Secondly, as the team is small, it is an environment where we can experiment with other topics and other gameplay at any time and flexibly.
Indie developers are not originally.
Should it be a kind of privilege that you want to make and experiment with creative ideas?
I thought I had to take advantage of the possibilities and find different things whenever I had a chance.
To speak more about Nine Sold, there is a more special goal than before.
Through intuitive and enjoyable gameplay, I hoped that the fun and possibilities would appeal to users around the world, even if the understanding of the language was not supported.
It was especially aimed at the western market.
I hoped that this intuitive work we are making will be another opportunity to spread this name of Red Candle Games abroad.
Q. Didn’t the genre change from horror adventure to action?
Was there anything difficult?
Of course, it was very difficult in many ways because it was very different from what we did.
But did you not succeed in switching from 2D, ‘Hang yo’ to 3D.
There were so many challenges in the process.
From that point of view, it seems that we have always been doing.
It’s not just a familiar thing, but I feel like I’m struggling to keep doing something new?
Nine Sold also hopes to overcome and overcome several adversities and come out safely on time.
Q. The title is written in Chinese characters, and the English title is Nine Sold.
What does the title mean?
= It’s hard to say because it’s going to be a spoiler.
If you can say now, the title has many meanings.
I will try to come as soon as the day when gamers play directly and finally find the meaning of the title.
Q. In the trial version, the 2D side-scrolling environment showed the starting point of the difficult action to actively use evasion and paring.
And such types of works are often seen in 2D as well as 3D.
= It is as it is.
There are a lot of 2D action games every year and the competition is not very fierce.
In such a situation, I thought in many ways to provide Nine Solzmans unique experience to catch the eyes of gamers and to enjoy.
Including not only battle but also environmental elements.
Over the past few years, it has spent a lot of time and effort to test and modify the core elements of the battle.
Through the process, we designed the battle in the direction of an in-counter in a super close-up distance, and the use of counterattack, paring and charging attacks.
In environmental elements, that is, in stories and settings, they differentiated them by creating the concept of the so-called ‘Tao Punk’ world that mixed cyberpunk and SF elements with the Far East.
Q. On the other hand, since the previous work was a story-oriented game, there are some users who can’t adapt, but I wonder if they have prepared a device to consider them.
= The main point that Nine Sold puts on the surface is gameplay, especially combat parts.
However, there is our background that has been producing a narrative game, so we also wanted to consider the user base that approached it.
And we have believed that narratives and solid stories will improve the overall experience of the game.
However, this time, we have tried to deliver the story differently than before, and how our old experience can be integrated into this new genre.