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There’s an old saying in Chinese.
People will not give you fire when you are cold.
Ningkun Dai is recalling the darkest moment of Leap Studio, where he is founder and CEO.
When his debut game,Realm of Ink, was delisted on Steam, he thought hed lost everything.
What Happens When Steam Delists You Without Warning?
Realm of Ink is a Hades-like roguelite with design inspiration taken from Chinese mythology.
It looks gorgeous, and its early access release in September 2024 was a great success.
But it was on the latter platform that Dai learned of his games fate in January this year.
They told me, dude, I cannot find your Steam page.
What the f*ck happened?
I was like, what?
Due to theGreat Firewall of China, Dai can only check the Steam page from his office.
Surprisingly, I didn’t feel that much when I found out, he says.
Seriously, it was blank.
“When we were taken down, I was thinking about everybody in the studio.
It’s because I know how committed they are to the game.”
Shadowlight was working onKill the Shadow, which had just released a successful demo during Steam Next Fest.
It had been nominated for many awards in China at the time it disappeared without a trace.
The Impact On Developers
Both games had one more thing in common: their publisher.
As it turns out, every game published by 663 Games was delisted from Steam on the same day.
Half a dozen indie developers hopes and dreams shattered without reason.
663 Games did not respond to a request for comment from TheGamer.
But Dai and Black werent going to let this break them.
But that wasnt going to be easy.
We were very underpaid, Dai tells me.
For artists, their salary is under 800 per month the minimum to sustain their lives.
I needed to mortgage my house for all the spending.
Also, our executive producer, his family doesn’t live here.
We live in Beijing right now.
It’s because I know how committed they are to the game.
With a sudden loss of income and very little communication from Valve, both developers knuckled down.
Their teams pushed through, continuing to develop games that might never appear on the Steam storefront again.
If we [wanted to] make a game for money, then we’d just go to Tencent.
We’d go to NetEase.
He describes the game as a ship of Theseus, with new ideas bolted on and replacing the old.
Thankfully, it paid off.
By the time I spoke to Dai, Realm of Inks Steam page had already been reinstated.
Around a month after I spoke to Black, Kill the Shadow reappeared, too.
Dai received one message from Steam, telling the studio yo do not do that again.
Whatthatis, he has no idea.
For Black, it took around another month for him to be able to reupload the demo.
Both studios have been set back significantly, their games inaccessible and vanished for months.
They both count themselves lucky that theyve survived where many developers wouldnt have.
Recovery And Reinvention
I’m a pretty lucky man, Dai tells me.
I got delisted, and then got relisted.
Not many games can have this.
And I got a new publisher.
I got delisted when we were tainted, and people still want to help us.
I got all these colleagues that trust the studio, trust the game, trust me.
On the other hand, I’m pretty unlucky too.
We got f*cked.
These games are passion projects.
The developers are obsessed with creating something thattheywant to make.
We’d go to NetEase," Dai says.
“We could make so much more money than making an indie game.
We just want to prove that we can still do something with our time, with our lives.”
Valve nearly stole that dream from them.
To this day, the developers dont know why their games were delisted.
It had something to do with publisher 663 Games, but nobody knows exactly what.
They have their own theories, but declined to share them with me as they were just speculation.
“We have a tradition of demonising video games we used to call video games electronic opium.”
Communication was threadbare, practically non-existent.
Neither developer I spoke to is certain of the reasons they got relisted.
They just threw ideas at the wall to see what stuck.
One of those changes they made to their storefronts must have worked.
Instead, [our page was] delisted from the platform, which really hurts the game and team.
This could mean life and death for indie studios.
In this instance, it severely impacted the lives of many developers for months on end.
Without proper communication, theres no way of knowing which studio will receive the same treatment next.
And the next one might not survive.
Valve did not respond to a request for comment.
Overcoming Stereotypes
You must also take into account the nationality of the developers involved.
Dai points toBlack Myth Wukongas the exception that proves the rule.
For Chinese developers, we’ve been through some really difficult stages, says Dai.
[In the past], the Chinese government didn’t support us that much for decades.
Chinese [people] are really good at taking exams.
He also explains that the language barrier is a serious problem for the burgeoning independent scene.
Were all hardworking idealists.
I really think our story should be known that were hardworking people trying to make something great.
The game encouraged players to “make all women yours.”
