ITG-Soft’s Adventures
Digital Entertainment Smart Content Development Association of the ROC 2023 Conference (July 1, 2023)
This crazy adventure started several months back, when I noticed that a Facebook friend of mine had attended a software exhibition in Taichung City, one weekend. It looked like fun so I made a comment on his post, where he made me aware of a few other conventions coming up over the course of the next few months, including one located in Dali District, which is only about forty minutes from where I live. This was the Digital Entertainment Smart Content Development Association of the ROC 2023 Conference, which was to be held on July 1.
I decided to look up the event and apply for a free ticket as I thought it might be fun; the focus of this conference was apparently aimed at software developed by students, either in high school or university, though I also noticed that independent gaming companies were allowed to apply for a spot at the convention to display their games and game demos, too. At this, I attempted to register ITG-Soft, as I thought it might be fun to show off a few of the Famicom games that we had made. I never heard anything back though and thought that perhaps I misunderstood something and therefore filled out the form wrong, as it was entirely in Chinese. I was disappointed, but I didn’t really know of anything I could do about it, so I just waited. Those applying to display software had to be approved manually, and my ticket seemingly ended up in limbo.
A few weeks later, I decided to check the status of my application again, when I noticed that the ticket had been canceled automatically by the software, since a few weeks had passed and no one had approved it. I felt frustrated, so I messaged a woman about it who had seemed to be involved with the conference. I also mentioned the guy who had told me about the conference, and sent him a message about the situation too, as he speaks English and I thought maybe there might be some misunderstanding with my words. It seemed as though some progress was being made, and I even submitted a few videos of myself plugging the games into a Famiclone machine, for reference. A few more days passed before I heard back from the host of the conference, and at that point I was certain things were looking up.
We talked about the games some. The game I wanted to showcase was Hungry Ghost Night, as I felt it was the most serious and arguably the best of the games we had made, up until this point. In actuality, my personal favorite of the bunch is Peace, Love, Trippy Club, though it just wouldn’t have been appropriate for this sort of expo, containing several inappropriate themes. The host of the event seemed quite excited to be showcasing a Famicom game at the show, but his only concern was whether I had a console and a television that could be used to display the game. This is a situation that did cause me a bit of trouble, but I assured him that I did have all the equipment needed to present the game, and hearing that, ITG-Soft was approved and we were green-lighted to present our game.
I decided to “go big” with the presentation, as I wanted our stand to be a bit memorable. The first thing I did was took a game that we had been making, Alishan Tea Collector, and turned it into a short playable demo that loops back to the first stage upon completion of the final stage, with an ending screen thrown in for good measure. Although this title had come up years ago, it never actually went anywhere, though I decided a few months back that I wanted to revisit the concept after a trip with friends up to the mountains to explore the tea region of Taiwan. Our driver that day was Mr Lee, so the game name was changed to Mr Lee’s Alishan Tea Collector.
I decided to give out this demo at the conference, and I even added a splash screen with the conference logo in the game. Although the whole thing might sound a bit overkill, my thoughts were that the cartridge would be a fun little memento that participants could take home with them to commemorate a fun day of gaming and trying out software from developers around Taiwan.
I ran into a few issues though, since funds were limited (I decided to give the game out for free) and so was time. I never could get the scoring system operating properly, something that will be addressed before the full game drops. Similarly, most sound effects haven’t been implemented either, and for the background music, we just threw in a variety of tunes from our previous works.
Due to cost and time constraints, cartridge shells were also recycled, primarily from cheap, common licensed Japanese games. The trade off was that extra time had to be spent opening up the cartridges, but on the other hand, we didn’t have to worry about a delayed Aliexpress order sending everything sideways. For similar reasons, it was decided that the games would be housed in paper boxes. The paper is thicker than standard paper, but it isn’t as thick as an actual cardboard box would be. Everything was hand cut, and the assembled. As such, the boxes aren’t perfect by any means, but the look does feel a bit rustic, making it the perfect fit for a game about tea.
The night before the show, as I was putting the games in the boxes and sealing them, I had a sudden thought of horror. Although my intentions were pure, I never actually received permission to use the conference logo in the game, or their name on the box. Perhaps people would get angry at me or misunderstand and think that the game was endorsed by the exhibition. I had only two choices, either to scrap the whole idea of the free demo cartridges, or to give them out and take my chances. I opted for the latter option, but as midnight approached, I was writing out disclaimer notices by hand (my printer doesn’t work) and taping them onto the plastic wrap covering the game box. They weren’t pretty, but it was probably the best remedy I could come up with at that moment in time. I then finished packing everything into two plastic totes and my backpack, before heading to bed for a few hours of sleep, as the big day was almost here.
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Needless to say, I didn’t get a wink of sleep the night before the event. I was nervous, and I was also fearful of oversleeping. Furthermore, the forecast had been calling for thunderstorms, and I was planning on hauling all of my gear to the event on my scooter. If it rained, I would have been screwed, though luckily the weather held out. I arrived at the venue quarter til nine, fifteen minutes before the suggested setup time was to begin.
As I walked into the venue, I started to pull out my electronic ticket, but the event host already had an idea who I was so he didn’t need to check it. He told the woman sitting next to him that I would be showing off some really special software, and then they told me where my table was so that I could begin to setup my display. I was situated right at the entrance, the first table one could see when walking in the door.
At this time, there were very few people in the event hall. I felt nervous, and as I looked around at the others, I just started feeling like a proper wanker as I pulled an old portable television out of my backpack. Then as I started setting everything else up, I felt even more foolish, though as more people shuffled in, I felt that I could at least hide a bit in the crowd.
A few weeks before the conference, I had purchased a portable black and white television from my friend. It had been acting finicky, but I tested it the night before the show, and it was working fine. The day of the show though, it refused to turn on. As I had thrown it into my backpack, to transport it to the show, something may have gotten damaged at that point. Luckily I still had one more portable television, but the screen on this one was really tiny (about the size of a Game Boy screen). It was built into a portable VHS tape player.
Initially I wanted to have to stations setup, showcasing the two different versions of Hungry Ghost Night, but I had to change those plans as the black and white television had pulled rank. If I would have remembered to bring the adapter, I could have hooked the other machine up to my laptop, but as I forgot to pack it, the small display would have to do.
As this was a Taiwanese show, I made the decision to bring a famous Micro Genius Famiclone to run the game; however, as most of the attendees were quite young, a lot of people asked me what machine the game was for, and I’d have to explain to them that it was a type of Famicom.
As the show officially began, a speech was given by the host. After this, a mic was passed around, and every development team had a chance for an introduction. Luckily I was last, but I felt quite nervous about this as well, since this introduction was to be made in Chinese. The day previous I had drafted a short speech, and then I asked a Taiwanese colleague friend to help me practice it. She was also kind enough to give my game a Chinese name, too (餓靈追緝令, È líng zhuī jī lìng) as a Chinese name was requested for the signage at the event. My heart started pounding so hard when the microphone started coming down my row, but I managed to give a short speech, and then people were free to explore the expo hall and try out all of the games situated around the room.
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As soon as people were free to sample the different game software, did I find myself face-to-face with so many folks, all eager for a chance to play Hungry Ghost Night. Each time people would stop by the ITG-Soft table, I would explain to the visitors how to play the game. A lot of developers would try out the game, as well as guests. Overall, the feedback was more or less positive, with a few interesting points that really stood out to me:
1. Early on, someone had asked why there isn’t a health bar in the game. This was something I had initially implemented, but then removed. I was afraid having a health meter would discourage people from exploring the large stages and finding the many warps and secrets in the game, with people instead focusing on just plowing through the stage to the exit to preserve one’s self. Looking back, I think this makes the game harder to “get” for some people, but as the game had initially been inspired somewhat by Gauntlet, it was a real fear that I initially had.
2. A lot of people asked what style of game Hungry Ghost Night is. I tried to suggest that it could be viewed as Gauntlet crossed with Zelda, but the reference to Gauntlet just went over the heads of many, as I doubt the game was as popular in Asia as it was in the west.
3. One guy sat down and played the game, saying it was his first time to play an older game. He then asked what the controls did, and as I explained it to him, he then told me how he generally plays first person shooters. I found this to be quite thought-provoking; even though there are less buttons and controls on a Famicom compared to modern gaming machines, I could tell that this gamer felt out of his element initially, likely because things were so simple.
4. A little boy and his guardian sat down to play the game on two players. That didn’t last very long, as I think the boy (probably around five years old) looked at the graphics and thought, “Nah, I’ll play the realistic looking stuff”. I don’t blame him one bit, if the situation were reversed and it were Atari or something, I probably would have bailed too.
5. One team had sat down and played the game together on the two-player mode, passing the controllers back and forth, looking at the maps in the guide book I wrote, etc. To see the excitement and energy just reminded me of the times of days gone by, when Nintendo was king and we’d all be taking turns and crowding around for a chance to play. I was quite impressed, as this team had made it to the very last stage of the game, before ultimately succumbing to the malevolent forces in the game.
Another thing that shocked me are the two points outlined below. These might be more of a contrast of cultures between those of Asia and those in the West, or maybe it truly is the changing of the times.
6. When I first enrolled in university back in 2004, my field of study was computer science. There were only one or two women studying in the department, with the vast majority of the participants being guys that could be classified as geeks or nerds. There was wide spectrum of social awkwardness amongst a lot us, and I think most of us were in the department because we loved working with computers and enjoyed gaming.
With this sort of experience, imagine my shock when I attended the conference on July 1 and first noticed that there were a lot of female development teams at the event. This came as a surprise, yet I am glad to see that more women are getting computers, gaming, and game development. I have noticed a similar change with my students, where the amount of girls interested in characters such as Mario and Pikachu easily rival the amount of boys. It’s great to see that the old divide is finally starting to close.
7. Similarly, back when I was studying computer science, we were learning programming for the sake of programming. At the conference I had spoken to a student, who was able to study game development as her focus. She was telling me about the different areas such as animation, music, video, coding, art, etc. While I am sure that this is not something explicitly new, at least at larger universities, it made me realize just how long ago I stepped away from computer science, and just how far we’ve come.
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One of the questions that people frequently asked me was, “Why? Why are you making games for the Famicom?” There’s a myriad of answers I could provide, but at the end of the day I just enjoy playing the older, simple games. The modern indie games coming out for older gaming machines have become one of my favorite parts of gaming. I don’t have time to sink hours into a modern Zelda title, for example. Similarly, I often feel overwhelmed trying to figure out the control schemes for the modern games, as there’s just a bit of a learning curve. I even felt a bit intimidated and awkward when checking out some of the games that some of the other dev groups had on display at the conference. I felt like the first person shooter guy, only in reverse, as I had barely even held a modern gaming controller in my life! A hint of nostalgia surely clouds my viewpoint a bit as well, leading to my fondness of games made in an old style.
I felt honored that ITG-Soft was able to attend the gaming conference and show off our Hungry Ghost Night game, and I felt really happy seeing how well-received it was. Such feedback is just so encouraging, and it makes me feel inclined to work even harder on our other projects to keep improving the products.
At the end of the day I realize that the games we have done pale in comparison to some of the greats such as Super Bat Puncher, Battle Kid, Trophy, and the numerous works done by guys such as KHAN. Similarly though, Mr Lee and Hungry Ghost Night sure have come a long way when compared to the notorious Cross-Strait Independence game, a kusoge project that was meant to be a one and done sort of venture into Famicom development.
Although homebrew / indie development for older game consoles is starting to pick up steam, it is still nowhere on the level that it is in the West, at least from my humble opinion. This was another factor that really made me want to showcase Hungry Ghost Night at the show.
Taiwan has a rich history of indie game development for console games, though this had occurred thirty years ago. Everyone has a story to tell, and it would be neat to plant the seed in the minds of others here that developing games for classic gaming devices is a thing. Hopefully some will be inspired by what they see, some will dare to dream, and that in a few years time, ITG-Soft can be displaying their games alongside other Taiwanese companies, keeping the older machines alive. Let’s remember our rich gaming roots and ride this wave into the present and see where it goes!
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Below are some more pictures taken from the event on July 1st. It was such a surreal feeling to see so much interest in my Hungry Ghost Night project. Furthermore, so many of the participants sat down and gave the game a proper go, rather than just playing for a few minutes before searching out something else.
