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Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, foreigners have been leaving China in droves<\/a> to escape the country\u2019s strict \u201czero-COVID\u201d restrictions, which had limited people\u2019s domestic and overseas travel for nearly three years until rules began to relax recently<\/a>. So when NetEase, the second-largest gaming company in China, said it had an expats-led studio working on a game out of Shanghai for the last three years, I was a bit surprised.<\/p>\n Helmed by lead producer Oscar Lopez and creative director Eve Jobse, Miaozi launched its first title globally on Steam last Friday. Called Cygnus Enterprise<\/a>, the game, in the studio\u2019s own words, is a \u201ccross-genre single-player sci-fi game for PC that puts the player in charge of an outpost on an alien planet\u201d and \u201calternates between small-scale city management and action RPG gameplay.\u201d<\/p>\n Both NetEase and its rival Tencent have been placing more focus on overseas expansion as regulatory clampdowns hamper their domestic success<\/a>. Aside from acquiring small Western studios<\/a>, the two Chinese titans have been recruiting international talent. Tencent\u2019s most lucrative studio TiMi kicked off its North America operation in early 2020<\/a> and its internal rival (the firm is known for encouraging in-house competition) Lightspeed similarly set up shop in LA this year<\/a>. NetEase also opened its first US studio<\/a> in Austin this May.<\/p>\n While the months-long lockdown in Shanghai this spring drove many foreigners to exit China, Miaozi\u2019s international employees stayed put and found the situation had little impact on their work.<\/p>\n \u201cLuckily for us, it worked really well,\u201d Lopez said in an interview with TechCrunch. \u201cWe didn\u2019t leave China during COVID times. China was a really safe environment to be in, and we basically focused on our development. The company and our team had all the infrastructure needed to develop from home in case it was needed at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can develop anywhere in the world,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s better if you\u2019re face to face, of course; it\u2019s always easier to engage in communication and solve problems. But the truth is that [the pandemic] didn\u2019t affect us much.\u201d<\/p>\n The naming of the studio speaks to the team\u2019s affinity for China. Miaozi is short for the sound of cats, \u201cmeow\u201d, and \u201cbaozi\u201d, a type of soft, fluffy, filled bun that\u2019s common in China \u2014 two things that the team of 50 employees loves.<\/p>\n \u201cDownstairs around the office, there\u2019s a convenience store FamilyMart, and what people often get during lunchtime are these baozi, and everyone love these baozi,\u201d Jobse explained affectionately the daily routine familiar to those who have worked in Shanghai. \u201cBut they also love cats. There\u2019re a lot of street cats there outside and people pat them and feed them food.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to have something that is kind of cross-culture and loved by everyone, and something that Chinese and the rest of the people in the team would understand,\u201d Jobse added.<\/p>\n In designing the game, the creative director sought inspiration from Chinese science fiction<\/a>, which generally conveys a more uplifting message than their Western counterparts \u2014 the government has been encouraging \u201cpositive energy\u201d in news, arts, and culture<\/a> rather than cynical, negative sentiments in recent years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to make a science fiction game that is both innovative and also positive,\u201d noted Jobse. \u201cScience fiction IPs right now are very, very focused on the negative and the dangers of space or the dangers of alien creatures.\u201d<\/p>\n She went on to reference the influence of The Wandering Earth, a blockbuster Chinese sci-fi film<\/a> loosely based on a short story by Liu Cixin, the author of The Three-Body Problem.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s actually quite a lot of inspirational little details that [we] could take from. For example, The Wandering Earth really has this whole spirit of collaboration and working together [to] overcome this obstacle\u2026 Even if they\u2019re from different cultures or different backgrounds, they want to work together to achieve a common goal.\u201d<\/p>\n As with a lot of other industries, the development of China\u2019s gaming sector is shaped by foreign investments and partnerships. International gaming publishers coveted China\u2019s rapidly growing internet population, and Chinese gaming firms were eager to learn from their more established Western peers. NetEase itself has a long history of working with foreign publishers \u2014 last month marked the end of its 14-year licensing deal with Blizzard Activision<\/a> to operate the latter\u2019s games in China.<\/p>\n Cutthroat competition in the Chinese market has given rise to a generation of internet firms that puts emphasis on short-term earnings over long-term innovations. It\u2019s a delicate balance. Lopez reckoned that his team has a high degree of creative freedom as long as certain expectations are met. \u201cWithin our studio where we produce games, we are objective-oriented. We are meant to produce a game within time and budget. In those boundaries is where our freedom lies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n