u/BlobKingGame

Two-person indie studio here. Our game launches on Steam in July, currently in demo, finishing the full version. We found out our game has been ripped and republished as a Douyin/TikTok mini-game in China.

Not "inspired by." They extracted our Unity assets directly, 3D models/meshes, textures, animations, sound effects, music, our 200-node skill tree (Which is completely garbage and unbalanced / unplayable after the demo content, and not complete for the full game, but many effects already are working or “kinda working”), particles etc... They even recompiled in a way, and put ads into the game.

So one “dumb” error we already learned: Don’t put your full games content (even if not ready) in the demo, and trying to “protect” it with code #if… scriptableObjects or however..

On one hand, this is unauthorized distribution of our IP. Assets...

On the other hand, it's accidentally “free marketing”, although they have a different name and it's only "visual marketing" so not sure if it's even marketing... some chinese players reached out to us asking why the demo on Steam does not have “the full version”, when the full version comes out… and overall it seems like they enjoy the game even the unbalanced shitty rip off version on Douyin.

But the game looks so crappy, and cheap eg. no shadows, some shaders / materials missing and as I said, unplayable so this also kinda “hurts” our image as a Studio / game, we put so much effort and love into this game that it really bothers us. 

We're 2 months from full release with a lot of work still to do on the actual game. Systems etc. missing…And not sure what to do now.

What we’re considering:

1. IP takedowns via Douyin
2. Hire someone in China to set up an official Douyin/Bilibili presence, post our own content, comment on the pirated videos with "this is the original, full version coming to Steam" try to convert some of the existing audience.
3. Do nothing. Accept it, focus on finishing the game.

Question:

• For devs who've dealt with Chinese piracy specifically, did takedowns actually work, or was it a waste of time/energy?
• Has anyone successfully built an "official" presence in China?
• Is there a Chinese social media operator/agency anyone has worked with and would recommend? (Or warn against.) Fiverr is currently the most budget friendly we guess but not sure if Fiverr is really a “good” way to go lol…

 

Tldr:

Our Game got stolen and reuploaded as a mini-game. What should we do?

edit:

If you have a Douyin account, it would help if you could report / flag the game for IP infringement. Thanks!

A Chinese publisher just reached out to us. Looking for some advice...

Launched our Demo and our game is getting quite a bit of traction in China organically. We already paid for Simplified Chinese localization (and will do so for the full game). A Chinese publisher has now reached out wanting a deal.

Question:

1. Has anyone had experience with a China-only publisher? Is it really worth it?
2. How big of a deal/market share are the "not-Steam" stores really?

Our current thinking is that, if the game is getting organic traction from China already, we might be able to increase this with more time and effort, maybe paying someone to help us with China "marketing" (we paid for localization already, so maybe just having a Chinese native speaker helping out with promotion, outreach, etc.).

Or what are we overlooking that a Chinese publisher could bring that would justify taking a huge cut of the Chinese revenue?

Our main concern is that, let's assume the game grows more organically in China, Steam sales are 100% ours regardless. So would it be worth giving up let's say 20-50%(depending on how low they go) on the Steam sales for getting what? A few sales in non-Steam stores?

Anyone here can share some numbers or insights?

Or any not-Steam / Steam ratio Sales in China?

Thanks!