A Confession, Apologies, a Celebration, and Looking Forward: Four Years with ITG-Soft

[fcgamer | 4,719]

It’s never easy to admit when one has done wrong, especially when it concerns the people that he or she cherishes. For me, I have mislead the community for awhile, and although I wanted to put an end to the charade earlier, there didn’t seem to be a good way out. I recognize that a portion of people here might be upset and angry with me, understandably so, but ask everyone to withhold any judgment at least until you hear me out.

Anyways, I just want to let everyone know that I am the bulk of ITG-Soft. The notorious Kiki Wang is a pseudonym that I use when making games. I am truly sorry for those whom I have mislead over the past four years, and I am not going to attempt to justify my actions; that said, I think I owe everyone an explanation and I’ll detail it below.

It is common for those who create content to use an alternative name or pseudonym. Maybe it is to protect one’s privacy, or perhaps it is because the person has already been in the field and he or she wants to go a different direction and try something new (think J.K Rowling, or Chris Gaines vs Garth Brooks). For me personally, I assumed the name Kiki Wang for safety reasons, not only of myself but for those around me.

A few weeks ago I had made an alternative account and posted on here under my pseudonym, after finding out that someone had been dumping and distributing ROMs of the games I had made. I just wanted to gain some insight as to whether the guilty party is someone from “within” the community, as I have his name though I don’t know if he has a handle here or not. Either way, I was wrong to make an alt account and two wrongs don’t make a right. For that I would like to apologize to both Gloves and Spacepup, they work tirelessly and don’t need people such as myself to create trouble and added work for them.

(Alternate Version of Dragon Boat Fest - Artwork done by a graffitti artist collector friend, game made for my brother for his birthday. This game and Dragon Boat are intimately related, without the one, there wouldn't have been the other...)

With the above said and done, I now want to take the time to highlight a bit about ITG-Soft, and I’ll be glad to answer any questions that anyone has, or clarify anything that people feel needs clarified.

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The Story of ITG-Soft

–-

To understand ITG-Soft, one needs to head back to 2016 or 2017. Frankengraphics had designed an art concepts cartridge and auctioned them off on Nintendo Age. It was around this time that I also had a really creepy experience happen to me locally, when I received a mysterious package in the mail from an unknown sender. The return address was addressed to a cemetery, and inside the parcel was a Super Mario Kart game for Super Famicom and about $12 in money, an unusually high amount of money so it wasn’t just reimbursement for postage or something. I had just changed apartments and gotten a new P.O. box, so it wasn’t as though I ordered the cartridge, as no one had my new address. As Taiwanese have a lot of superstitions concerning numbers, I decided to count up the amount of money and the number turned out to be an “angel” number. At this point I started to freak out and began calling to mind stories from locals of men being forced to “marry” ghost brides, or young unmarried women who had died tragically young.

This whole experience terrified me, and I thought that it would be a good concept for a video game, especially for a Western audience. As Frankengraphics does some of the best pixel art that I have seen, I reached out to her, but she was busy with other projects and furthermore, after discussing games and prices and things like that, it became clear that there was no way I could afford to pay people to create a game. So it was back to the drawing board, and the idea was scrapped.

It wasn’t until the end of 2018 that I had heard of a program called NES Maker, which allowed one to create NES / Famicom games without having a background in coding. I was intrigued, so I purchased a copy of the software. At the time the tutorials and “engines” felt somewhat limited, so instead of creating a platform game of sorts, I decided that I’d make a shooter based on the idea of Taiwan defending itself against China, a threat that comes to mind every single day as I hear war planes flying over my head. I jokingly mentioned the idea to my parents and brother, and none of them were very happy about this game concept. Neither was the girl that I was dating at the time. I had time to play around a bit and designed a title screen, and then told OptOut about the idea one weekend as we were waiting to take the train up north, to begin our boys weekend of boozing and game hunting. He really liked the idea, and was the sole influence that helped the game even see the light of day.

The primary reason I distanced myself from the project and subsequently from ITG-Soft was as follows: I was concerned about my safety. Going into it, I knew that the Independence game was going to be mediocre at best, so I wasn’t trying to hide due to quality issues. When you live less than 1200 miles from a guy that would want you dead, if he knew about the game, you want a place to hide. I remembered too clearly situations such as the Theodoor van Gogh murder and the attempted assassination of the Danish cartoonist. For some reason, the chairman depicted as the honey-loving bear, whacking off any time he got shot in the crotch, just seemed like asking for trouble. And so Kiki Wang was born, and became the pseudonym I used when crediting myself in the games. My cat Richard joined the team, going by the name Richard Miao, a name that has stuck. OptOut also has a credit in some of the games under a pseudonym I made, and a few other friends and noteworthy folks also appear credited throughout the various games, others who helped out with various bits.

A (minor) secondary reason for the use of a pseudonym was that in Taiwan there are very strict laws governing the use of people and their images, without permission. While getting sued by the president of Taiwan is a much better fate than getting murdered by the chairman of China, it was still a fate that I didn’t really want for myself. I was so worried about the situation that for the local market, I even sold a version of the game with all of the political references removed, but I ultimately sold about two copies.

I could have bailed on the project but then the Hong Kong protests started picking up steam, and it made me feel even more sure than ever that I had wanted to make a patriotic game as a tribute to the country and people who had hosted me for over a decade.

(Original Independence Artwork, by Simon G)

In terms of Independence itself, it’s terrible by all accounts. I love it, as I have fond memories creating it; although it is buggy with an unwavering difficulty, the game is a bit deeper than what the unpolished surface might suggest.

For example, the areas that one visits throughout the game are all recognizable for those who have been to Taiwan. The locations are strategic; for example many suspect that China would attack from the south rather than from the north. Some military areas were researched. The guy in Changhua was based on a PRC sympathizer living there, who conned local monks into a debt scheme to take over their temple and turn it into a PRC shrine. The game even has some secret paths and stages, something which I always loved the thought of when playing through games as a child.

I remember taking a very rough demo over to play at OptOut’s house, and we both were pissed at this time and he told me straight up that it was terrible. Regarding the music, I composed it all, aside from a single track which I nicked from a now-defunct foreigners band I used to follow locally in Taiwan. I used it as sort of a tribute to them, transcribed the song by ear. I paid a frenemy of mine from Malta, an artist and musician (he looks like Super Mario) to do the box art for the game. We met at a KFC and he sketched out two concepts, I chose one, and over the course of weekly KFC meetings I’d see how the art was progressing. It was complete in about six weeks, and cost just under $200.

The idea of paying a professional to do the art was again a throw-back to the earlier days of gaming. We all know the story as kids, the art was amazing but then the game sucked. I’ll never forget when I had first met with the guy, he grew up in the Atari era but wasn’t a gamer at all. He asked me what sort of planes were going to be in the game – I was left speechless, I mean with eight-bit sprites there’s a lot left up to the imagination.

A Polish friend of mine designed the PCBs for me, and OptOut helped with the printing of the box art and the manual. In fact that’s why the manual has no front cover; originally, I had a front and back cover, as well as a terms of usage that one had to sign in order to play the game, which stated that the person acknowledged that Taiwan was not part of China. Again it went back to that fear mentioned earlier. For some reason those pages ended up being a different size than the other images. OptOut was helping me with the printing, but due to the size difference, he couldn’t get them fixed and then he and his family were going on holiday. By this point I knew the game was going to turn out somewhat like the notorious Hong Kong 97, so I took it as a sign and the game ultimately didn’t have a front cover (or the waiver).

(Cross Strait Independence, Famicom)

I didn’t even know how to solder but then the game was finished, so I spent half an hour watching a YouTube video on soldering, and then hoping and praying that I could get a game to actually run. For cartridges, I went down to a toy store and bought all of their cheap bootleg cartridges of a certain style just to harvest for shells, and I did something similar for the clam shell boxes. I could only get enough boxes / cases for about 100 games though, and I wanted to do a run of 200 games max, so I bought what I could and then figured I’d worry about the rest later. I then did all of the printing in advance, before taking orders on Nintendo Age. In the end I sold about 15 copies of the game. Between the components, art work, printing, cases, etc, this was a huge loss on my part. I was happy though, as I had made a game, learned to solder, and finally completed something that I had set out to do, something that was a huge deal back then, as I used to be an 80% guy (a person who finishes projects to 80% then bails).

---

A few months after Independence was released, I felt the urge to work on something else. I had the idea where one would control a mother leopard cat, who would try to rescue her litter. I started working on a demo and the gameplay style was supposed to be similar to the Codemasters game, Boomerang Kid. The first few stages were even modeled after the first few stages in Boomerang Kid. One night I made a “commercial” where I recorded the demo playing, with Aerosmith music in the background, and of course narration. I wanted to make a limited number of copies, maybe 10 to 15 cartridges, and then auction them off locally, donating the money raised to local organizations that would help the local leopard cats here in Taiwan, help this threatened animal from dying off. OptOut had even suggested that I bundle them with Famiclones that were painted in leopard cat patterns. The project never ended up being completed though, as I wasn’t satisfied with how the graphics were turning out. So I shelved it, though I still intend to finish this project sometime in the near future, again for the purpose of donating the money to help the leopard cats. As a foreigner living here, the ways I can assist are a bit more limited, but this is one way I can help support a cause that I feel passionate about.

Another idea that I had was to release a series of cartridges similar to what Brian Parker was doing with his Christmas homebrews, though I would release mine to help celebrate and commemorate Chinese New Year. I started working on the first game in the series, and had it at about 95% complete. I was finishing things up while at the airport, before heading back home to visit my family. I then headed back home, and while I was away, rumors and fears about a new virus known as COVID-19 started to creep into the minds of people. The game never made it into production, partially because of COVID-19.

---

And from there things just get on growing. Peace, Love, Trippy Club was based partially on an experience that OptOut and I had, where we found ourselves talking about how to access the Mario 3 Pirate Coin Ship in the middle of a brothel. We even started talking about gaming with the owner of the establishment and the prostitutes, and I helped OptOut score a plush video game doll (was it Mario? Pikachu? I forget) for his kids.

(Peace, Love Cover Sketch)

(Hungry Ghost Night Instruction Manual Art)

Hungry Ghost Night was our most ambitious project, releasing two different games at the same time. I took inspiration from Guns ‘N Roses for that one, except I soon learnt the sad fact that many homebrew purchasers are just shelf collectors, as no one had even realized that there were two different games floating around.

(Hungry Ghost Night Painting)

Piss the Fish was meant to be a party game. I came up with the concept after playing a game one day and realizing that the way I was holding the Micro Genius controller in my hand, it was almost vertical, like a wii remote would be held. The game is stupid, it’s silly; however, the thing to keep in mind is that it was made during very dark times in my life. I made the game while I was off of work for three months due to COVID-19. I was lucky that it was only three months, but at the time I didn’t know how long the madness would last.

It’s a horrible thing to be out of work indefinitely, especially when the bulk of your investments are tied up in stocks and accounts abroad. As such, I made the game to give me something to do while stuck at home alone with Richard Miao, and figured that if I could sell a few copies, it would help add income during a time where I needed it most. I solely meant to sell that game locally, but then people abroad had begun to want it, so I sent some abroad too. I like the concept of the game and think it’s funny for what it is, though it was conceived during very dark times.

---

Before becoming an English / languages student at university, I was studying comp sci. I was really interested in creating games, but I couldn’t hack it then, for a number of reasons, though through making some games and the homebrew scene, it has propelled me to want to revisit coding and use NES Maker as a springboard to larger and greater things.

Some may try to pass judgment on ITG-Soft and their games, even my latest project (Hot Pot Runs) is a kusoge, which is why I will only sell copies to people who have purchased the accompanying novel. Is this really a cash-grab though? Am I contributing to the homebrew club or am I perhaps detracting from it?

Where I stand with these games is not for me personally to judge, I’ll leave that to my critics; however, here are my own “takes” on the matter.

I play games, I compose, I have some coding experience, and I like painting; however, I can’t say that I’m particularly good at any of these things, aside from actually gaming, and 33+ years will do that to someone. Knowing this, ITG-Soft focused on being unique, being edgy, being innovative, as opposed to being “good”.

I just about cried when I played Trophy, for example. It felt like I was playing a brand new Mega Man game. We live in a world where even professional programmers, who were involved in the industry back in the day, are creating Kickstarters to produce new “retro” games. For those without the background and experience, how can anyone honestly compete with that?

That’s why I focused on niche themes and concepts, niche stories and ideas that hadn’t been explored mainstream. The games might not be polished, but I think several of them do have merit in their own way. In a way, one could argue that ITG-Soft was trying to bring homebrew gaming back to its roots.

In my magazine, Mali’s Cash, I run a homebrew history section each month, as I remember when this stuff was happening back in the late 90s and early 2000s. I remember when I received an email from the creator of Hot Logic, that was destined to be the most significant homebrew at the time. Now the expectations are a bit high, as early homebrew pioneers become more skilled at their trade, and with former professionals entering into the market, the question sometimes arises whether mediocre “first attempts” from amateurs (i.e. hobbyists) should even be released and sold. Take the release of NES Maker even, and how much backlash there was.

I’ll leave you guys with this, and I’m more than happy to discuss of the above in detail this week. As far as I am aware, Cross Strait Independence was the first NES Maker game to be released on cartridge. Ignoring the cost of the artwork, consider this:

- Fabrication cost of new pcbs (luckily I have a Polish collector friend who designed these for me in exchange for some game cartridges)

-Hundreds of hours creating the game

-Cost of cases, boxes, and printing

All of this was done all my own dime, to create a kusoge parody of Hong Kong 97. Then old people in the game are throwing around terms like “cash grab”...I’d rather play Independence than some iteration of Tic Tac Toe, but perhaps that’s just me.

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(Prototype cartridges ... PLTC, CSI, even a proto of Save the Leopard Cats. The black cartridge contains John's Wampus game. I had really liked his game and wanted to license it, but then COVID hit and things went to hell, and sadly it never happened...maybe someday.)

If nothing else, my time in the industry has changed the way I look at games, and the homebrew / indie scene is by now easily my favorite part of gaming, and I try to support or encourage those involved when I can. Goodnight everyone

Edited August 8, 2022 by fcgamer

[spacepup | 2,404]

Thanks for sharing - it was definitely an interesting read!  Seeing how everything came about / the development of the company and your games.  

I appreciate the clarity you've provided, as well as being honest and forthcoming - so now anyone interested in your games knows where they came from.  There was always a strange elusive nature about the company, but now we know it's our very own Dave behind it (and shoutout to @OptOut as well ha)! 

Honestly, I think it's a cool thing to be able to create something to a completed project, and get it out there.  It's something you can be proud of.  Regardless of perceived 'quality,' the fact of the matter is, you took something from your brain/creative soul, and made a piece of art with it.

I know that it has always been a dream of mine to make a video game, but a dream that I never really pursued much and probably won't, if I'm being completely honest.  So it's cool to see that happen.

I'll also add, that for all the criticisms of nes maker, this is a good example of why it is cool that it is out there.  Because it has helped inspire and propel some people to take the next step. 

I hope you can now feel comfortable and open talking about your games and experiences with the rest of the homebrew community and the community at large.

Thank you.

 

[Ferris Bueller | 495]

Send me some protos!

[fcgamer | 4,719]

2 hours ago, Ferris Bueller said:

Send me some protos!

Got ya covered, actually I still need your address so I can send you the gift from buying the first Malis Cash mag. I'll send you some goodies along with that.

[JamesRobot | 5,786]

Hold up. 

7 hours ago, fcgamer said:

...in the middle of a brothel... I helped OptOut score a plush video game doll (was it Mario? Pikachu? I forget) for his kids.

 

@OptOut scored toys for his kids from some prostitutes? 

Damn, pimpin'!  Thas some game there, boy.  Opty's all up in the house like, "this Pikabitch chose me."

[fcgamer | 4,719]

1 minute ago, JamesRobot said:

Hold up. 

 

@OptOut scored toys for his kids from some prostitutes? 

Damn, pimpin'!  Thas some game there, boy.  Opty's all up in the house like, "this Pikabitch chose me."

Well I scored it for him while he was in the bathroom, err the back room.

[JamesRobot | 5,786]

1 minute ago, fcgamer said:

Well I scored it for him while he was in the bathroom, err the back room.

I guess it is your avi wearing the pimp hat.

[OptOut | 8,881]

29 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

Hold up. 

@OptOut scored toys for his kids from some prostitutes? 

Damn, pimpin'!  Thas some game there, boy.  Opty's all up in the house like, "this Pikabitch chose me."

Where else do you suggest I shop for toys for my kids? Crack den? 

Also, it WAS a Mario, we got it here at the school now for all the local kids to play with! 

[fcgamer | 4,719]

3 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Where else do you suggest I shop for toys for my kids? Crack den? 

Also, it WAS a Mario, we got it here at the school now for all the local kids to play with! 

Nasty.

[OptOut | 8,881]

2 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Nasty.

What?! I washed all the hooker spit and whore musk off of it before it entered the general stuffed animal circulation! 

[fcgamer | 4,719]

Hopefully you scrubbed Mario's cock.

[OptOut | 8,881]

I just wanna say, it's been a pretty amazing journey to watch this story play out from the other side of the looking-glass! I think you've managed to produce an impressive amount of art here, the games, the artwork and manuals, and the story of ITG itself! You should absolutely be proud of what you've accomplished, and I'm glad that the full story is finally being shared here with everyone.

Personally, I view the entire ITG project as a piece of performance art, living up to the legend and the stories of the old bootleg outlets of old! It is true that some amount of deception has been necessary to keep the project in the realm of the mysterious and obscure, hopefully that hasn't stepped on too many toes or hurt too many feelings, but now that it is out in the open I think the legend will only get bigger and better from here!

For whatever small part I played in the story, I am proud to have a little piece of myself in the ITG story there too, but I think it really reflects on the effort and dedication and passion of @fcgamer that he has been able to put all this stuff together over a relatively short period of time, and produced something distinctive and creative into the world here that now hopefully many more people will be able to enjoy.

So, kudos to you Dave, and Richard Miao of course, and here is to the bright future of ITG Soft! 

[Code Monkey | 2,005]

9 hours ago, fcgamer said:

Maybe it is to protect one’s privacy, or perhaps it is because the person has already been in the field and he or she wants to go a different direction and try something new (think J.K Rowling, or Chris Gaines vs Garth Brooks).

Chris Gaines was the name of a musician in a movie Garth was supposed to play. After he made the entire soundtrack under the character's name and persona, the company pulled the funding and the movie never got made. Garth decided to release the album anyway.

It has nothing to do with a different direction.

[fcgamer | 4,719]

 

13 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

Chris Gaines was the name of a musician in a movie Garth was supposed to play. After he made the entire soundtrack under the character's name and persona, the company pulled the funding and the movie never got made. Garth decided to release the album anyway.

It has nothing to do with a different direction.

Rowling was the different direction, Garth was the something new.

[G-type | 2,479]

I am just learning about this now. looks like a ton of work! congrats on finishing your project.

[fcgamer | 4,719]

Actually I was forced to do everything against my will, this bastard was the culprit, the evil Mr Miao himself...

I cared about gaming, all Richard cared about was funding for his fresh seafood habit.

[a3quit4s | 4,093]

I’m now sad that I traded/sold my cross strait independence

[RH | 4,897]

37 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

I’m now sad that I traded/sold my cross strait independence

At least you had one!  I try to avoid homebrew stuff because it's too awesome for me to handle (which really means that's a niche hole I'd rather not fall into because I don't have the funds to collect all the stuff I want.)

Now knowing the back story, it really makes me want a copy.

Also this, just because...

[fcgamer | 4,719]

Well the most ironic part of that game is that I had planned on limiting it to 200 pieces, divided into 100 copies and then 100 more if the first 100 sold. So I prepared and printed manuals, box art for that many. But then I only sold less than 20 I think, which were made as I filled orders.

Eventually the game was marked as "no longer available" on the VGS homebrew list, though I had never told anyone that it was out of print. I thought this a bit odd, but as I had wanted distance from the project I just left it as is.

Somehow after that, I did ironically enough lose the final rom for the game, so when I made one to give to a local Taiwanense friend who wanted it, I had to use the near final build, which had one or two graphic differences. 

The game was even advertised for sale in a local political / controversial magazine that a local expat published, that guy's loony tunes, @OptOut knows.