The making of Devotion, China's least favourite horror game

Red Candle’s Devotion is one of the finest horror games of the past decade, and if you haven’t played it already, it’s possible you never will. Following its release this spring, the game was found to contain an unflattering reference to China’s president, Xi Jinping. The discovery sparked an outcry among Chinese players, leading to the withdrawal of Chinese distributors, the closure of Red Candle’s account on Weibo, one of China’s largest social media platforms, and the removal of the game from Steam in China. Red Candle, which is based in Taiwan, has apologised at length for what it says was a placeholder asset, accidentally transferred to the final release. These comments were not enough to stem the backlash, however, and a week after sale, the developer pulled the game from Steam in all territories to perform unspecified fixes. Seven months on, it’s unclear whether Devotion will ever see daylight again.

There is obviously a longer story to tell here about the Chinese state’s sensitivity to criticism, the culture of Chinese patriotism online and the country’s strained relationship with Taiwan, but when I approached Red Candle for an interview in February, it was simply to hear about the creation of a complex and powerful artwork. Set across three periods in the cramped domestic life of a mother, father and daughter in 1980s Taiwan, Devotion ties prejudices about mental illness to the pressure of gender expectations and the lure of the irrational in troubled times. Like its equally accomplished predecessor, Detention, it is both a wonderfully scary game and an intricate account of the socio-historical forces at work within a small group at people. There was much to discuss, and naturally, the conversation below contains extensive spoilers.

I’ve read that you didn’t intend Devotion to be a 3D first-person game at first. What was the original plan, and why did you decide to make the change to 3D?

Red Candle Games: As a matter of fact, Devotion was planned as a 3D first-person game from the beginning. But over two years of development, the design changed drastically. Originally, it was intended to be a much smaller-scale 3D horror demo that lasted for about 15 minutes, without much gameplay or narrative. However, as we invested more time into the project, each of us had more thoughts about the game design and how the story should go. We felt that a 15-minute demo simply couldn’t satisfy our creative needs. Thus, we decided to expand the demo into a full game.

How much are Devotion’s story and characters based on the personal experiences of the development team? And how much inspiration does the game take from other works of horror?

Red Candle Games: The setting and background of Devotion came from the memories of our childhood, but we also drew inspiration from our society as a whole. 1980s Taiwan was a time of economic boom, the growing entertainment industry, and the rising of popular culture. During this period, the media often depicted the success stories of hard-working, talented, persevering people. But in reality, we saw people strangled by the stress and ideas like “as long as you work hard, you will succeed”, and “why can’t you be as successful as others?” They struggled because of these unrealistic expectations from their peers, family and society. As a result, many people decided to seek out supernatural powers for guidance when there were no real solutions to real-life problems. Devotion is a title that delves into such emotions and contradictions.

On the other hand, as this was our first attempt at a 3D game, we spent much of our pre-development phrase researching, including classical and modern horror films – for example we were greatly inspired by the visual composition and sound design of the film Hereditary – books about religion, and local news from the 1980s. More importantly we borrowed or learned a lot from games such as P.T., Layers of Fear, What Remains of Edith Finch and Outlast. While those games deeply influenced the creation of Devotion, the process was truly stressful for the team, because to build on top of game industry giants was not an easy task. We tried our best to be innovative, which led to countless hours redesigning our project. Thankfully, the support we received from our community throughout development helped boost our morale. Though the final result is nothing close to a perfect game, we are glad that the team stuck to the end and delivered something remarkable.

Can you take me through how you designed the layout of the apartment? Where did the idea come from for the apartment, and why did you arrange the rooms in this way?

Red Candle Games: The game’s setting can be divided into two parts: the building hall and the apartment interior. For the building hall, we referred to Taipei’s famous old neighborhood Nanjichang Apartment. This neighborhood was once one of the most modern and luxurious buildings in Taiwan, but it is now filled with dust and signs of age. For artists, the apartment complex has preserved the lifestyle of that period and that’s why many Taiwanese films and TV series favour Nanjichang Apartment as a filming location. But for those who actually lived in the apartment, they might have different perspectives and experiences about the place. The contrast of Du Feng Yu’s success in the early days and his failure later in a way resembles the building itself.