If you do not know, 17173.com hosts one of the biggest game awards ceremony in China annually, with the head honchos of companies like Tencent, Perfect World, Giant Interactive, ChangYou and more attending annually.
While there are actually no games on display being an awards ceremony, there are always some teasers right from the bosses’ mouths. This time round, I am guessing most readers will will be more interested in Snail Games’ Darkness and Light, also known as Dark and Light or Savage Horizon.
The company’s enigmatic CEO, Mr Shi Hai (below), spills the beans for us.
After Age of Wulin launches in China, the next game will be a MMO by the name of “Black Gold” and will most probably be released in 2012. Darkness and Light, which I previewed earlier on, is currently scheduled for launch at end 2012 (sure to be delayed).
After Darkness and Light, there will be Voyage Century 2, which is in development now as well. Voyage Century’s English server is now published by IGG.
On an interesting side of things, the host of the ceremony asked Mr Shi Hai why is Snail Games developing games which are not of the same tune as what is on the market now, making “out of the box” games which might not earn as much revenue.
The cool answer (summarized) was: Snail Games do indeed develop games which aim to be unique, but we will never develop games because of financial gains. For one, we hate to repeat what everyone is doing, and second we hate to repeat what we already did.
On a more HR side of things, employees who have worked in the company for 3 years will get a silver snail ring, 5years a platinum ring and long serving employees of 10 years will get a diamond snail ring (below).
