Interview with Cynthia from Thousand Tonic ahead of PAX Aus
BY DRAWZA
Drawza: Firstly, please introduce yourself and your game?
Cynthia: Kia ora, my name is Cynthia (Qingxia) Wang, a solo game developer and founder of Thousand Tonic, a small indie game studio based in Auckland, New Zealand. Our main project is Ten Thousand Coins: The Golden Merchant, which is a story-rich merchant strategy trading game where a forsaken fox merchant must trade, earn coins, and gather allies while hunted by powerful adversaries to find her lost mentor.
What is your background?
Game development has always been my aspiration for a long-term career path, although there has been detours as it was not always financially viable. One such detour is experience in teaching and curriculum writing at a tertiary level, which was definitely a valuable experience and had helped me “come out of my shell” a bit more.
What made you decide to journey down the path of game development?
Video games have been a big part of my life ever since my discovery of NES games when I was 3 years old. In high school I started taking a crack at making my own games, and from that point I could already see the career path ahead of me, though it wasn’t easy (and much to my parents’ disapproval). After some detours in life, I feel very fortunate to still be on this journey and developing game from my own indie game studio.
What previous games have you created/worked on?
We have released 3 smaller games with NZ on Air aimed at a younger audience, these can be seen on our website: Thousand Tonic.
My individual experience also includes working on games such as My Time at Portia, as well as various mobile game projects at Gameloft NZ.
What are the core concepts?
Our core gameplay loop involves:
Bartering at settlements to obtain goods to trade with.
Next, pick a route and travel through in the untamed wilderness. You’ll face random encounters along the way.
Some of these encounters, like bandits or beasts, may be hostile, to which you will fight it out in turn-based combat.
Upon arriving at a new settlement, you loop back to step 1. Trade your goods for a profit, spend or save your earnings, and plan your next move.
Of course, this only scratches the surface of our game.
What were your inspirations?
One of our earliest gameplay inspirations for Ten Thousand Coins: The Golden Merchant was the classic strategy game The Oregon Trail, where you had to keep a crew alive in the wilderness as you travelled from settlement to settlement across the trail, trading and managing your dwindling supplies.
On the narrative side, we drew inspiration from some of our favourite stories including the Ace Attorney series and Avatar: The Last Airbender, together creating a narrative-driven merchant experience that's uniquely our own.
How long have you been working on this game?
I started this project back in 2016, bootstrapping part-time on and off while holding other jobs, so it's been quite a long time in the oven, with a lot of lessons learned along the way.
With the help of NZ CODE, I have finally been able to commit full-time to this project and also managed to expand our development team and bring on board a few talented contractors which has significantly increased the pace of development.
What is it like to have the game showcased at events such as PAX Aus?
It is an amazing opportunity to both to be able to attend in-person at the venue and to join online with the PAX Aus Steam event as well.
What is it like being part of the New Zealand contingent of indie games showcased at PAX Aus?
I feel very proud of the quality of our Kiwi game projects and what all the teams have accomplished to showcase to an international audience, so to be a part of the NZ contingent at PAX Aus is an honour.
What advice have you got for upcoming game developers?
Don't wait around, start making games if it interests you! It is easier today than it has ever been to jump in and start learning. There are so many important lessons in game development that need to be experienced to truly grasp an understanding of, so less waiting and watching, and more developing.
What advice have you received that you have held on to throughout your journey?
Making commercial indie games is first and foremost a business, as much as nerdy developers like us don’t like to think about, so understanding early on which game genre to develop, which audience to appeal to, and most importantly, if there is market viability in such a product is crucial for your business.
Have you had any mentors in the gaming industry?
NZ indie game developers are a small supportive community, and I've been very fortunate to have had support from the amazing people at NZ CODE, The Arcade Auckland, and NZGDA.
How many PAX Aus events have you attended (as both a developer and as a regular attendee)?
None, so this will be our first time at PAX Aus! Looking forward to the event!
