Growing Beyond Expectations

When Realm of Ink first launched, it was a much smaller game than what players see today. Dai explained how dramatically the game has expanded: “So we used to only have like 4 maps, now we will definitely have 10 maps by the end of this year. Each map contains its unique mini-monster, their big monster, and also like the bosses, all that stuff. And each boss has its own unique perk, and this kind of perk will actually give you an extremely strong ability.”

The growth hasn’t stopped at just maps. The team has nearly doubled their content across the board. “And also, we used to have like 20-ish ink gems, now we have around almost 50. And also for the ink pads, we have more detailed portraits, and also more characters, and more ways of attacking,” Dai shared. This expansion comes directly from their close relationship with their community. “We have a community of over thousands of thousands of people in China, and we are trying to set up our international community at this point too, because we want to know what the players want. And we are very open to all the suggestions,” he added.

The Hades Comparison: Inspiration and Innovation

Many players have called Realm of Ink “Chinese Hades,” a comparison that Dai approaches with a balanced perspective. “Here’s the thing, I think it’s the comments, so I do not take it in a good way or a bad way, but that’s how people describe what they’re thinking, what they’re seeing. From our perspective, Hades is definitely one of the greatest indie games ever, especially for action-roguelike games. It’s not even one of the greatest, it’s the greatest,” he explained.

However, Dai saw room for improvement in the roguelike formula. “But for us, we definitely do receive some inspiration from Hades, but we also see the flaw in Hades, because I was a big fan of Hades, and I figured the roguelike part for Hades is not enough,” he continued. This led him to create his own version with a clear philosophy: “But for us, we just do what we want. We are trying to make a game that people can actually play after a tiring day of work. Because for Realm of Ink, we focus on the roguelike part,” said Dai.

The team’s approach emphasizes accessibility and variety. “We have so many different permutations that you can apply in the game. And each way, you can always find a goal, and you can actually have a pretty fun slash-and-dash kind of experience. That’s what we are going for. It’s a game that you can always win. As long as you understand the game, it will be fine,” he emphasized.

The visual approach also differs significantly. “And for the art part, I don’t know, because Realm of Ink’s aesthetic is actually pretty traditional Chinese. It’s kind of like an inkbrush feel, and we actually combined a little bit from the Western comic book. Like, the line you can see is the same. So it gives you very instant feedback, fighting feedback. So you punch, you get the feedback. It gives you a very clean kind of vibe,” Dai described.

The Philosophy Behind the Ink

The game’s title comes from a deeper meaning rooted in Chinese literature. Dai explained that it’s based on LiaoZhai Zhiyi where each chapter has its own main character.

“The reason we call it Realm of Ink is actually kind of philosophical-based. Every character in the book realizes, oh my god, I’m a character in the book. But how should I live my life, or how should I deal with the future?” Dai reflected. This creates what he calls a thought-provoking choice: “It’s like the Chinese version of Matrix. Do you want to get out of the book, or do you just want to be the hero of your own story?” he said.

The sword woman that players control isn’t special in this regard. “So sword woman is the one which is the player, the special one. But not that special, because every boss in the game also realizes, oh my god, I’m in the book. But all of them choose to stay, because what’s the point?” he noted. Each boss provides their own perspective on this existential question. “And each boss gives you their perspective about how I should treat my life. Like the Baiyuan, the Monkey King. So basically he said, I don’t care about reality. I just want to fight, fight, fight. So he chooses to stay. He chooses to be the guard,” Dai explained.

“It’s more like metaphorically, you can actually use a very simple color to describe a very colorful world and also with a very deep philosophical inside of it.”

Keeping Players in the Loop

The roguelike loop in Realm of Ink makes sense both story-wise and mechanically. “So the background story makes sense because you’re playing the character trying to get out of the loop to know what’s the point of life. So you just keep going. If you fail, you go back to the beginning and try again. Just like C’est la vie, that’s life. You fail, you just get back up and then you go on,” Dai explained.

Mechanically, the team focuses heavily on giving players many options. “And for game mechanics-wise, that’s why we focus on the rogue-like part that much. We’re trying to give players so many options and each option you can always make. So the desire to discover the different limitations gives the players more incentive to actually play again and again,” he added.

“We have a lot of things like that. First of all, if you played last time you can always change your ink gem. And each ink gem means a different way of playing. Different playing style. Each character represents a different way of playing. So all of these characters have their own way of attacking.”

The brush system adds another layer of customization. “And we have the brushes. Again, it’s a realm of ink. So you have the brushes to actually rewrite your skill set. So sometimes if you have projectiles you can only throw one stuff. But with the brushes you may actually get 20% of damage last because you can throw 3 at the same time,” said Dai.

The depth of options is impressive. “So we have 9 characters. Each one has its own attacking style. And each character has over 15 ways of changing its attacking style. So that gives the players a lot of new opportunities to try or to change the playing style,” he explained. Even legendary drops can completely change a run: “And we also designed a unique legendary ink gem for each character. And they can drop if you’re lucky enough, you can actually drop during level 1. If you get that it’s just pure fun,” Dai added with enthusiasm.

Balancing Art and Action

Creating the game’s striking visual style wasn’t easy. The team spent over a year figuring out how to make traditional Chinese ink painting work in a fast-paced action game. “We started Realm of Ink I think like 4 years ago. Because we actually that’s the time me and my co-founder actually come back from overseas. Just come back to China,” Dai recalled.

The breakthrough came when they met an artist during a game jam. This artist, whom Dai names Jade, brought something special to the team. “Because some people just don’t have that kind of technique but they have that kind of lean stuff. They have very something if you see it, you know it’s special. It’s like Van Gogh. He might not be that sophisticated or very good at the technical stuff,” Dai observed.

However, implementing this artistic vision proved challenging. “So after we saw it we wanted to make a game. We actually had a prototype of Realm of Ink. But with this kind of painting style we cannot have a very quick comeback. Because for traditional ink style painting it gets dirty if you cannot actually get the boundary, the line of it very strictly,” he explained.

The solution took significant effort to develop. “So it took us a year to actually come up with this kind of depiction. We have a very strong line. So during the comeback you still get instant feedback. You still get the fast-paced slash-and-dash kind of white. And you can see the boundary, the color is very deep so you can feel the clean cut there. And also there’s something like remaining white so you see you can feel the boundary. And it still remains the traditional Chinese ink painting kind of stuff,” Dai detailed.

A Young Team with Big Dreams

Leap Studio operates as more than just a workplace – it’s a community and the majority of the team are still in their youth which brings both energy and a learning mindset to their work. “80% of our team is actually younger than 25 years old. I’m not even 30 yet. I will be 30 very soon. But yeah, we are a very young team and we really like to make games and we really want to make some good games,” said Dai.

Their rapid growth means constant improvement. “We are studying and growing very fast. For the stuff we have done 10 months ago, now we look at it and we’re like, oh my god, geez. We just grow so fast and grow so much,” he reflected. This evolution has led to big changes: “When we first published the game, from the center, nowadays, it’s not good. Our team actually hates the first level. We’re going to redo it when we actually release version 1.0 because we are a very young team,” Dai admitted.

“And also we are very open to our community. Seriously, if you leave a comment below our video on our Steam community, we actually read it and we respond even now with the official account.”

This direct connection drives their passion: “I think that’s the reason I want to say thank you to our community and if you haven’t heard of us, please go check it out. Tell us what you think. We are very confident that as long as you are attracted to our stuff and you give us advice, we will definitely reply and try to get our game into the players’ mind,” Dai concluded.