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 about how Devotion's fate reflects 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?
from Eurogamer.net
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