Hey everyone! I'm Black, the “idiot” behind Kill the Shadow.
And today… it’s finally out!
I honestly can't believe this day has actually come.
Many people have been asking if I’ve been nervous before launch, or whether I could sleep at night.
Honestly, I feel a bit surreal right now.
I think the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life was probably taking my driver’s test years ago.
That was way scarier.
All the "promises" we made to you last year — we've basically worked hard to deliver on them over the past year. Plus, we've secretly snuck in some new stuff. What exactly? You'll have to find out for yourself in the game.
Kill the Shadow was born back in January 2022.
Cometothinkofit, it’s been more than four and a half years already.
Back then, Zhu Guohao, Wang Zhen, and some other friends hacked together the very first prototype during Global GameJam.
At the time, I was about to graduate.
Like everyone else, I was following the standard path — interning at a big company doing mundane tasks.
My previous project hadn’t gone particularly great, so I never thought I would successfully incubate a project I actually wanted to make.
But life is like a tree that never stops growing — you never know where the next branch is going to sprout.
One day, I saw a message from my old teammate Zhu Guohao and felt that this game had some potential, so I joined in and helped however I could.
To be honest, I feel quite ashamed.
Back then, I was juggling a full-time job, my graduation thesis, and game development all at once, so I didn't contribute a whole lot; Zhu Guohao definitely carried the team back then….
Though, to be fair, that’s also because that guy was in grad school and had way much free time.
Looking back, the period right after we decided to quit our jobs and work on Kill the Shadow full-time was actually the happiest period during development.
We lived together, living a carefree life where we'd wake up, make games, get tired, play games, sleep, and then do it all over again.
Although we hit a lot of roadblocks and took many detours during development, but somehow it never felt miserable; instead, every time I learned something new, I had this feeling of "So that's how it is."
Turns out, though…
That was only the beginning of the real challenge.
Numerous troubles arose toward the end of our partnership with our first publisher.
The game was supposed to launch on January 17, 2025, yet neither the launch preparation nor the testing were moving forward properly.
I even began to worry what might happen if the game simply "flopped" upon release.
But the worst blow came on the morning of January 5th.
I woke up to my phone swamped with missed calls and messages from different player communities.
It was then I discovered our Steam store page and backend had vanished entirely — no advance notice, no warning.
It all happened out of nowhere.I froze for a moment.
After telling everyone what had happened, I realized there was only one option left: somehow fix this mess.
My teammates and I were barely making ends meet. We were locked in disputes with the publisher and going back‑and‑forth with Steam Support, all while helplessly watching our wishlist count crash. I felt utterly powerless, like a hapless husband yelling "What do you want?!"
At first, Steam Support repeatedly told us they could do nothing to recover our store page. Things got so bleak we nearly disbanded and went our separate ways.
Luckily, after several months, once we finally submitted the contract termination papers and all the necessary evidence, we managed to get our game page restored. The only bummer was that Steam Support forgot to restore the Demo along with it. Sigh.
There were countless other difficulties and torments along the way that I won't bore you with. In the end, we stumbled our way to this final step of the launch. As the saying goes, the journey is more important than the destination.
Last of all, thank you for staying and bearing with my long ramble. If you have read all the way here, it is surely fate.
If you would like to support this small project we have tinkered with for four‑and‑a‑half years, why not pick up a copy?
Thank you once more for all your support, hahaha!