First of all, thank you to all our friends who have followed and supported us for a long time. Over the past two-plus years, our products haven’t improved noticeably, yet you’ve all been so generous and forgiving. We really appreciate your patience, haha. It’s just that we didn’t have the budget to upgrade.
It has been half a year since our last game, "Back 3". Why did it take so long? Because we were broke. "Back 3" also fell far short of our own expectations. After that, the studio went from barely breaking even to completely running out of funds.
Fortunately, at the end of 2025, we found a partner willing to fund small-budget projects. That’s how “Worthy or not” came about, along with several other small-scale titles planned for this year. The catch, however, was that we had to produce multiple AI manga-style interactive novel games. That’s why we’ve released a few such titles already, with more on the way. Long story short, we’re just trying to survive.
Now, back to the main topic: “Worthy or not”.
The project was actually a last-minute idea. I often come across dating videos on short-video platforms, and they leave me feeling both amused and helpless. The stories clash heavily with my own values, making them hilarious to watch — especially when some participants act arrogant and entitled. My inner thought is always: Really? Are you good enough?. Yet even as I laugh at them, I’m reminded of my own past, which leaves me feeling resigned. It’s not heartbreaking, but I’ve been through some pretty miserable experiences myself.
Back in college, I dated a girl, and I was serious about marrying her. After graduation, since my family was ordinary, I planned to work hard for a few years, save up, get my family to chip in for a down payment, and slowly pay off a mortgage for an apartment. But half a year after we graduated, her family started pressuring her to get married soon, demanding a confirmed marital home — an independent apartment of at least 80 square meters inside Shanghai’s Inner Ring Road.
My parents were both laid-off workers. My father never recovered after losing his job and just drifted through life. My mother worked as a supermarket stocker. Back then, even a second-hand 80+ sqm apartment inside the Inner Ring cost nearly 1.5 million yuan. I had just started working, earning 2,000 yuan a month, and my family only had around 100,000 yuan in disposable savings. There was no way to make that work, not by cutting costs or borrowing. I couldn’t meet their demands.
In the end, my girlfriend said to me: With your family’s situation, how can we keep going?. Those were her last words to me. Four years of relationship, ended just like that.
I don’t blame her. Truth be told, I wasn’t good enough for her — or rather, my family background made me unworthy. But when it comes to love, if we have to ask am I good enough? before even starting a relationship… then maybe no one would ever date at all.
Still, I consider myself lucky. Later, I met my current wife. Our families each put in 150,000 yuan for a down payment, we took a 200,000-yuan loan, and bought a tiny 35-square-meter apartment, which we still live in today. We’re cramped in this small place, but she never looks down on me. I’ve worked hard all these years, and later started my own business. As they say, man proposes, heaven disposes. I’m doing my best, and she understands me. Objectively speaking, though, I still don’t feel good enough for her. Really, I’m not worthy.
Back to the game. Drawing from my own experience and similar stories from many of my friends’ dating lives, I decided to make this project on a whim.
To be honest, I’m not that satisfied with how it turned out.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it a 4 or 5.
First, the gameplay is mostly dialogue and choices, with many repetitive topics. It won’t put you to sleep, but it can feel a bit dull.
Second, there are some obvious flaws in the setup. For instance, the “applicants” I mock are usually in the bottom 20% in looks but demand partners in the top 20% — which is what makes it funny, prompting the thought: Are you good enough?. But for an interactive film game, we couldn’t cast actors in the bottom 20% — no one would want to watch that. So all our actors are at least in the top 20% in appearance. Because of that, even with the same demands, their requests don’t come off as quite so unreasonable. That’s a hard limitation. It’s not looks discrimination; everyone appreciates beauty. Aesthetic taste is subjective, and it’s only natural for men to like pretty women and women to like handsome men. You can have standards, but whether they’re realistic is another matter. I won’t dive deeper into this — it’s a clash of values and views on love.
Lastly, during filming, the male lead wasn’t familiar with some lines, so his lip-sync is off in parts. We did our best, though. Due to budget constraints, preparation time was short. The actor only had one day to memorize his lines, and he has an enormous amount of dialogue in this game. So this is the best we could do for now. The total playtime is roughly four hours.
As for gameplay — honestly, there isn’t much. This title is our attempt at breaking into a new genre. Properly “playable” games will have to wait for our later projects this year.
One more thing: Behind 4 and the rest of the Behind series are still in the pipeline. But with our current budget, we can’t produce a sequel that shows clear improvement. We plan to work on it once we have more funding. For now, we’re just hanging on.
Last but not least, thank you all for your continuous support. Just as I’ve said in announcements over the past two-plus years, our studio will keep making interactive film games for the long haul, experimenting with different genres. We may not have improved as much as you hoped, but we’re trying our best. Just doing what we can. Thank you.
“Worthy or not”? — all of you definitely are. Me? Not so much, haha ^_^!
