Phantom Blade Zero Director's Path From A Gifted Yale Graduate To Video Game DeveloperS-Game is the development studio behind Phantom Blade Zero, an upcoming samurai Soulslike with Chinese cultural elements. As an AAA project that attracted attention and anticipation following the success of Black Myth: Wukong, this Chinese studio's backstory is a point of interest for many.Recently, CEO and Game Director Liang Qiwei (Soulframe Liang) sat down with PC Gamer to talk about how he refused an offer from a company in New York after graduating from Yale with a master's degree in architecture and returning to China to set up his own indie studio to create video games.Their conversation started with how the online nickname Soulframe was created. Thanks to his hard-to-pronounce Chinese name in English, he got some random idea back in high school. "I just figured out something cool and not-so-usual, something fantasy and something solid coming together."This nickname has been used for so long, actually around 15 years, so he trademarked it in China. If you happen to be a fan of sci-fi shooter Warframe, developed by Digital Extremes, you might already know that its melee-oriented MMORPG sequel,Soulframe, was announced back in 2022. Whoopsie, same name here. The developers tried to reach out to Liang via Tencent to purchase the trademark but with no luck. "No, I'm not selling," he said with laughter.Back to the topic of how Liang chose a career path of creating games, it seems to be rooted in his passion for video games. He grew up as a gamer and started making games during his last couple of years of undergrad at Tsinghua University, a top-two university in China. And spending time to create games was a way to kill time during the first years after studying at Yale. It helped him make friends, some of whom are "from drama school doing set designs." Meanwhile, he was also a "teaching assistant for interactive architecture, which is very close to games."It sounds like being a game developer is a perfect path for Liang to take. In 2011, S-Game was registered. Over the years, the studio has expanded from a four-people team to more than a hundred developers working on Phantom Blade Zero. It was revealed at the 2023 PlayStation Showcase and received a new stunning trailer in February last year, showcasing the battle between the two main characters. Upon its launch, the game will be available on PlayStation 5 and PC, although the release window has not yet been announced.Last October, Soulframe Liang and Art Director Michael Chang talked abouttheir thoughts on the Chinese console market, how it evolved, and where it will head.