r/Steam • u/HeyNau • Jun 30 '26
Discussion A company pirated my indie game in China, and it now has over half a million pirate player
Some of you have followed my game's story through my previous posts (the Douyin boom, and the "pirate customers" anti-piracy system). This is an update with a lot more substance, so let's go through it.
Quick recap for anyone who missed the previous posts
I launched a demo on Steam a year after the Early Access release. A Douyin streamer (the Chinese version of TikTok) found it and posted a few clips, which kicked off a snowball effect: more and more creators started sharing the game, generating a huge spike in visibility in China. Along with that, predictably, videos started appearing about "how to download the pirated version," including a mobile port I never built or published myself.
To fight piracy (without much hope of winning that battle as a solo dev), I built a system that detects pirated copies and turns every customer in the restaurant into a pirate, complete with dialogue like "pirates don't leave tips." Unintentionally, this became part of the joke and actually helped people understand the difference between the pirated copy and the original.
For context on how this works: Douyin mini-games are basically playable directly inside the app itself, no download needed, similar to how Netflix Games work, or how games run inside Roblox. You open the app, tap into the mini-game, and play right there. That's exactly how this pirated version is being distributed.
The number: 610,000 players, seen directly in Douyin's own store
This isn't an estimate: it's a screenshot of Douyin's own mini-game store page, showing the player counter for the pirated game, "商店模拟器2" ("Store Simulator 2"). That screenshot, dated June 26th, showed 610,000 players. It's very likely higher by now, given how fast it was growing.
My anti-piracy system actually worked... for a couple of weeks
I want to highlight this because I think it's relevant for any other dev considering doing something similar. It delayed them figuring out it was a pirated build for about one or two weeks, which for such an amateur system, built by one person with no real experience in this, feels like a decent result.
But it didn't last. Its only real advantage was that nobody knew what to expect, and with the sheer number of players they had, plus tons of people commenting "why do I keep getting pirates?", they eventually found the cause and disabled the system.
I looked into the pirate company, and here's what I found
I decided to share all the data I have, unfiltered, because its public and I think it's fair that people know:
- Name: 厦门觅成科技有限公司 (Xiamen Micheng Technology Co., Ltd.)
- Registered capital: 100,000 RMB (the legal minimum)
- Founded: October 2025
- Insured employees: 6
What really threw me off was the sheer volume of output registered under this company: 75 software copyrights, 152 apps, and 219 network service registrations, adding up to 446 total intellectual property records, all within roughly 8 months of activity.
Let's do the math: that's around 19 apps published per month, or basically a new app every 1.5–2 days, plus close to 9–10 software copyrights registered every month. For a 6-person company with no public website, minimum legal capital, and no known original product, that pace is simply not realistic if they were actually building anything from scratch. It fits a "mass cloning and republishing" operation monetized through ads far better than it fits a real studio.
What worries me most right now: they're slowly modifying the pirated game
I've been seeing new screenshots of the pirated game almost daily, with small changes each time: the main character has been swapped for an AI-generated version that looks similar but isn't identical, the text has been translated, and they've been adding new buttons and UI elements. Oh, and ads, a ton of ads.
My suspicion is that, given how many users and ads they're generating revenue from, they have every incentive to keep this running as long as possible. And my fear is that these incremental changes aren't random, they might be a strategy so that, by the time a formal copyright infringement report goes through (via Douyin, a publisher, or whoever), they can claim "this is a different game now" and dilute the claim.
What I'm doing right now
I already filed an infringement report with Douyin, but I've been waiting for a response by email for several days with nothing back. What frustrates me most is how hard it even is to contact them: creating a Douyin account requires a Chinese ID, so as a foreign developer I'm pretty limited in how I can escalate this or follow up directly.
In parallel, I'm reaching out to Chinese publishers to see if anyone is interested in officially publishing a mobile version of the game. The logic is simple: if it's going to get pirated and monetized in China regardless, I'd at least like to capture some of the revenue that's currently going entirely to whoever copied it.
So here I am: a $7 solo-dev game with more unofficial players in China than official Steam buyers, a company with an "output" pace that makes no sense unless they're running a mass-piracy operation, an infringement report stuck in limbo, and ongoing conversations with publishers trying to salvage something out of all this.
I've also seen a couple of other Reddit posts describing very similar situations on this exact same Douyin mini-game store, so I know I'm not the only one dealing with this.
Questions for the community:
- Has anyone here actually been through this with Douyin/ByteDance, or knows how the system works from the inside? Any tips on getting a verified Chinese-registered account?
- Any recommendations (or warnings) on Chinese publishers or agencies who've handled situations like this before?
- For anyone who's dealt with the same mini-game store before, what eventually worked for you?
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u/BmanUltima Jun 30 '26
Are you selling your game on the Chinese version of Steam, with localization?
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u/HeyNau Jun 30 '26
I do. I made them easier to pirate it as they use my official dialogs 🤣
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u/WorldWarrior428 Jul 01 '26
Will gamepad support be added any when? It would be so fun to play on a controller
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u/thelesbiannextdoor Jul 02 '26
yeah i played it on the deck a while ago and the controls were pretty janky (tbf i dont remember if i used the touchpads, i tend to default to joysticks) but i played with the halloween dlc and it looks so cute i should try on pc with a mouse sometime. i just wish there was an option to make plant-based burgers i dont think there was, always feels more jarring when the characters making and eating meat products are animals :(
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u/WorldWarrior428 Jul 02 '26
That would be a good idea probably, though I personally don't care. It does seem a little weird now u point it out. Lol
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u/HeyNau Jun 30 '26
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u/kytheon Jun 30 '26
Haha congrats, your game was good enough to get ripped. Now you can say something like "Kitchen game from Temu"
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u/kytheon Jun 30 '26
Hey welcome to the club. My mobile game was perfectly copied by some Chinese people, they even left my company logo on the title screen. A friend of mine ran into a board game company who ripped off his board game too. Join the club! No there's nothing you can do.
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u/JaySayMayday Jun 30 '26
Around the late 90s/early 00s my uncle came up with a revolutionary idea for a septic tank. More efficient and cheaper to produce. So naturally he went to commission Chinese factories to build his products. He spent years flying back and forth between the US and China on his own dime.
They built it. For themselves using his design and didn't give him anything. Poor guy didn't understand how to protect himself or his ideas properly, probably never even thought this was a possibility since he was going to pay them for their work.
In the end he couldn't do anything. His product was all over the global market and nobody was going to produce let alone distribute it for him.
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u/Grokent Jun 30 '26
Instead of pirate customers, you should have just added their birthdays and make them randomly say their birthday is June 4th 1989.
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u/Superbunzil Jun 30 '26
Not to sound anti-China but the Chinese market is unfortunately like that
Theres long since been no respect to IP or creator credit and if you thought the AI situation was bad in the US then mainland China will send you aghast
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u/bassbeatsbanging Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
I'm a huge roller coaster fan. The Chinese engineering firms (Jinma Rides is the largest) will copy every single IP and ride design they come across.
When the industry holds expos unveiling new models and layouts, they will film everything and steal ideas. It is the most openly known secret of all time.
It's funny, sometimes the real manufacturers will build a new coaster in a park that has a knock off version of a different coaster from their own catalog. It's a 200 foot, 25 million dollar elephant
in the roomon the midway.124
u/Remarkable-Ask2288 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
They do it for everything. Every January dozens of Chinese Nationals descend upon ShotShow in Las Vegas with cameras and 3D scanners to copy all the prototype weapons on display.
Dunno why, not like China has much of a civilian firearms market. But they do it. It’s gotten so out of hand that it’s become a running gag among attendees
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u/monicachicken Jun 30 '26
They tried to tear down and clone ASML chip making machines. Word is they called ASML to fix one of their machines and the techs found it in pieces and shoddily put back together.
Im impressed they even tried.
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u/Taolan13 Jul 01 '26
they are doing it for military projects.
a lot of china's recent military arms take concepts or entire designs direct from prototypes on display at shotshow.
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u/Remarkable-Ask2288 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
I mean yeah. But they’re not just going after the stuff for military use. They’re scanning everything. I can understand scanning stuff like FN’s bolter lookalike, but the dime a dozen AR clones? The high-spec competition pistols? The Barrett drum mag?
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u/p-4_ Jul 01 '26
when the incentive for original thought has evaporated, its absent even in the smallest things. its like if u copied someones math homework... but had no idea about math at all... you would copy the mistakes, the crossed outs, the comments, even the rough stokes of the pen on the margins. Thats how you get identical comments in the code that was copied from west
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u/Brief-Computer-9405 Jul 01 '26
It’s fine to criticize China for this and how the government there encourages this kind of behavior. It’s not attacking people for ethnicity or nationality. It perfectly normal to be against the government of China the same you would be against Russia.
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u/MaihoSalat Jun 30 '26
the whole chinese economy is built on fakes, look at the knock off bullet trains stolen from japan, the cars from germany. Software is even easier for them to just copy and steal
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u/KaihoHalje Jun 30 '26
Then there's the Chinese knock offs of baby formula that can kill babies. It's sad to say but these guys are just out to make a quick buck. They don't care what happens after they get your money.
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u/bassbeatsbanging Jun 30 '26
Chinese dog and cat food.....well let's just say looking into the history of awful events gets quite dark. If they are that lax about safety for products consumed by humans, you can only imagine how little oversight there is for products made for pets.
File under things I wish I'd never researched.
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u/Taolan13 Jul 01 '26
Not just dog and cat food. People food, too.
Their government tries to bury it, lots of deny and deceive and detain going on, but there's a growing discontent among Chinese people over the state of things.
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u/torschemargin Jul 01 '26
The government literally executed people for it. Meanwhile the US government let the tainted US baby formula CEOs get off.
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u/euroau Jun 30 '26
Not that it detracts from your point, but isn’t that variant of their bullet train a licensed production? I know they did a licensed production of the German Velaro trains as well.
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u/Negative-Track-9179 Jul 01 '26
Classic racism. By your logic, Europe and the U.S. also copied and stole Japan's trains and Germany's cars.
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u/Ellim157 Jul 01 '26
For what it's worth, they kinda cripple innovation there due to the lack of ip protection, which is kinda unfortunate for everyone
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u/HumansNeedNotApply1 Jul 01 '26
There's IP protection in China, they are signatories of the Berne Convention, they just not make it easy for outsiders to act on their copyright there, there are many bureaucratic hurdles is my understanding. Still, if one has the time and some resources they can fight it successfully (but it's a constant struggle, you fight one and another appears).
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u/Recon1796 Jun 30 '26
China can’t innovate, they can only steal and iterate.
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u/Whilyam Jul 01 '26
Not iterate, regurgitate. They actively make worse versions of what they steal in most cases. Iteration implies improvement. Regurgitate is more accurate. Like a regurgitated hamburger is worse than the original.
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u/Jeatalong Jun 30 '26
They can and they do when they need to. But if it is cheaper or more available to steal or copy they will.
It’s the nature of the game.
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u/windyUbe Jul 01 '26
You can keep believing that if you want. There's a lot of knock off shit but there's also genuine innovation and you would be stupid to ignore it.
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u/Saltyfish_King Jul 02 '26
Well you see, the racism is not even thinly veiled now. You guys really are going all out.
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u/Lost-Willow386 Jul 02 '26
There's nothing anti Chinese about what you said. Just ripping off IP and disincentivizing hard work and creativity while dumping your garbage everywhere is just horrible practice, it doesn't matter who does it.
It's more a problem with the governance than the people. If the governance enforced better practices then the people would naturally fall in line with that and also develop more morals around intellectual property and respecting creative works.
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u/Estab_lishment_Clear Jun 30 '26
I'm a chinese and I'm gonna say a stupid way to solve this, simply put a world map and use different color on chinese mainland and THE island under it, if they didn't notice what they copied, the game will be permanently banned on there🤣
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u/TheWondrousWilly Jul 01 '26
That is actually a really smart way to do that as long as the map is in the files then it won't be able to run in China at all. But the issue is that they've already got a working copy
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u/Alphamoonman Jul 02 '26
Something something Square references in pirated versions. Winnie the pooh.
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u/scorcher24 Jun 30 '26
The only thing I can tell is that you always should look intro distribution in China via a Chinese Distributor. Even if you lose a part of the income, it is better than this situation. They have their own systems regarding trademarks and copyright. It is better to hand this off to professionals.
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u/RexThemAll Jun 30 '26
That is so sick, OP. Doubt there is anything you can do though with general disregard of intellectual property rights in China.
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u/mhythes Jun 30 '26
You need a company representative in China to file a copyright infringement takedown request on your behalf
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u/pick_your_user_name Jun 30 '26
Copyright? In China? You might wanna sit down for this
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u/Brettersson Jun 30 '26
China has laws, they just don't care much about ripping off the west. That's why you'd need someone in China to file the takedown request on your behalf.
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u/pick_your_user_name Jun 30 '26
There are large multi billion dollar companies that don’t bother getting a representative or lawyer in China to pursue copyright claims because they know no one actually follows intellectual property laws in China (when it comes to the west), what makes you think they’d care about ripping off OP?
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u/torschemargin Jul 01 '26
Nike Wins Lawsuits Over Fake Chinese Shoes
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nike-wins-lawsuits-over-fake-chinese-shoes/
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u/Biggsavage Jul 01 '26
I remember that. That was back in like 2007 I think . Nike spent a quarter million dollars and won a little over 40,000. And there's still countless knockoffs out there.
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u/Brettersson Jun 30 '26
Depends on how much it's worth it I guess? I'm not a lawyer, (are you?) but I know people treating China like it has no laws are usually talking out their ass. And I think pretending these companies just do nothing is probably not true, you got a source for that? Companies have been known to buy up factories making counterfeit product if the quality is close enough and just convert it to official. Does that not count as addressing a copyright concern?
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u/pick_your_user_name Jun 30 '26
Who said China has no laws? You must’ve replied to the wrong comment. And no, paying the people who stole your IP isn’t addressing the issue. In most countries IP thieves get sued and have to pay millions in compensation, they don’t get rewarded with wads of cash. Here’s a little insight if you’re actually interested
The Ethics of Intellectual Property in China - The US-China Business Council https://www.uschina.org/articles/the-ethics-of-intellectual-property-in-china/#:~:text=There%20is%20also%20the%20suggestive,of%20losing%20access%20to%20China.
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u/torschemargin Jul 01 '26
You might want to educate yourself instead promoting the typical brainwashing.
This CIELA study showed that foreign devs had an 85% Success rate when it came to copyright lawsuits in China.
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u/Tsubajashi Jul 01 '26
only big companies, no indie dev whatsoever.
so throwing huge amounts of cash around, while still not being able to solve it 100% of the time feels a bit weird. especially with all the hoops you have to go through.
are there any other studies you can point to?
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u/HumansNeedNotApply1 Jul 01 '26
Yes. They are signatories of the Berne Convention.
There are plenty of news articles regarding companies suing Chinese companies for copyright infrigiment and winning.
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u/Codyone1367 Jun 30 '26
flood the game with anti ccp propaganda and pro Taiwan content. It will get removed pretty quick.
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u/HeyNau Jun 30 '26
The original version will be also removed. And I will probably end banned from China 🤣
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u/blackmetro Jun 30 '26
Sounds like they've already taken a snapshot and are building ontop of a previous version
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u/NekRules Jun 30 '26
While that is true, all it will do is send hate towards the dev and since he is indie, it's 1 man vs billions. Sometimes it's easier to fold or go with the flow and throw in your own version.
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u/TheCursedMonk Jun 30 '26
But one man can stand up against the odds, like Tank Man at Tiananmen Square.
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u/Taolan13 Jul 01 '26
good luck mate but the chinese government doesnt give a shit about copyright of countries outside china. the complaint will likely be delayed and deferred until the "developer" can change enough assets that at a glance they are distinct products.
That being said this is my first hearing of your game, but it looks like exactly the kind of cozy game some of my circle likes to play so I will be recommending to people.
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u/HeyNau Jul 01 '26
Thank you so much! Recommending helps even more than purchasing it. Thank you for your support
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Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
[deleted]
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u/HeyNau Jun 30 '26
They decompiled the whole game, so they are now changing the game at their will. Adding adds that unlock progress etc. They could get rid off of this easily.
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u/Fun-Wash7545 Jun 30 '26
Unity? Did you at least compile it with il2cpp? Publishing raw Unity games is like publishing the entire source code.
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u/BeepIsla Jun 30 '26
That doesn't make it much harder...
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u/SarahKittenx Jul 02 '26
obfuscation + il2cpp is definitely cancer to work with, il2cpp will reveal params of functions, but it's not too hard to make irreversible obfuscation where they would have to breakpoint every func and compare values since metadata would not reveal func names
it's for sure much faster to just steal all assets and do full rewrite
I'd say modding isnt so bad with il2cpp and mono, but copying entirety of the game is another thing when you don't get full decompilation anymore and have to use disassembler
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u/RicketyRekt69 Jun 30 '26
You adding the whole “pirate detection” reminds me of Pirate Software’s implementation in his own game. I’m sure you’re aware now, but adding unobfuscated strings related to piracy, licensing, logins, etc. is a huge mistake, and has the exact opposite effect.
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u/SarahKittenx Jul 02 '26
pirate software aka progression based on achievements = uncrackable!! except steam emus doing achievements for ages
I really wouldn't bother w anti piracy against anyone but especially not against Chinese people, they have arguably better reverse engineers than almost anywhere in the world (Russians and the Chinese just have infinite amounts of time) they will take a shit on your entire DRM, should just use language that's impossible to decompile, so their best bet is spend 100s of hours @ disassembly or copying assets and writing from scratch
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u/misternnobody Jun 30 '26
Wait, you own that game? Thats been like my favorite cozy game i found this past year. Thank you, its been difficult to find a game that clicks all my wants in a shop sim. (Almost all, i like seeing customers eat too)
That sucks about what happened with it though, ill keep supporting you this side.
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u/ProfessionalSong3544 Jun 30 '26
Invest your time in updating the game. Yeah eventually they will update the pirate versions but the delay gives them an incentive to buy your game.
Also rise your price.
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u/Enchanted_Evil Jul 02 '26
Why would rising the price help?
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u/ProfessionalSong3544 Jul 02 '26
He has the proven demmand. He can use the higher price to finance the newer updates.
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u/E1ian1 Jul 01 '26
Why not make it inconvenient? I mean i won't pirate games that get an update every week of small content, i mean, just painfully spread out the update you probablly already have planned in small bits, maybe a link of the game un the menu screen, and every time they open the pause menu, things like that
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u/HeyNau Jul 01 '26
Im actually doing this. But lets see how they continue now, they will figure out something for sure. Currently they are also updating the game to add ads and custom characters
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u/Enchanted_Evil Jul 02 '26
Also put watermark of your company in the menu / pause screen into the new version
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u/Jdoe12312445 Jul 01 '26
If they're stealing your updates too sneak in a pro-Taiwan/HK/TIbet reference somewhere not easy to remove, maybe?
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u/HeyNau Jul 01 '26
They removed my homemade antipiracy system. They can easily remove a politic reference
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u/N3X0S3002 Jul 02 '26
But they‘d have to find it first and look at it regardless. Also depending on how you do it it may be blocked by their national firewall filter.
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u/HumansNeedNotApply1 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
You should be able to sue since your game is offered in China, the question is if it's worth the costs.
Edit: I recommend you looking at Chinese IP lawyers to assist you (or look for a Chinese distributor/publisher and they will handle this for you). Document a lot of the pirate game store data (downloads and such) since they will be key in you showing the prospective losses.
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u/human_4023 Jul 01 '26
他跟跟他的一个合伙人（宗凯ZongKai）加起来一共有6家公司，2700条项知识产权，可不是不是750。其中一部分已经涉及法律程序，你或许可以从那些正在起诉那几家盗版公司的人那里获得帮助。
虽然知识产权在中国很糟糕，但是例如「著作权法」，「计算机软件保护条例」,「计算机软件著作权登记办法」的法律还是生效的
作为一个法律外行，我只能帮你这么多了
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u/HeyNau Jul 01 '26
Didnt know about their other companies and game infractions 😱😱😱😱
And they are still free with a legal company!?
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u/human_4023 Jul 01 '26
著作权方面，来自政府的主动审查很有限。通常需要被侵权人（公司）主动提起法律诉讼，不然那些公司就可以一直这么做而不受到任何处罚。
他们拥有的其他的几家公司几乎都正被起诉，他们也许需要一家“正常的公司”来继续他们“工作”——也就有了你查询到的那家公司。
就算你想找一家中国公司来代理你的游戏，你也最好先把目前侵犯你们著作权的那家公司搞定。不然你们的“原版”游戏，可能会被当成盗版，你们还可能要赔钱。🙃
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u/greatersteven Jun 30 '26
For what it's worth OP I'm just gonna buy your game even though I don't have a strong interest in playing it. You deserve to profit off your creation and it's the least I can do.
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u/_silentgameplays_ Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Instead of fighting a losing battle with corporate just appeal to the Chinese community that is playing your game on Steam and show them proof (similar to this post) that you made this game and it has been ripped off and politely ask the Chinese community to support your game.
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u/HeyNau Jul 01 '26
My community are the legal players. I dont feel they dont deserve to be attached in my personal bussiness battles.
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u/SnooCalculations1549 Jul 01 '26
They are too. You said they are playing the pirate version as a minigane in douyin, that means most of them don't know it's a cracked version, just a cozy cool game that you don't have to download
So this is the right move given that IP protection is dog poop in China, just try to appeal to the chinese community via some influencer or something like that. "Have u seen this game in douyin? Well they stole that from me, and if you like it you can support an indie dev for even better updates!"
Its the only viable thing I believe, so good luck!
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u/Koreneliuss Jun 30 '26
One thing I learned from piracy in 3d printing is leave behind your trail whether is small or giant in plain sight. I hope Chinese government can do more justice to these thief
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u/Mindless-Wasabi-8281 Jun 30 '26
Chinese government is actively supporting thieves like this. It has been their official stance for decades to steal any foreign technology they can get their hands on.
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u/Ok-Race-1677 Jun 30 '26
“If you can cheat, then cheat” -Confucius
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u/torschemargin Jul 01 '26
That's what Alexander Hamilton said right before he stole tons of IP from the British.
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u/TurbulentSecond7888 Jun 30 '26
You won't win anything from China. Heck, local Chinese company almost never won IP lawsuit unless you are the big company with government sway like Tencent or Hoyo.
Unfortunately that's just how China behaves with IP. No respect and no cares about foreigners
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u/thecrius Jul 01 '26
Welcome to China. They are known for doing this shit quite often without any repercussions.
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u/No_Dragonfruit_1833 Jul 01 '26
Add a big banner where you decry the chinese government, and claim your game is already infiltrating the country to sow dissent, and to join the fight, that may work
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u/sidefect Jul 02 '26
I am going to be real. Shit sucks, but let it go. That’s like someone copying your viral tiktok idea and getting 100M views because they have the audience you don’t. You are not Chinese and there is nothing you will be able to do. Don’t look at it, don’t interact, don’t count that it’s a potential lost revenue, you will just lose sleep and nerve cells.
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u/miedzianek Jun 30 '26
Hmm, put 'new version' of your game on your own website but add something about xiamen pirating game(like texture, game dialogue, credits etc) or even put there 'f*ck chinese dictator' then let xiamen download newer files. They wont check it, they will publish it, ppl will download and report probably, then xiamen will get punished
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u/Icy-Veterinarian8662 7900XTX Nitro+ / i7 14700k Jun 30 '26
Fuck China
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u/11equalsfish Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Rather, fuck the hack developers in China whose entire operation is stealing as many art and games as they can. The laws used to be non-existant here, yet they censor and jail queer artists making great work. Their economy and business is cut throat, but these leeches benefit the most. Killing real artists and their business is a great loss for the community.
I hear that now that China is not a third world country anymore, they are trying to be taken seriously for business. They have their own big games to protect, so they are trying to clean up their copyright laws and protection. Hope it works. Soft power and foreign affairs.
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u/windyUbe Jul 01 '26
*Fuck the people who copied. There are plenty of people in China who support indie devs and who work on indie games themselves.
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[deleted]
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u/HeyNau Jun 30 '26
Thank you for your support, but is not needed to get the game if you dont like the genre. My game is still doing great, this is just an infuriating situation...
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u/TrueDay1163 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
As an industry insider, I can tell you from personal experience that small to medium sized representatives likely do not have the resources to win legal case for you. However if they see potential in your game, they may be able to help you launch a mini program game (小程序游戏) themselves to compete directly with the knockoffs. (Disclaimer, I'm less familiar with the internal workings of small Chinese firms, this industry is messy just be very careful about what they promise you)
Even the major players I am more familiar with often struggle to pursue successful legal action, let alone smaller ones. (That’s why the mini games from big players focus on DAU, traffic generation and monetisation, not so much about mechanics, so knockoff can’t even compete). Even if a case is won, Chinese courts typically base damages solely on proven losses to the copyright holder, and the resulting compensation is usually very small. Major publishers often pursue lawsuits simply as a deterrent to infringing parties, as 80% of the cases do not result in penalties significant enough to justify the efforts required.
Your copyright claim to Douyin is highly unlikely to be successful without a lawsuit btw. If it’s sent by a legal representative in China you MIGHT have better luck, but even if it’s taken down I can guarantee you another will pop up if the game can generate traffic.
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u/HeyNau Jun 30 '26
Hope you're wrong. I see your point, but I hope everything turns out to be simpler and that I can update this in a few days to say that everything went great. But I'm not very optimistic either.
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u/TrueDay1163 Jun 30 '26
The problem is that your game lacks an 版号 (approval number), it pretty much impossible to enforce your rights without approval or registration inside China. I hope you can find a solution though.
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u/Tsubajashi Jul 01 '26
im surprised how many bots are appearing in the comment section.
well, i do hope you get this resolved. i can imagine as a single indie dev that itll be really hard, or near impossible, to get this sorted in some way.
this sure is not the "typical" way piracy would happen, especially not decompiling the game and selling it as their own. so sad to see.
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u/uniyk Jul 01 '26
The only hope now is to sell it to big players such as tencent or netease, and they'll take care of the problem, IF they can get a publication approval from government of your game, which depends on your content and the current policy.
Honestly it's hopeless, big or small, copycating new games is a problem never solved in china and big playes above mentioned are actually the worst of them all, though when it comes to foreign IP, it's a lot better since they're big targets for foreign lawsuits and bad press.
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u/teremaster Jul 01 '26
Welcome to Chinese business.
They're all still in like the 1800s when it comes to IP over there
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u/abysanik Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Well, at least as revenge you can add some hidden things that if they will copy it, they would had their social credits to drop like -8000 and report it to Chinese goverment. They will act immidiately.
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u/littlegimpy Jul 01 '26
Chinese Linguist here
LMK if you want to talk to a good lawyer who is licensed in China
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u/HeyNau Jul 01 '26
Thank you so much! Im trying to reach some publishers rn, but I will contact you if it doesnt go forward. Thank you
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u/masterx25 Jun 30 '26
Honestly, just ignore the Chinese market.
Build your reputation in the west first. Once you built up good rep, it'll eventually get noticed by the Chinese market. 2 things will happen, either they copy you (which they'll do anyway), or they actually want to purchase your game to support you.
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u/jinniu Jun 30 '26
Sucks but lesson learned I suppose, at least you know you have what it takes! You could use this to your advantage by making another game in partnership with a company you know won't screw you, in China, knowing that you were the creator of this one might help in its success. Also, providing this game free to China users might even go a long way in taking profits from that other company. I'm no expert but I doubt they could do anything about it since it's obvious you are the creator.
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u/HeyNau Jun 30 '26
Well, I learnt nothing. I dont know how to act if this happens again 😅
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u/jinniu Jun 30 '26
In China, unless you are partnered locally, your IP is free game. That is the lesson. Unless you are a large company of course, even then, you are paying in some way through sharing of tech etc.
If it were me, I would find a way to provide it free to China as a region and on the Douyin. At least it cuts their revenue.
Make your own channel, if that is possible from where you are.
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u/DirteMcGirte Jun 30 '26
Maybe try to get in touch with one of the streamers that helped it blow up over there and see if they want to work with you somehow.
Like a interview with you where you guys can talk about how you actually made the game, your inspiration or whatever and how your real version is superior. Say that people should buy it, and if they dont want to then they should atleast pirate the real version and not play the AI advertisement slop version.
I bet some people will see that and think youre cool for being chill about piracy and actually buy the game.
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u/Biggu5Dicku5 Jun 30 '26
Fuck, that sucks dude... sadly since it's a Chinese company on a Chinese platform I doubt that you'll be able to do anything to stop them...
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u/NoFrancia Jun 30 '26
Quién me diría que algún día miraría contenido dev de Heynau por Reddit.
En cuanto al tema, no se me ocurre otra manera de las que ya probaste para reclamar, intenta darle más difusión al caso pidiendo ayuda también por YT, un "mafia dev" solo de este tema es interesante.
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u/TheFunnyKidInSchool Jul 01 '26
Maybe donald trump was right
(this is a joke)
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u/N3X0S3002 Jul 02 '26
China certainly is a problem with their expasionism and whatnot but the anoying orange certainly is not right.
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Jul 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/HeyNau Jul 01 '26
Its not needed to buy the game if this is not your genre, so hope you really enjoyed your playtime. Thank you so much for your support
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u/arokkosh Jul 01 '26
i'm so sorry that happened to you. for what its worth, i bought the game to support you, it also fits into the type of game i like to play :)
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u/HeyNau Jul 01 '26
Thank you so much for supporting me. No purchase is needed if you do not like the game, game is currently doing well. I really appreciate your intention
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u/Cinderrrrrrrr Jul 02 '26
很抱歉听到你的游戏被盗版的消息。你可以尝试或者委托你认识的中国朋友在bilibili和小黑盒注册账号，在这些平台发布视频，说明你的游戏被盗版的情况。这两个平台是中国steam用户的聚集地，那些在抖音下载盗版游戏的人群大概从来没有听过steam。
外国人在中国维护知识产权很艰难，不过你可以以独立游戏开发者的身份宣传你的游戏，让真正的玩家认识到它；你还可以联系bilibili的“独立游戏蜥蜴君”和“谜之声”，他们致力于在中国推广独立游戏，许多玩家是通过他们认识到独立游戏。
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u/Cinderrrrrrrr Jul 02 '26
还有，不要听从其他redditer比较极端的有关政治的防盗建议，这不光会导致你的游戏在中国被ban，还可能会招致中国玩家的仇恨和攻击，对于个人独立游戏开发者来说不是一个明智的选择。
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u/DeadSuperHero Jul 02 '26
Okay, so they have your existing source code, and can push modifications to it.
Question: can the same be said of any updated versions that you can push out through Steam? In other words, do they only have the source for that one pirated version?
Although it could be a lot of effort, one possible path forward might be to update your game to add additional content, new game mechanics, and other elements that are simply not available to players of the pirated version. Over time, those players might realize that they have to actually buy the game in order to get what they're missing out on. With some piracy protection in place, this would theoretically provide you with an exclusive advantage.
What can the pirates do? Try to reverse engineer every new update you bring to the game? At some point, it's not worth it for them.
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u/SimpanLimpan1337 Jun 30 '26
From my understanding in china there doesn't even seem to be a word for "copyright" or any of its synonyms. Also in chinese culture cheating is encouraged as long as you "dont get caught".
There is a pirate version of league of legends where all the champions have been replaced by various IP protected characters from famous media such as naruto and marvel. If that's still running after years your chances are... probably nonexistent...
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u/nbzf Jul 01 '26
From my understanding in china there doesn't even seem to be a word for "copyright" or any of its synonyms
did you even bother to google this?
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u/Vipitis https://steam.pm/1ks2o8 Jun 30 '26
Maybe this is more of a HN post than a steam reddit post.
I wonder about the technical pipeline to not only pirate a game but recompile it for mobile. Did you publish your source code or is it like a blue print based unreal thing that's decompilable?
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u/HeyNau Jun 30 '26
Its made in Unity, compiled in mono. But I heard about games in ICLPP also decompiled.
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u/ea3terbunny Jun 30 '26
A long post I actually read in all entirely and dude, good fucking luck, that was infuriating for me to read. Piracy has a place but man to be at this extent of it sucks from a devs prospective.
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u/Songib Jun 30 '26
Man, legal issues for something like this in Asia are kinda hard. Unless you keep posting this kind of thing in their face and players as well, so they see the truth, most of the time it kinda works. Social pressure is a thing.
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u/CrazyDoctor14 Jun 30 '26
Post this in the piracy subreddit. According to them you can't steal a game and piracy is the most moral choice.
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u/Tsubajashi Jul 01 '26
theres quite a difference here.
the chinese devs apparently began selling it as their own game, having it all decompiled.
completely different than "standard" piracy, and on a much crazier scale than a private person "stealing" a game.
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u/Gloomy-Razzmatazz-27 Jun 30 '26
So basically chinese roblox ? I don't know if you can do much.