Five-Member Team Breaks New Ground in Domestic AAA Game Development; Anime-Styled Action Roguelite “Ved: Sanctuary” Debuts at TGS and Wins Industry Award

At a time when the anime game sector is largely caught in an “arms race”—with development teams often numbering in the hundreds and production cycles stretching over years—a 3D action roguelite game built by a core team of just five members, Ved: Sanctuary, has quietly emerged into the spotlight. The title not only successfully debuted at the 2024 Tokyo Game Show (TGS) but also clinched the prestigious “Xuhui Golden Glory Award” at the 2025 Unity China Development Challenge domestically. Its first announcement trailer garnered over 330,000 views on Bilibili. While this figure may not match some leading anime games, the lively discussion in the comments reflects both players’ anticipation for high-quality domestic AAA titles and a note of caution in the current market climate.

A Tiny Team Tackling an Extremely Challenging Genre

Ved: Sanctuary positions itself as a fast-paced, over-the-shoulder perspective action roguelite with an anime aesthetic. Venturing into the 3D action genre—renowned for high investment and technical barriers—the choice of a five-person team is particularly bold. Producer Liang Kaiyi admitted frankly, “We didn’t overthink it; we just wanted to survive first. Only by surviving do we get the chance to make our next game.”

The core team members come from diverse backgrounds. Liang Kaiyi himself started as a programmer, with experience in combat system development and project management. He attributes the project’s origin to “wanting to make a game that I find fun and immersive.” At the end of 2022, at the age of 27, he decided to embark on this venture. He spent four to five months independently creating a demo that established the core gameplay and framework, using it as a “proof of feasibility” to subsequently attract like-minded collaborators.

A “Spiritually Independent” Creative Philosophy and Survival Strategy

Faced with the inherent disadvantages of a small team in terms of salary and resources, Liang Kaiyi’s approach to attracting talent is not about making empty promises but rather offering considerable creative freedom and alignment with the project’s vision. “The team believes working on something interesting is more important,” he said. The team operates with clear, efficient divisions of labor, with members often wearing multiple hats and responsible for complete modules from design to implementation. Core creative aspects like art design are handled in-house, while more labor-intensive tasks such as some model production are outsourced to optimize the cost structure.

Liang Kaiyi leans towards a “spiritual” definition of “indie games”: “As long as the mindset is independent, it’s an indie game. The key isn’t whether you’re backed by a major studio or use outsourcing, but whether you are purely driven by commercial objectives.” This philosophy has sustained the team through a development cycle spanning over two years, focusing on polishing quality rather than blind expansion.

Gameplay Innovation: Defining an “Action-Driven” Roguelite Experience

Ved: Sanctuary seeks to find a new balance between the “build-crafting satisfaction” of the roguelite genre and the “hardcore操作 (operation)” of action games. Its most distinctive feature is the original”Buff Chain” system: the abilities (Perks) players acquire during a run are not direct numerical stat boosts. Instead, they must be slotted into specific action nodes like “Parry Counter” or “Dodge Counter” and triggered through precise player execution.

“This means almost all roguelite abilities require operational skill to trigger,” Liang Kaiyi explained. “We encourage players to assemble a fully functional ‘team,’ applying multiple Perks to a single enemy by customizing the trigger sequence and timing. This makes the gameplay more focused on action and strategy.” The game features 9 major attribute schools, over 90 non-numerical Buffs, more than 50 pieces of equipment with hidden affixes, combined with distinct mechanisms and progression lines for multiple characters. It aims to deliver over 25 hours of varied and deep gameplay.

Confronting Skepticism, Insisting on Handcrafted Polish

Regarding some players’ speculation about “repurposing mobile game assets for a AAA title to recoup losses,” Liang Kaiyi expressed understanding but denied it: “If we really had old assets to use, we wouldn’t have had to develop for so long or been under such pressure.” The team explicitly commits that all art content is handcrafted, strictly prohibiting the use of AI generation, in order to repay the support and trust of anime game players who often pay for aesthetic quality. For core experiences like combat feel and camera work, the team relies on continuous tuning and a feel for polish, citing the proverb, “Three cobblers with their wits combined surpass Zhuge Liang the mastermind—and besides, we have five or six people.”

Future Outlook: Seeking Survival, Planning Growth, Expanding the Ecosystem

Regarding the game’s pricing, localization, and sales targets, the team maintains a pragmatic attitude. The price will be based on the game’s content volume. The primary goal is to “break even,” thereby earning the opportunity to make their next game. Chinese voice-overs are already planned, but multi-language dubbing is difficult to achieve at this stage due to cost constraints. Currently, the game has accumulated over 20,000 wishlists on Steam. The most urgent “support” the team needs is precisely more player attention and wishlist additions.

Liang Kaiyi is optimistic about the role major titles like Black Myth: Wukong play in boosting the domestic AAA game ecosystem: “If it can just get one more player to download Steam, that’s a huge help for all domestic AAA developers.” For a small team like the one behind Ved: Sanctuary, its significance lies not only in the success or failure of a single product but also in proving that within the crevices dominated by giants,by leveraging precise innovation,extreme efficiency, and pure creative passion, small teams still have the opportunity to carve out their own space and inject vitality into a more diversified domestic AAA gaming ecosystem.

System Requirements

Minimum Configuration:

OS: Windows 10

Processor: Intel i5+

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

DirectX: Version 11

Storage: 12 GB available space required

Recommended Configuration:

OS: Windows 10

Processor: Intel i5+

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660

DirectX: Version 11

Storage: 12 GB available space required