薄涛 Kane

▮ Who I am

My name is Bo Tao (薄涛). I make indie games. I trained in critical and cultural theory at the University of Leeds, and previously worked on overseas game operations.

▮ Why this site

Time has passed. I have done a great deal, thought a great deal, and yet left very little behind. Most of my memories are overwritten by new experience and vanish without trace.

The weight of output grows with everything one accumulates.

I built this site in the hope that the thoughts I consider worth keeping may persist in some form — and, if possible, be seen, discussed, and shared.

I would also like, through it, to meet like-minded people — including, but not limited to: those who love literature, those who love games, those who work on AI, and anyone in Shenzhen at loose ends who fancies a coffee chat. hhh

▮ What I am thinking about

Favorite writers: Hesse, Calvino, Wang Xiaobo, Borges. Of these, Narziß from Hesse is my ideal — composed, restrained, meeting the world through reason, yet possessed of a sensual warmth.

The games I want to make are, in essence, a form of my thinking. If pressed, I would say: beyond the pleasure a game affords, I hope to offer an experience shared without the sermon. To present what I have lived and what I have thought, to those who play.

▮ Site name and motto

The name is taken from Hesse's Steppenwolf. The motto is drawn from Ovid's Metamorphoses:

Video Meliora, Deteriora Sequor.
I see and approve the better course, yet follow the worse.

So it is with people: one sees the better road, and yet is pushed elsewhere. I pin the line here as a reminder to myself.