For game developer Lei Jun, the distinction between work and life is blurrry, for he works and lives in the same villa, with his office on the ground floor and is put up upstairs, with his extended family, in this Overseas Returnees Town , in Lingshui Li Autonomous County in Southeastern China’s Hainan Province.

At 35, Lei had already been a seasoned entrepreneur. Before he became head of Hainan Chenyao Network Technology, had been involved in two failed businesses in Xiamen, one out of intenecine dispute in 2019, and another wiped out by China’s shrinking mini-game market in 2021. In Hainan, he opened a new leaf of life, drawn in part by myriad local government incentives for mini-game creators targeting overseas markets.

( Lei Jun introducing the game Werewolves Must Die, photo by Han qingying)

Startups can use villas rental-free for two years and at half price for the next three years. In addition, each registered company would receive about 20,000 yuan (US$2,800) in subsidies, and another 30,000 yuan when a game goes successfully online.

“For a place like this in Xiamen, rent and housing would come to at least 20,000 yuan a month,” Lei said.  This translate into significant cost savings.

The town also waives property management fees, halves social insurance contributions, and sometimes organizes group trips to Southeast Asia where games makers could study local markets.

Qiu Yuan, general manager of Hainan Rebound Technology, said the location also helps. “Hainan is closer to Southeast Asia. For small firms, it’s easier to test the market here.”

The town has already attracted more than 100 gaming companies and over 200 developers. Lei has also brought his wife, children, and parents-in-law to settle here, with his son and daughter attending the local school.

Lei said companies here often support each other. As a sociable person, he frequently invites peers to barbecues within the town, where they could share new ideas about game development.

Game developer Zhang Dan added: “All companies here share an internal WeChat group to exchange information and help each other.”

Thanks to these preferential policies, Chenyao has got off to a good start. The team focuses on HTML5 mini-games with bright cartoon graphics. They are not only easy to play, but also simple to develop, and to monetize.

Until now, its game Werewolves Must Die has run on Facebook for three years, still attracting several thousand monthly active players and generating millions in revenue.

To speed development, Chenyao has built its own software tool, that works like moving “blocks.” “Student designers don’t need any coding skills. By dragging blocks here and there, even an 8-year-old child can design a game,” Lei said.

Zhang added that an intern once used this tool to create a hit game that garnered him more than 100,000 yuan in a single month.

The company works closely with local universities where they could hire staff majored in foreign languages, not just for translation but also to understand cultural norms.

“For instance, in the Middle East, since female roles are distinctly define, we have to focus on designing male-focused content. If you don’t understand that, your game is doomed to fail,” Lei explained.

Lei believes lightweight mobile games, especially H5 mini-games, will continue to be in high demand for the foreseeable future, for people’s leisure is becoming more and more fragmentized. 

“With smartphones everywhere, many young users have skipped computers altogether. Furthermore, adults, under work pressure, prefer short, casual play. As a result, PC games are losing users fast,” he explained.

Today, with the support of Hainan’s policies and ecosystem, the company is expanding into global markets, in a bid to bring more Chinese mini-games to overseas.