Game director Soulframe Liang has used his online nickname for so long he even trademarked it in China, and when Digital Extremes and Tencent came knocking for the Warframe sequel? 'I'm not selling'

I sat down for a demo of Chinese action game Phantom Blade Zero with two main curiosities. First was how its combat compares to last year's Black Myth: Wukong, and it turns out: pretty different. Second was the backstory of S-Game studio founder "Soulframe" Liang, who started his career with an RPG Maker game while studying architecture in college. Where did I go wrong in my life that I didn't end up adopting a pseudonym like Soulframe?

"Well, it was in high school—it was just some random...