Who Is zitaoye and What Is the Idea Behind These Experimental Games?

Updated

zitaoye is an independent game creator on itch.io who describes himself as "a bipolar disorder-man, trying to from crazy to artistic." His page is a collection of game jam entries, prototypes, and art experiments rather than a single commercial catalog. The work is best understood as a personal creative practice: short, often unfinished pieces that explore time, sound, Chinese text and calligraphy, memory, and zen-like stillness. You can follow him on itch.io to see new experiments as they appear.

What the page says about the author

The profile text is brief and self-written. It states two things directly:

  • He identifies himself as living with bipolar disorder.
  • He frames his creative direction as a movement "from crazy to artistic."

That framing matters for reading the games. Several titles are explicitly about mental states or philosophical ideas rather than conventional gameplay goals. The page does not present a studio, a team, or a commercial release schedule.

The recurring themes in the work

Looking across the listed projects, a few ideas repeat often enough to count as the author's signature:

Theme Examples on the page
Mental experience bipolar, described as "a simple representation of my bipolar disorder"
Time The Shape of Time (Remake), "an experimental philosophical game about time"; El Hacedor, "a game about line and time"
Sound and rhythm Sword Zen, a "sound zen-like experimental action game"; 回 声 SOUND RETURN, an interactive web piece about sound puzzles
Chinese language and art 書 shū, "a game about Chinese calligraphy and painting"; 写首诗吧! Make a Poem
Zen and meditation 无 Nothing, a "zen-like meditation game"; Sword Zen
Memory and narrative The Mnemosyne, an image-narrative game; GIF Yesterday Once More

The pattern is consistent: small, idea-first pieces where the mechanic serves a concept — a timer for time, a sound puzzle for listening, a poem-maker for language.

Game jams as the main production method

Most titles carry jam credits in their descriptions, which explains the short, prototype-like quality of much of the catalog:

  • Global Game Jam: Sword Zen (GGJ 2021), The Mnemosyne (2020), Shaman's Dance (GGJ 2016, Xiamen)
  • CiGA Game Jam: 罅隙 XIA XI (2020), S E E K (Shanghai, 2019)
  • Ludum Dare: HeartBeats (LD #46), Hold The Button (LD 44), CATCH THE ENERY! (LD 39)
  • GMTK Jam 2020: A Broken Car Creature
  • GGJ NEXT 2021: GIF Yesterday Once More
  • NExT Game Jam: C(8,3) [0090], a "playable music game album"

Jam work is a useful lens here: it shows an artist who uses time-boxed constraints to test ideas quickly, then keeps the results public rather than polishing them into products.

What the "experiments" label means in practice

The page groups work under an "Experiments" heading, and the descriptions back that up. You will find:

  • A photography-collage piece inspired by David Hockney (Hockney's Photo)
  • An unfinished manifesto (Short Game Manifesto)
  • A curatorial prototype for the PSA Emerging Curators Project (寻找冯梦波 In Search of Feng Mengbo)
  • A narrative timer prototype (Mini-Peer)
  • A small choices-maker game inspired by an Oulipo-style poem (32768 Parties)

So the page is not only games. It is a working sketchbook that mixes playable prototypes, web interactives, and art-project proposals. If you arrive expecting finished, long-form games, adjust expectations; if you are interested in experimental game design as a practice, the range is the point.

How to follow the work

The page identifies the creator as zitaoye with the handle @Nir_yezi. Following the account on itch.io is the direct way to see updates, since the page itself functions as an ongoing log of jam entries and experiments rather than a curated portfolio with release dates.

One practical note: many entries are marked "Play in browser," while others are listed without that tag, so availability differs from project to project. Check the individual project page before assuming a title is playable immediately.

The idea in one sentence

The through-line is an artist using small games and interactive sketches to translate inner experience — mood, memory, time, sound, Chinese writing — into playable form, with game jams providing the rhythm and constraints for that translation.