Kan Gao/career

Gao, initially as a member of RPG Maker community, producing experimental projects on his own since the inaugural release of RPG Maker XP. Following the development of his 2006 game (and his game debut), *Quintessence - The Blighted Venom*; Gao started a studio under the name in 2008. After the studio's creation, he expanded to more employees as his teams include help from Jessica M. Vázquez, James Q. Zhang, Gabriela Aprile, and Lannie Neely III. Kan commissions various talents for resources and labor, but the majority of the work is completed by himself as the only "official" developer.

Freebird's second project was *The Mirror Lied*, released as "freeware". It is described as an abstract short story.

Their third free game *Do You Remember My Lullaby?* was released on December 21, 2008. In 2009, they released another free game *Lyra's Melody - The Song She Whispered to Me* as a demo.

As a result of continuity of experimental shorts and production difficulties of *Quintessence - The Blighted Venom* after only eleven episodes were completed, the latter was officially stopped development in 2010, leaving the rest of latter three episodes unfinished and proceeds to producing *To the Moon*, a personal project with his grandfather.

### To the Moon

Freebird's first commercial release was *To the Moon*, serves as a "straightforward" narrative-driven game deals with the themes of life and death, alongside guilt, memory, mortality, and regretful; it became the basis of his game inspired by his grandfather's last wish. Like his previous projects, the game was built on the RPG Maker XP program in course over almost a year of development, deconstructed the use of role-playing elements and shifted into more story-based focus with character-driven and puzzle elements.

The game released on November 1, 2011 to commercial success and received positive reviews. The game features a theme song titled *Everything's Alright* by Laura Shigihara, who also performed a song for the unfinished game *Quintessence: The Blighted Venom*.

Since its release, Gao started a small franchise following the same universe as *To the Moon*, producing sequels and minisodes in the future.

### Sigmund Corp.

*To the Moon*'s first minisode was released in late 2013, followed by a prequel to the next major installment, *A Bird Story* in November 2014. The second *To the Moon* minisode was released in early 2015. The next major installment in the Sigmund Corp series, *Finding Paradise*, was released on December 14, 2017 for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It also received positive reviews. Freebird's next and most recent game, *Impostor Factory*, was released on September 30, 2021.

## References

1. ↑ Freebird Games - About Us. Retrieved on August 23, 2012.
2. ↑ Giant Bomb - To the Moon Credits. Retrieved on October 4, 2012.
3. ↑ Adventure Classic Gaming - Kan Gao Interview. Retrieved on October 4, 2012.
4. ↑ How a student's hobby project spawned 2011's most moving game? | Eurogamer
5. ↑ To the Moon for PC Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on August 23, 2012.
6. ↑ To the Moon for PC reviews. GameRankings. Retrieved on August 23, 2012.
7. ↑ Laura Shigihara - Everything's Alright. YouTube (February 2, 2012). Retrieved on August 23, 2012.
8. ↑ https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/206440/view/2943653788154532865