Kan Gao: To The Moon and Back

"I'm like the guy with a drink in the corner of the party, just sipping on it and looking at who's here," says Kan Gao, hitting on the perfect analogy for his current situation. Everything, he quietly explains, is so different to how things were before he made To The Moon, the cult indie game about a dying man's last wish that launched to a rapturous reception back in November and left a trail of player tears in its wake. A year ago Gao was winding down his studies at the University of Western Ontario and building games in his spare time for kicks. Today the 23-year-old works under the banner Freebird Games and rubs shoulders with the game industry's great and good at shindigs across North America. "I've never travelled so much," says Gao. "It's been a fantastic experience, such a ride. I had no idea a year ago that I would be where I would be now. It is exhilarating but, at the same time, kind of nerve racking."

Gao's journey into the industry is an odd one. Many indie success stories involve developers who cut their teeth in big studios throwing themselves overboard in a bid for creative freedom. Gao, on the other hand, didn't even set out to become a game developer.

"I've always loved games and the delivery of interactive stories in games, but I don't think I thought I could do something like this," he says. "I just tried to turn a story I was writing into an interactive and audio experience. At the time I thought I'd be lucky if there was a tool that could help me make interactive text adventures."

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