August’s Featured Game: MarinetteDEVELOPER(S): Teal CrownENGINE: RPG Maker MVGENRE: Horror, Pu

August’s Featured Game: MarinetteDEVELOPER(S): Teal CrownENGINE: RPG Maker MVGENRE: Horror, Puzzle, AdventureWARNINGS: Sensitive Themes, Blood/Light GoreSUMMARY: A little girl named Marinette, in the wake of a splitting family and a change of homes, is having a birthday. But this, her eleventh birthday, will present a deadly opportunity to fulfill a special promise. On the night before her birthday, she is drawn into a strange realm; an unnatural dollhouse, populated with dolls who are not quite what they seem. A web of strings lying in wait, and threatening to ensnare the poor marionette; warping her perception, and twisting her every move. Will the strings attach, and force her to become an unwilling puppet, or will she escape this surreal web of strings? What will she have to do to avoid the dangers of the dollhouse, and set herself free? Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut! Introduce yourself!*Mitty: “Hello, I’m Mitty! Thank you so much for the opportunity to participate in this interview. I’m the main developer of the game and I’m working with a team of friends to make this game a reality. I work mainly on the visuals and programming, and I’ll be representing the team, alongside Third! I’ve been on the community for around two years, even though I tend to not be active very often.” *Third: “Hoi, I’m Third! I appreciate you reaching out to interview us. I’m the main composer and writer of Marinette, and I work under Mitty to make the story and soundtrack what we want it to be. I’ve been in the community for little less than Mitt but am even less active in most of my developer discords.” What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially?*Mitty: “The game is essentially about a girl that gets trapped inside a dollhouse. A simple concept really can go far ahaha I’ve always loved themes related to creepy dolls so I wanted to create something related to that. What pushed me initially to start were obviously the inspiration of seeing other devs creating, seeing how far you could go with these engines and create amazing interactive stories, however the huge support from a friend was what made me actually start past the planning and dreaming!” *Third: “Marinette is a story about a little girl becoming entangled in the complicated family and supernatural landscape she finds herself in on her birthday. I enjoy writing short stories about this kind of thing so it’s fantastic to work on a larger project about one of my favorite subjects. My primary inspiration and introduction to this kind of game in general was Pocket Mirror, and I use it the most as a model for how to do certain things. However, I also draw a lot of inspiration from masterpieces like Aria’s Story, Ib, Witch’s House, and Alice Mare.” How long have you been working on your project?*Mitty: “The project has been in the works for around two years now! The first year was mostly planning and right now we are on the right track with the programming and asset creation for the demo, as well as music and sound design for later development. Planning isn’t over yet though, especially for the final game.” *Third: “I’ve been working on this for almost two years. The soundtrack possessed most of my earlier attention, but now it’s taken a backseat to writing, now that I’m actively writing the scripts for the game now. ” Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project?*Mitty: “Yes! The game has inspirations from plenty of sources, not only strictly RPG Maker Horror games, or games in general for that matter. If I were to mention those, of course games like Ib, The witch’s house, Alice Mare, Pocket Mirror, Yume Nikki & .flow, Stray Cat Crossing, Mogeko’s games…etc quickly come to mind. When it comes to the aesthetics and visuals, the inspirations come from several different places, including games like Alice Madness Returns, Dofus, Yomawari, The Legend of Mana, Little Nightmares…the list goes on; or other media, like Inu Curry’s animation style or video creator nana825763, as well as some anime and music videos. Silent hill is also a huge inspiration for the atmosphere, and hopefully we can pull it off well!” *Third: “My primary inspiration, as I’ve said earlier, is Pocket Mirror, both for its masterful writing and soundtrack. The game’s soundtrack is the main reason I still play piano. Whenever I’m feeling musical, my fingers always hunt out the same kind of haunting, mysterious, and sometimes peaceful and playful melodies that Pocket Mirror is rife with. In the end, our soundtrack is probably going to sound like Pocket Mirror and Aria’s Story’s soundtracks were meshed together. Story wise, commonplace elements in this genre like demons, monsters, mean parents and puzzles that tell the story are commonplace for a reason, and certainly find their way into this one, in their own special way. Every other game I’ve mentioned involves them in some form or another. And young, curious protagonists are also a blast to write and do evil things to and put in difficult, dangerous situations. ” Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them?*Mitty: “We surely have! Many of them in different areas ahaha Taking away bug hunting, I am primarily an artist, so programming for me is a secondary thing. Because of this it’s easy to get carried away and hard to realise what can and can’t be done. I don’t want the game to be visually boring if I can make things move and seem alive! The way I’m handling it is programming like an artist: I think in my head what cool things I can do with my art by not having it completely still, and then it’s a matter of executing it on the engine. However this comes with a downside. I tend to tweak things a lot, and that takes quite some time, but I honestly think it’s worth it ahaha Also I find it hard to start writing, but when I do, I can’t stop orz. Other challenges are also finding plot holes. This is fixed with a lot of studying the story, gathering inspiration and talking with the team. I also struggle a bit with communicating with the team, but thankfully they are all very nice and understanding.” *Third: “Main challenge is overcoming the sheer weight of how much I have to learn about music and writing in order for this game to be what I want it to be. I’m a perfectionist, and when I care about something, I can’t tolerate it being worse than it could’ve been. Also, writing is getting more and more complicated and there’s more things and details to keep track of so as not to create inconsistencies or plot holes, especially as we try to revise it and make major changes to the story (Mitt will know what I’m talking about). ” Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept?*Mitty: “It changed a lot, not only in terms of the story and writing, but visually too. The basic concept is close to being the same, though. You can check out old posts in the blog where I consider different styles of mapping and such. Actually, don’t, please. It’s too old…and my writing…oh god.” *Third: “The writing has come a long way, but now that we’ve fleshed out and written down much of the backstory, it’s a much more complicated story than what Mitt first showed me when I joined.” What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone?*Mitty: “Initially it was just me, occasionally having Mia to talk about the story and help develop it. Rindre joined as a voice actress very early on and also helped in other aspects of the game. Then I also talked about it with two friends I know in real life, one helped with organization and the other with some concept art, but they aren’t that active anymore, even though I still count them as part of the team (Thank you guys btw if you’re reading this). Eventually I met Third, an amazing composer and writer, and I asked him to join in! He brought along a friend who is also an amazing composer and writer, Code, and these two are complete madmen of music and writing and I’m super glad to be working with them, as they are super passionate and it makes me really happy ahaha. Bruno is also a really dedicated composer that is helping with a few tracks as well! Miku and Luccinia are two super talented and kind artists that have also been helping a ton with concept art, and their ideas have certainly improved the game as well. We are welcome to more concept artists, though! More heads, more ideas ahaha Recently we got the voice actresses for a few characters in the game, when we did the auditions, and hopefully soon another friend will jump aboard and help with organization and writing! We are a relatively small team, and sometimes progress goes a bit slowly since we can get busy, but we are all doing our best! I’m glad that I’m not alone. Links for their pages and such can be found on the team section on the blog, go support them if you can!”What is the best part of developing a game?*Mitty: “For me, personally, I love seeing what my team mates come up with, whether it is music or concept art. I also enjoy the love and support we get, and it makes me excited in the development. As for the creation part, I like programming challenging cutscenes and doing cool things with the assets. Progress updates can also be fun to make when I have the time.” *Third: “My favorite part is showing Mitt what I’ve written and composed. Making her happy and excited with my work is extremely fulfilling. ” Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing?*Mitty: “Oh, yes! Besides being a cool break from programming hell, it helps me make it less of a hell ahaha I like improvising, though, so I think I play RPG Maker games because I enjoy them for the most part.” *Third: “Occasionally, not really. I don’t play many games and I’ve played the heck out of the ones I have.” Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?)*Mitty: “Ah I don’t know, honestly. I think I can relate to every character in one way or another, and it’s hard picking one, especially since the game isn’t out yet and I’d like to keep most characters hidden until the demo. Marinette is definitely one of my favourites, though, I just love how innocent and cute she is. Her cheekiness can be made super interesting ahaha” *Third: “My favorite character is definitely Pierre. He’s a complete blast to write, and gives me lots of cool things to describe and say through him, from his magic tricks to his killer lines and quotes.” Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Mitty: “Hm…Having organized things better in the beginning would have saved a lot of time now, but I don’t think it’s been that big of a deal anymore. I don’t have any regrets that I’m aware of at the moment since everything until this point was necessary to learn and get to where we are now.” Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is?*Mitty: “I’m not sure yet, it depends on the reception and how willing I’ll be to continue the story. Even though I would find it fun to make comics, another game or a different midia, realistically I can’t tell how willing I’ll be to continue developing content about it after the game is finished. Honestly, I hope I can develop more projects on Marinette, we do have content for that, and I absolutely love it with my heart! But it’s also equally important to move on to another story. Only time will tell!” Third: “I hope to, but that day is very far away for me. I’ll be gone for quite some time after Marinette is finished, and I hope I’m not forgotten by the time I return. Perhaps I’ll entertain myself with additional short stories exploring the various aftermaths of the game.” What do you most look forward to upon/after the release of a project?*Mitty: “I honestly just want to get the story out there. I’m hoping people will enjoy it if they play the game, and will have a special place in their hearts to keep it on. This project means a lot to me, and having it making people feel things is what I’m looking forward to. I’d love to see other people playing it, definitely. I imagine I’ll eventually be relieved to have finally completed it, it’ll be a big moment for me to sigh be proud of creating. I’ll be able to move on to work on other fun things while I see how this little child of a game is going to do out there in the wild, and that’s always nice!” *Third: “Fan reaction, 100%. Having people ask me questions about my work and telling me how much they enjoyed it is my favorite part of writing.” Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game?*Mitty: “Yes, I don’t want to feel empty with nothing to do when I finish the game. I know it will be great and all, but I’ve been working on it for so long that it’s hard to imagine not working on it ahaha! It’s a really fun hobby, but it’s also engraved in my heart. I want it to be the best it can be, of course, so I’m scared of bugs, inconsistencies and overall it being clearly a bad game. I’m hoping that people will help with critiques on the demo, so I have a better outside perspective of where we are going. I don’t want to drop the game, so I’m scared of having to take a long break from it during the development. I’m worried of being a terrible team leader as well.” *Third: “I dread plot holes more than anything, and I dread a dull and overall unimpactful story. I want a tale that will punch the viewer in the gut, hard. I want to make them cry. I want to make them laugh. I want them to draw what I wrote, and explore it further in hopefully-not-too-sexual fanfiction.” Do you have any advice for upcoming devs?*Mitty: “Don’t be scared to start. You’re going to suffer mid-way if it’s a long term project, but keep pushing through, you’ll learn a lot and it becomes easier with time. Take breaks and take it easy, step by step. LIST STUFF AND MAKE BACKUPS. Learn with short projects first. Ask for advice from people you admire, but never hold them on a pedestal. It’s always helpful to be a jack of all trades! Try to think from an outsider perspective if you’re not sure of how it’s going, and if you can, tell people you trust about the game and ask for opinions. Always take criticism well, but don’t stress too much over harsher or even meaner comments. Have fun and never forget your starts, the people you meet and the reason you’re doing the project for. If you’re also an artist, writer, musician, remember this is a great opportunity to add something interesting to your portfolio. Cool visuals attract people, but they are not everything that will keep them hooked.” *Third: “The best part of making a game is the people you make it with. The story is the most important ingredient of your game. Prioritize it first, and everything else will fall into place around it. Otherwise, everything will serve some other aspect of your game, and that’s rarely a good thing. Always speak your mind; do not every not say something just because it’ll hurt someone’s feelings. Obviously don’t be a tool, but if you ever have to choose between hurting the game and someone’s pride, pick someone’s pride. It’s much kinder in the long run.” Question from last month’s featured dev Froach Club: Have you ever had a moment where you got completely stuck or became intensely frustrated while using RPG Maker? *Mitty: “Yes I have, I think everyone has QwQ Despite silly mistakes, I’ve gotten stuck several times, but honestly it’s usually either us doing something stupidly hard that can be done another way, or we are just not skilled enough yet, and it’s better to come back later. You can usually do most things you wanna do if you have the advantage of knowing the programming language your RPG Maker Engine uses I think. Google is your friend always, and sleeping about it also helps. I once dreamt of a whole sequence to fix a problem, and it worked! ahaha Always take it easy and don’t give up, but know your limits and the limits of the engine!” We mods would like to thank Teal Crown for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved! Remember to check out Marinette if you haven’t already! See you next month! - Mods Gold & Platinum -- source link

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