March’s Featured Game: acai cOrnerDEVELOPER(S): moca & MittyENGINE: RPG Maker 2003GENR

March’s Featured Game: acai cOrnerDEVELOPER(S): moca & MittyENGINE: RPG Maker 2003GENRE: RPG, Adventure, SurrealSUMMARY: acai cOrner is about Mizuki, someone who has fallen into the sewers and who happens to find their favorite electric guitar! Upon obtaining the guitar, Mizuki turns into a magical girl who must defend herself against spooky sewer creatures using the guitar’s magical powers. Download the game here! Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut! Introduce yourself!*moca: Hi, I’m moca, a Starbucks barista aspiring to be a writer and game developer. I have been making RPG Maker games for about six years now, with my first two projects being a Pokémon fan-game and a Corpse Party fan-game. Those two happen to be my two favorite franchises as well! I have also created the RPG Maker game MOMOKA (IGMC 2018). I have founded a group called ‘Team Shibu!’ dedicated to making horror games! Our current project is a RPG Maker survival horror game named 'Katharsis’. *Mitty: Hey there, I’m Mitty! I’ve been working with Moca on several games for a while now, helping with mostly graphics! Please support him, as he is very kind and hardworking!! I’m also the main developer of a game called “Marinette”, so I hope you’ll check that one out too, when the demo is released! What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially?*moca: acai cOrner is an experimental spooky RPG Maker game that only uses 4 colors! You are a magical girl with a just-as-magical electric guitar that you use to fend off spooky sewer slimes and other weird enemies you find in the surreal sewer system. It’s half exploration and half RPG battles. What inspired me to create acai cOrner initially was to actually get myself back into the groove of making games again. I had just recently came back from a hiatus and found myself having trouble getting back into the development of 'Katharsis’. That’s when I decided to make a short, experimental game to get the juices flowing. How long did you work on your project?*moca: acai cOrner was finished in just about under a month! Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project?*moca: I had always wanted to make a Yume Nikki-like game and thought this was the perfect opportunity to try. So for the more surreal parts of acai cOrner, I took inspiration from Yume Nikki and a Homestuck random planet generator. Gameplay wise though, I took inspiration from a RPG Maker game called Ghost Suburb 0! I really loved how unique it was, especially with the timer and no dialogue aspect. I knew I wanted to do something with a timer, so I tried a rogue-like approach with the gameplay. Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them?*moca: If you played any of my previous projects, you know that acai cOrner is vastly different than anything that I have ever done. I’m so used to using words to describe the violence in my games, so when it came to making the story, I had a lot of trouble. It wasn’t until I looked deeper into why people like these types of games that I had realized that people like to interpret the story on their own, guided by exploration, to enjoy these games. After that, I let loose a bit and made something more open-ended. Another challenge was the difficulty. I was the only one playtesting the game, and since I knew the game front and back, and had no trouble getting the ending. That’s why when I sent out demos to friends, I was really discouraged to hear that the experience was mostly frustrating and rage quitting-inducing haha. I worked closely with their feedback and made changes accordingly to make the experience less frustrating but still difficult. *Mitty: I think I was going through a weird artblock during the development of the game, so for some of the illustrations and backdrops for each area’s fights, Moca sketched out the basic idea of what it could look like, and I just put my spin on it! It made the work much easier and faster! Did any aspects of your project change over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept?*moca: Well, the game was meant to be short so there wasn’t room for any big changes. Sure there are a couple gameplay changes and enemy tweaks, but not anything mindblowing. I added in the idea of making four surreal worlds kinda last minute, if that counts, haha. 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?*moca: In the beginning, it was just me! I didn’t think I was gonna need any outside help since this was supposed to be a relatively easy project to release, but the further in development I got, the more I realized the game needed pizazz. The four color limitation wasn’t enough for my lack of graphical talent. That’s when I contacted Mitty about helping with the games battle backdrops and sprite animations! She is also a member of Team Shibu!, but we have collabed together even before that. Her art really made the project shine and I enjoy working with them on games! *Mitty: Moca contacted me, and I wanted to help! We are working together on another game called Katharsis, so we are quite familiar with each other. I like working with other people, especially if I’m not in the lead, it releases a bit of the pressure I feel sometimes ahaha What is the best part of developing a game?*moca: To me, it’s seeing everything come together and just… working exactly the way you envisioned it. As a game developer, you section the game off into parts to make development much more organized and faster but seeing it all come together in the end. Pure bliss *chefs kiss*. *Mitty: I like a bit of everything, but currently I’ve been enjoying animating and spritework, as well as map assets’ designs a little more than usual! 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?*moca: Mm… not really! I have an idea of what the engine can do, so when I do go out of my way to player other RPG Maker games, it’s usually for writing inspiration rather than gameplay inspiration. Ghost Suburb 0 is something that I accidentally stumbled upon and immediately fell in love with it the minute I played it haha. (Fun fact: the developer of Ghost Suburb 0 is apart of Team Shibu! and is in charge of monster design!) Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?)*moca: There is a rat in the game that is internally called 'Ratthew’ who leads you into a funky room. I relate them the most. *Mitty: I relate to the land sharks the most on a spiritual level. They are pretty much confused beans, and that’s very relatable. Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *moca: I wish I added more random spooky events and trap rooms. But the game was also supposed to be short and I knew that if I kept adding more and more things, development was never gonna end haha. Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is?*moca: Well, by the time this interview comes out, there should be a new update for the game. The update should include 100% custom music by a talented composer, and a nerf in difficulty. As for sequels, who knows! The next time you see acai cOrner may be in 3D. What do you most look forward to upon finishing the game?*moca: Definitely the fan reaction! The satisfaction of seeing your work being noticed by people and actually enjoying makes me happy. It’s also the relief of just… finishing something! *Mitty: For this particular project I was obviously looking forward to seeing what people said about the little animations and such ahaha! I also was curious about the reaction to the timed difficulty mechanic, I had never seen anything like that before Moca presented it to me, so I had no idea on what people’s feedback would be. Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game?*moca: How people will handle the difficulty. The game isn’t supposed to be completed on your first playthrough, but in 2-3 playthroughs. There are rooms and places that are meant to waste your time that you should ideally skip the more you play. By later playthroughs, you should be shaving time and be better. I understand that it’s not handled as best I could, but I think the experience should still be challenging and hopefully fun! *Mitty: I was a little conflicted on the timed mechanic, I loved it because it’s pretty original and helps set an interesting athmosphere of worry and unease, and also seems to tell a bit of the vague story; and at the same time I don’t like it much because I prefer more story-driven games and the vagueness mixed with the mechanic feels different from what I’m used to playing! I think it’s more of a personal taste kind of thing, it was an experimental jam game, after all! Do you have any advice for upcoming devs?*moca: Take it easy! Take short breaks throughout development. And most importantly, have fun. If it’s a hobby and it’s making you overly stressed, just take a step back! Question from last month’s featured dev @ressurflection: What would you say is the weakest part of your game development? *moca: Procrastination. I’m so bad at sticking to my own schedule, it’s something that I try to keep in check when working with a team especially. We mods would like to thank moca & Mitty 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 acai cOrner if you haven’t already! See you next month! - Mods Gold & Platinum -- source link

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