Indie Game Spotlight - Blog Posts
Indie Game Spotlight: Necrobarista
Coffee. Feelings. Interpersonal drama. Gangsters. Does this feel eerily familiar for you, too? Now, add in a man who claims to be the ghost of Australian folk hero Ned Kelly and robots…with knives. That’s right, it’s Indie Game Spotlight time and we’re talking Necrobarista!
Damon wrote the script for Necrobarista; they now handle social media, community, and communications for Route 59. To keep it simple, they said, “That basically means I spend a lot of my time making really bad memes.”
How would you describe Necrobarista?
Necrobarista is a visual novel about death and coffee, set in a back-alley cafe frequented by both the living and the recently departed. It’s made in full 3D, which is a very uncommon way of developing a visual novel, and we’re placing a lot of focus on cinematography and developing a unique anime-inspired aesthetic
Necrobarista is set in a specific location. How is this important to the game?
Being set in a cafe is super, super important to the game. Our cafe, the Terminal, is a liminal space. Literally. It sits on the boundary between the real world and the afterlife, and its customers are a mix of the living and the dead. This lends it a feeling of being a place of transition—between here and there, between being unfulfilled and being satisfied with your life, between uncaffeinated and caffeinated.
The aesthetic for the game looks amazing! How did the team come up with it?
Thanks! It was a really long process - Route 59’s first prototype started development in 2014, and you can take a look at some footage of it here. You can see the origins of our art style in that video, and after nearly five years of iteration, we’ve settled on a really cohesive and (we think) gorgeous aesthetic. I’m currently working on some videos that show off never-before-seen prototypes, so make sure to look out for those on our Twitter and Facebook in the coming weeks!
How do you think Necrobarista will impact visual novels, gaming, and anime?
Necrobarista will:
1. Hopefully inspire a wave of 3D visual novels with interesting and innovative aesthetics.
2. Be the first good videogame. Also, Maddy will be added to Super Smash Bros and Reggie will call us to say that he’s proud of us for making the first good videogame.
3. Eventually, be adapted into an award-winning anime, bringing everything full circle.
What’s some advice you could give to anyone looking to get into the indie game scene?
Learn tools and make games. If you’re into code, pick up Unity or Unreal Engine and follow some tutorials to learn how to use them, and then make some tiny/constrained games. If you’re more into writing or art, try something like Twine or Bitsy or flatgames. Don’t try and make a masterpiece, or the game of your dreams - just make little things and then progress to bigger stuff. Don’t forget to share the games you make, and - most importantly - be good to people!
What can players take away from Necrobarista?
Necrobarista’s gonna break your heart. Sorry.
Necrobarista will be released on PC and Mac via Steam (add them to your wish list), PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch! In the meantime, check out Necrobarista.com or follow their Tumblr!
Indie Game Spotlight: Donut County
Get ready to stuff your hole with this week’s Indie Game Spotlight. We’re talking Donut County, a game where you play as a hole in the ground that grows bigger whenever you drop something inside. You follow a raccoon named BK, who works for a tech company that steals people’s trash using remote-controlled holes.
We spoke with Ben Esposito, the creator of Donut County, about how we came up the idea of the game, Trashopedia, and the deep rivalry between snakes and raccoons. Read on:
Where did the idea behind Donut County come from?
It was actually inspired by a tweet, haha! There’s a parody account [on Twitter] called PeterMolydeux—a parody of the visionary game designer Peter Molyneux. He posts surreal game ideas, and one of them was about a game where you play as a hole in the ground. I thought it’d be really interesting to play a game where you control…nothing.
How did living in Los Angeles effect the game and its story?
I have loved LA since I moved there! I’m fascinated by the way the city exists in cultural memory, anyone who watches movies or TV has seen LA without really seeing it. The city changes so rapidly that our memories get rewritten by the media. It’s the perfect place to make a game that explores erasure. Also, my first apartment had a really serious raccoon problem. That’s probably the reason why the villains are raccoons.
What was your favorite Trashopedia to write?
I loved writing the Trashopedia (though it was tough coming up with 300 jokes for random everyday objects!!). Thankfully my partner and hilarious cartoonist Geneva Hodgson helped write a lot of the entries. It was fun coming up with the voice for the raccoon who writes the Trashopedia entries. What does he love? Trash. What does he hate? Snakes?
I’ve had this really idiotic idea for a while for a “drive-thru haunted house” like a drive-thru Starbucks, but for getting scared. I made sure to express this genius idea in a sequence of entries about cars:
“I’m looking for investors to fund my drive-thru haunted house”
“Imagine a haunted house that fits into your busy schedule”
“The only hard part about designing a drive-thru haunted house: how do you scare the cars?”
What universe crossover would be the most interesting to see with Donut County?
Would love to get The Hole as a playable fighter in Smash Brothers. PLEASE let me know if you have any connections.
Where can one purchase the game, you ask? Donut County is available on Steam, PS4, Nintendo Switch, App Store, Mac App Store, and GOG! And hey, if you have that Smash Brothers hook-up, hit up Ben!
Indie Game Spotlight: Potionomics
There’s been some pretty great indie games brewing this year. This week’s Indie Game Spotlight, Potionomics, is one of ‘em. This RPG shop simulator lets you play as Sylvia, a young witch who must pay off an inherited debt by making and selling potions. Potionomics challenges players to survive the rigors of business ownership by mastering the art of crafting, reaching goals to upgrade their shop, and navigating relationships with customers, partners, and competitors…all while exploring a shifting, responsive market economy built around magic and monsters. Monsters? In this economy? You bet.
We spoke with a few of the people behind the game—Aryo Jati Darmawan (lead developer) and Jarann Pan (marketing, production, and sometimes art!)—to give all of you a little inside scoop on what may very well be your new favorite game come its release day.
What inspired the story and characters in Potionomics?
Jati: The primary inspiration for everything and anything in Potionomics comes from my experiences playing RPGs growing up. As much as I love them, fantasy RPGs (especially in the west) tend to feature the same types of heroes and premises over and over, which is an absolute shame because there are so many other interesting characters in these worlds. The barkeep of a thieves guild, the janitor who has to clean up the mess after a world-shattering ending scenario, the veterinarian for all the fantastical creatures…Wondering about their stories inspired me to make a game from a vendor’s point of view.
How did you choose the style for the game?
Jati: It was really just a by-product of the people around me. I went to Ringling College of Art and Design, which plopped me into an environment full of amazing animators. When I started bringing devs onto the team, most of them were friends I knew from Ringling, so I just played to their strengths!
I wish I could say that I had a game plan all along, but it was mostly serendipity.
Jarann: We’re extremely lucky to have so many talented people making Potionomics. Shout out to Hope Lee, our brilliant concept artist, who designed most of the art for the game! Unfortunately, she doesn’t have a social media presence, but her work is on display all over our Tumblr and website.
Are there any unique stories on how you created a certain character?
Jati: The dev team is in full agreement concerning what Owl’s avian self looks like, but we have a lot of competing ideas over what his human version would look like. Some of us are sure he’d be a devilish rogue in his 30s, others see him as a Merlin-like figure, age 80+. I don’t think there will be a consensus anytime soon.
Jarann: I designed the initial concept art and character idea for Luna, the game’s moth-girl marketing maven. Our goal when designing most of our characters is to try to make them feel like real and relatable people—so I gave her a lot of traits I related to. However, I got carried away, and at some point, I awkwardly realized that I’d accidentally made a self-insert character! Since then the character has moved away from my own personality, but my friends still tease me about it.
Are there any moments in the game inspired by a true story or an event in your life?
Jarann: I think Sylvia’s struggles are somewhat inspired by our own experiences coming out of college. She finally has her degree that she’s worked so hard to get and thinks everything will be a cakewalk after this. However, reality proves to be quite different!
What potion would be the best potion in real life?
Jati: A potion that makes me invulnerable to whatever tear-gas curse onions cast on you when you cut them.
Jarann: A Talk to Animals potion! I spend so much time trying to figure out what my dog is saying to me.
Need a potion to learn more? Look no further, we heard simply visiting @potionomicsgame will lead to a magical portal to learn more. Potionomics is still in development but will be available on PC!
Indie Game Spotlight: Florence
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we knew this week’s Indie Game Spotlight had to focus on love. Today we’re celebrating the one year anniversary of Florence. Winner of Best Mobile Game 2018 at The Game Awards and recipient of Apple’s Design Award, Florence tells a story of our protagonist, a 25-year-old named Florence who meets her first love, a cello player named Krish. Each level is a different minigame vignette that tells the story primarily through the gameplay and visuals rather than words.
We were able to talk with Sam Crisp, a programmer at Mountains—the craft game studio that created this lovely game—about Florence, falling in love, and new ways to tell stories in games.
How did the initial idea behind Florence come to fruition?
We wanted to make a new kind of mobile game that no one had done before. One that was intimate and emotional and that would appeal and resonate with anyone, even if they didn’t play games at all. We started by playing around with the idea of solving a series of jigsaw puzzles that could tell a story through the metaphors of putting broken things back together. What does it mean when there’s a piece missing from a jigsaw, or if the pieces don’t fit together? Pretty soon we realized we were making a game about the struggles of love.
How did the team choose to focus on modern love relationships?
We need more romance in games! They’re universal stories, and everyone on the team could bring a lot of their own experiences to making the game. Stories about modern love are huge in every media form but are still underrepresented in game stories, despite the fact that games exploring this theme are some of the most interesting and forward-thinking games out there! But practically, we knew we wanted to make a game about a single person going through change in their life. And first love is one of the most transformative experiences we could hone in on.
In Florence, there is a mini-game to create dialogue through a puzzle system. How did the team come up with the concept?
We came up with a lot of ideas for minigames, and the jigsaw puzzle was one of the earliest that still remains in the final game. We had this important scene where Florence and Krish were getting to know each other for the first time and we were trying to find a way to represent that in a minigame. So we asked ourselves, what does it feel like when you go on a date with someone and you go from being nervous and awkward to breaking the ice and feeling like you get along with someone? And we tried out the idea of having to physically make conversation by putting these jigsaw puzzles together, and have the puzzles get easier over time, and the idea just worked. When we got people to play that level and try it out, they understood right away what was happening.
The game can be referred to as a “slice of life.” How was Florence able to gamify everyday experiences?
The interactive language of smartphones and games provide a lot of readymade metaphors for us to work with. For instance, the level Moving In takes the “inventory tetris” from games like Diablo and maps that onto the rituals of compromise involved in cohabitating with someone. Also when Florence is stuck in a bad routine, we made repetitive minigames out of everything, like doing accounting at her day job, scrolling through social media, and even talking to her mum on the phone, in order to show that she’s treating everything in her life as rote, and that she thinks everything is a chore! We went through a lot of trial and error with many different ideas of how to turn everyday life into minigames and what you see in the final game are the ones that worked the best.
How do imagery and colors relay the characters’ inner state?
We don’t have much text, talking or traditional narration in Florence at all so we had to communicate everything to the player through imagery and interaction. Florence’s life starts out dull, colorless and repetitive. When we flashback early in the game and see her as a child, we see that her life used to be full of color but now it’s full of grays. When she meets Krish, he brings color to her life, and that’s the first time we see the color yellow in the game. And at the end of the game when Florence truly finds herself we introduce green to the color palette. The color motifs are subtle but very effective. And there are similar techniques used in the melodies of the music too.
It’s been a year since Florence has been out! What has happened in the past year and what’s next for the team?
The response we’ve had to Florence has been amazing. The game has resonated with all sorts of people all over the world. We’ve had people write in telling us that they played the game at a difficult time in their lives and that the story helped them work through what they were going through. And we’ve seen people be inspired by Florence to make their own games using similar storytelling techniques but telling their own unique story, which everyone here at Mountains is thrilled to see. Right now we are hard at work on the next thing, and we hope to have something to share with you soon!
Already in love with Florence? The good news is it can be purchased at the App Store through Google Play. iam8bit has announced the upcoming release of a vinyl soundtrack for the critically acclaimed mobile game. Accompanying this slice of life story is a gentle, charming, and emotional score composed by Kevin Penkin, now available for pre-order at the iam8bit store.
Indie Game Spotlight: Frontier Story
Ready to fulfill your farming dreams? This week’s Indie Game Spotlight, Frontier Story, created by @jmw327, has captured our hearts this week with their latest farming sim. Frontier Story is about exploring a new world and its mysteries, while befriending the townsfolk, building your farm, and raising some adorable animals!
@jmw327, the solo developer handling the code, art, and game design of Frontier Story, took a moment to speak about the indie game scene and how to start getting into it!
What are some major influences to the game?
Harvest Moon 64 (my first Harvest Moon game) is an obvious one, but also the many worlds of the Legend of Zelda series, and the quirkiness of Earthbound, amongst other things. But not just video games! I read a lot as a child, so I think that had a huge influence on my preference for storytelling in games! And of course there are a lot of amazing people in my life who inspired me creatively and in other ways!
How do the farming mechanics work in Frontier Story?
The mechanics will have a lot of similarities of course to the Harvest Moon series, but with some twists of my own! I especially want animals to play a large role in the game, aside from just being tools to make money. So in addition to having them feeling more alive, hopefully almost like a virtual pet, some of them will have unique abilities which will help you in managing your farm if you treat them well! An example of this is a slime-like creature called a Droplet, which produces water!
How did you get into developing games?
It was something I had a desire to do for a while, and then last year I guess I just figured it was time to stop just thinking about doing it, and do it! I already had some programming experience, so I started learning art and trying to pick up the basics of game development just through trial and error.
What does your day-to-day look like for creating Frontier Story?
After all other life obligations are taken care of, I generally put most of my free time towards working on some aspect of the game. A nice part about doing both art and coding is I can create a more relaxing pace I think by switching between the two roles often.
What’s some advice you could give to anyone looking to get into the indie game scene?
Just start creating whatever it is that you want to create! There is a lot of advice on the internet on how to go about creating a game, but I think experimenting is essential when starting anything new. There are a lot of ways to do things, but I think it’s most important to find the one that works for you and your goals. Understanding what you want to get out of making your game is essential!
Want to know when Frontier Story is ready for release? Make sure to follow @jmw327 for game dev updates and more BTS content!