BACKSTAGE PASS OF INDIE GAMES 1: HALLOWEEN OTOME

 

I wanted to kick off my little mini series called: Backstage Pass of indie games. This is where I get an inside look of some games that I feel are worth honorable mentions, and need to be checked out! In the spirit of Halloween I interviewed the duo team Corynth and Bic who developed Halloween Otome which is a visual novel.

 

 “You are cordially invited to the Annual Valdemar Halloween Extravaganza.

Two weeks of luxury await you.

Let’s see if you can keep up the masquerade…”– Halloween Otome

 

What was your inspiration in creating this game?

CORYNTH: I can’t even remember our inspiration beyond “We should do something short. Halloween is coming up.”

BIC: Although I think one of us said “let’s do a Halloween themed Otome to suit the month. ”What do we call it? Halloween Otome. I do have to admit we’re both terrible with names.

CORYNTH: I think at one point we were going to call it Otome Halloween, but then you made the logo with Otome at the bottom. Getting back on track though, it was initially meant to be short so we set out some guidelines “Only 2 in-game weeks. Only 3 pursuables.”

BIC: And it became a masquerade party so we could get the monster costumes in.

How long did it take to create the game?

CORYNTH: We started at the beginning of August and released 1.0 on the 13th of February so 5 and a half months total. It would have been quicker but life got in the way.

BIC: It took forever. Short never happened. Emoting took up my entire holidays.

CORYNTH: Yeah we lost short somewhere around Day 2.

How did you stay motivated during the development of the game?

BIC: Tyler Thompson was probably our biggest motivation to finish it ASAP.

CORYNTH: Definitely. He was nice enough to let us use his songs and even compose and sing one just for Wolfy. Letting him down wasn’t something we were willing to do.

BIC : Yeah and the fact that we knew he had projects which were dropped previously and was still willing to let us use his music for free.

CORYNTH: Also all those nice people who commented and played the demo helped keep us excited about it.

BIC: Yup. We live off feedback.

 

Is Halloween your favorite holiday?

BIC: Nope.  We don’t even celebrate here. I can officially say I’ve never dressed up as a kid to go trick or treating. As fun as that would’ve been. It’s not big here.

CORYNTH: Funny story about that: We don’t actually celebrate Halloween where I’m from. No trick or treating or parties or costumes. I’m kind of indifferent to it but it does make for great story material. I’m also a huge scaredy cat though so it’s probably for the best.

BIC: But free candy would’ve been worth it.

If given the chance, would there be anything that you would change about the game?

BIC: Change the art. I wish I was better at colouring and drawing digitally.

CORYNTH: I’m not sure. HO (Halloween Otome) was a learning experience. There are things we did for HO that could have been streamlined more. Like if I’d made the Sprite Chooser (a program to make emoting easier) from the start, instead of when the majority of the emotes were done.

BIC: I agree! The emoting! Less expressions next time!

CORYNTH: And maybe use less disparate backgrounds, but that’s what happens when you not only use free sources but look for a wide variety of different settings.

Is there a character that you can relate to on a personal level?

BIC: Ems would be the closest. I love food and the reason she probably turned out the way she is, is because the things that came out of her mouth, were what I would’ve been saying in those certain situations.

Choose out of good food and a guy? I think the choice is easy.

CORYNTH: I’d have to say all and none. A cop out I know but they all have some shade of something, I can relate to.

For those that want to embark on the adventure of creating their own games what advice would you give them?

BIC: Have lots of free time and patience.

CORYNTH: Have a good support system.

BIC: Yeah, It’s easier to have someone to rely on. Or nag the crap out of you.

CORYNTH: Without which HO probably would have fizzled out. Also set achievable goals.

BIC: Agreed. Again, I think having Tyler was good for us. We gave him a set time so we tried our best to finish it by said time. Us two alone can be pretty unproductive since we’re both avid gamers as well.

CORYNTH: While we may not have finished it by the time we wanted to – it enabled us to finish a huge amount.

BIC: We should probably say: “Don’t be afraid of trying something out?” Making a game was something we did for fun. We may have made mistakes and it may not have been perfect, but in the end I was really happy it was completed.

CORYNTH: Yes definitely – A lot of the time the biggest hurdle is actually starting. The next biggest hurdle is finishing but that’s another issue.

BIC: I think we’re supposed to be encouraging people, not turning them off.

CORYNTH: Which brings me to my next point. Don’t let setbacks get you down. There will always be setbacks but that shouldn’t stop you from doing what you enjoy. If anything it’d make it all the more satisfying.

I mean yes there were times when I was frustrated with HO and when it’d seemed like it’d never finish but that feeling of satisfaction once it was done? There’s nothing quite like it.

BIC: I think we were so burnt out by the end we didn’t really care as much at the time.

CORYNTH: True. The feedback helped us to care.

BIC: Hence why we even bother to try and make another one, although that one may take us literally forever.

Tell me a little about yourself how did you get started with making games?

BIC: I really wanted to make a VN (visual novel) ever since I played the Japanese DS game Love Revo and a few other otome games. Games equals love. Love equals wanting to make my own.

CORYNTH: I don’t quite remember what triggered the change from “I want to write epic fantasy novels!” to “I want to write VNs”. I’ve always been a gamer and merging my love for games with a love for spinning tales seemed like a good decision.

BIC: We’re both gamers and despite the fact that we’re both pretty lazy and procrastinators, we had enough motivation to try and make our own.

Special thank you goes out to both Corynth and Bic for taking the time to be interviewed! You can visit their Tumblr at: http://synokoria.tumblr.com/