SEVEN KINGDOMS- THE PRINCESS PROBLEM: AN INSIDE LOOK WITH ALY THOMPSON

On December 21^st 2014, Azalyne Studios released the demo of their first official game Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem. In addition to getting an inside look at the game through this interview we also get to learn about the creator Aly Thompson, and the history of Azalyne Studios.

Aly Thompson has lived in Northern California all of her life but she shared that since her mother is a librarian, she grew up in the surroundings of a library, and has all the habits associated with it.

Thompson also expressed that Northern California is a great place to be if you are interested in technology, all things geek, and meeting and connecting with a diverse group of people.

In her spare time Thompson likes to play video games, read books, [her favourite genre is fiction] and since she is a writer she is also an avid people watcher. Most recently she has started to learn how to use Tumblr and through that experience, Thompson said she has met an amazing group of people on the site.

The creation of Azalyne Studios began when Thompson had started to consider making a game for real and studying the market, so she had presented the idea to her mom.

“I have been super lucky to have a mom who has always believed in me and supported my creative endeavors and unusual career ambitions. She also has some small business experience from when she ran one for the few years she was a stay at home mom. So she said, yes, that’s something we could do, and after playing some of my game she said, yes, this is something we should do,” she began.

“So now Azalyne Studios is a tiny Mom and Daughter company that hopes to release a lot of female friendly story and choice based games with a focus on representing some of the diversity you find reflected much more in the real world than you generally do in our entertainment media.”

 Thompson said she has worked on several and abandoned projects before Seven Kingdoms: A Princess Problem, but this is her first official project.

 

Thompson said that Seven Kingdoms: A Princess Problem is an “odd duckling kind of game” and shares what it is all about, the various goals the player can accomplish, as well as detailing aspects of gameplay.

“The basic premise is that you are one of the delegates from the Seven Kingdoms chosen to attend the summit: a big diplomatic gathering that lasts seven weeks. Your summit is the most important one in generations, because the Seven Kingdoms have never been closer to resuming the all-encompassing war that the first summit stopped,” she explained.

“There are lots of different goals you can have while at the Summit (try and strengthen alliances, bring peace, find love, get married, or even just gather as much power for yourself as possible) but every delegate is going to have be concerned about staying alive and on the Isle long enough to reach the end of the seven week Summit.”

Aspects of the gameplay are a mix of the following ingredients: Visual Novel, bio-ware style dialogue, and people choices, stat building, and exploration elements.

“The game has lots of choices and decisions; these shape your character, her personality, her skills, even her background. Different skills will often give you the ability to do different things. Building relationships is also really important and usually involves some degree of understanding people and figuring out the right things to say or not say.  There are also a lot of secrets and hidden things that can be found through exploration,” said Thompson.

 

There are two major inspirations that were behind the creation of Seven Kingdoms: A Princess Problem which Thompson was kind enough to share.

“The first was my great frustration at how few games were being made that were the kind of story I wanted to play. There are some and I adore them a frightening amount, but I wasn’t getting more than one or two video games a year I really, truly loved. I was jealous of more conventional gamers like my brothers who seemed to have a game they loved every month,” she began.

“So I figured that someone out there probably wanted a story-focused choice-based game with lots of complex relationships and politicking, so if I wasn’t going to find it anywhere else, I might as well make it.”

“The other major inspiration was a conversation I had after reading a comment thread about how games had to have combat, or they wouldn’t be challenging. So I set about making a game that had plenty of challenge and learning curve, but never used puzzles or combat. If my mail and the amount of player characters I have already murdered with this game is any indication, I have succeeded at that if nothing else.”

In comparison to all the other Otome games that exist, Thompson shared a few things that make Seven Kingdoms: A Princess Problem unique.

“I think Seven Kingdoms is unique in the huge amount of customization for your main character- from 28 skills, to 12 ways to customize your personality, to 9 potential backgrounds, to complete appearance customization- as well as the different ways you can play the game and goals you can give your character. The intent is to let you role-play a character that really feels like you, or like the kind of character you really want to play,” she said.

“It’s also a lot more challenging than many more typical visual novel style Otome games. Finally, it’s got a ton of replay value. I’ve had people tell me they have played the demo over 30 separate times and have over 1000 save files.”

Thompson then proceeded to share the one thing that stands out about the whole experience, and said it’s definitely the community, and fan base that the game has received.

“It is literally a global phenomenon, and I’ve got to talk with people from all over the world. And they all put up with me and all my mistakes, so they are pretty good sports, too.”

Thompson then discussed some of the challenges that she has gone through so far, as the development of the game progresses.

“There were so many times where I was so frustrated I was ready to cry. When I completely doubted that I would ever be able to live up to my plans. Where even if I did no one would even find the game, or want to play it and, even if they did, they would all hate it,” she said.

 

Of course nothing was sweeter then reaping the rewards once Thompson pushed through those challenges.

“It’s funny, if you would have asked me before I announced the game and put the demo out there and have had this unbelievable response, I would have said just having someone love something I wrote and made would have been the best possible thing. But now I have to say the most rewarding part has definitely been interacting with all the amazing fans and having made something that connected with them,” she expressed.

Thompson then continued.

“Even more so I’ve met so many talented girls and women who have kept qualifying or underplaying their abilities and talents. I not only get the opportunity to tell them how awesome they are, but I have had people tell me that talking to me and my game has inspired them to continue working on their own projects, which I am so, so excited about!”

“If my game has even a little bit made people feel like they can create something of their own, then that is the best thing I could ever have asked for.”

Thompson closed the interview by sharing how she got started in creating games.

“As much as I loved games, I never thought it was something that I would ever in a million years be able to do. I thought games was something only the super programming computer type brains could even attempt.

So instead, I focused on a different kind of writing: novels.  After a few years of getting really close but no cigar to getting published, I got frustrated by what felt like a lack of control over my own fate. At the same time indie games, especially games aimed at girls like otome games, were having a bit of a renaissance and lots of individuals or small groups  were able to make games that people loved on their own.

Since I really love interactive narrative and games as my favorite way to experience a story, I had always wanted to make games. Watching these people and their own support to the community as more people felt empowered to try making games, and sharing resources (I found out about Ren’Py through the forums of Hanako Games, one of the first major otome game indies) made me really start to think that it was something even I could do.

And so it was kind of a perfect storm and Seven Kingdoms was born.

Although it really helps that I was naïve about the amount of work and frustration that would be involved. It’s too late to back out now, but I’m not sure I would be having been brave enough to attempt it at the time if I knew.”

You can visit the official page as well as download the demo at: https://sevenkingdomsgame.wordpress.com/

The character artist for the game can be found at: http://comatofe-babana.deviantart.com/