I discovered a shareware game developer who makes lots of RPGs and visual novels who I thought deserved a mention. I would recommend all their games as they are all so involving and professional. Bioware and Telltale lovers will love Riva! So… here they are!
Tell us a bit about yourself, Riva Celso, as well as your game dev company, Winter Wolves, as well.
I’ve been involved more or less in gaming since I was 20. I am 38 now, so…a long time (I feel old!).
About the current kind of games I’ve been making, it started in summer 2008 when I released the game Summer Session together with Hanako Games. I then discovered Ren’Py and the world of story based manga games, and I’ve been doing not only visual novel/dating sim but recently also RPGs.
You seem to stay in the realm of games with choice (for the most part – there are a few exceptions with sports games, etc.), usually RPGs or visual novels. What do you like about those genres? Are you ever going to move beyond them?
Right now I don’t think will do anything else, simply because I like this kind of game too much. I was a fan of the “choose your own destiny” books when was a teenager working at the local library, so you can imagine how cool it is for me being able to make something like that on my own.
As a player, I like many different games, but as creator I think I’ll stick with story-based games for a long time.
Does shareware seem to work for you? How do you “nag” the player to buy the full versions?
I try to not bother them too much! I usually offer a good amount of the story, like the first chapters (depending how long the final game is) so the player gets familiar with the characters and the story and has a good idea of what he can expect in the full game. So my case is a bit particular/different from other indie games.
How long have you been developing and/or selling games?
If we consider my early years as an employee in a small Italian company, it has been 18 years! But I had some pauses before discovering the shareware world, so I’d say that on my own it is more like 5-6 years.
Do you have a fav game right now? It sounds like you would like Bioware’s games.
Right now my favorite game is a tie in between Walking Dead by Telltale Games and the new XCOM. I liked a lot of the Mass Effect series though! As fun as it might be, I am not much a fan of fantasy games. While I liked Dragon Age, I preferred Mass Effect or other games like Alpha Protocol much more.
What do you say to people who say your game (specifically Loren The Amazon Princess) has too much “fan service”? Do you think female gamers mind all the nudity and action?
Well it’s complex. I noticed that there are, on both genders, people who like it and people who hate it. Yes, women like to see naked boys too! 😉 I really think the basic mistake was having a “covered version” that wasn’t… really covered. The most comment I got about the main character armour were all legit. Like… “What kind of protection can
that armour offer?” 🙂
That’s why in the planned sequel there will still be a sexy version but the covered version will be very plausible/realistic, with full plate armours for the warriors and so on. I think that will make everyone happy.
What do you use to make these games? Any funny or interesting stories about any of your games’ development?
I use a tool called Ren’Py, which was initially made only for visual novels or dating sims. I think I can say that without doubt Loren is the biggest game ever made with Ren’Py, both in term of content/assets/story and complexity of coding (there’s a full RPG framework behind it).
A funny story is that while coding the framework, the coder and I exchanged something like over 1000 emails in the course of 6-7 months!
🙂 I also have a bad tendency to get scared if something takes too long to be done, I fear that there are hidden bugs somewhere in the game and so on. In practice, until the game was out I was really scared but now I’ve learned to take things easier.
Anything else you want to say?
Yes, I can say that as some recent games clearly showed, story-based games are going to take over the world! I’m only half-joking, but when you see the success of games with a very strong storytelling focus like Walking Dead, Heavy Rain, LA Noire, and so on you better believe it. 🙂
Site link: http://www.winterwolves.com/
Dev blog: http://www.winterwolves.net/blog/
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathan. He prefers his last name not to be known. He’s probably a high-class superspy, but we don’t mind. He is the editor of Indiegraph. He’s our point man for interviews, and occasionally he takes a blowtorch to a game to see whether it measures up to his standards.
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