July’s Featured Game: SLARPGDEVELOPER(S): Bobby “ponett” SchroederENGINE:

July’s Featured Game: SLARPG

DEVELOPER(S):Bobby “ponett” Schroeder
ENGINE: RPGMaker VX Ace 
GENRE: RPG, Fantasy
SUMMARY: SLARPG is a short, turn-based RPG following the story of Melody Amaranth, a kindhearted but meek transgender fox who’s decided to learn healing magic and become a paladin. She’s joined by her adventurous girlfriend Allison, as well as their friends Claire (a sarcastic, rule-bending witch)(she is also trans) and Jodie (a dependable, somewhat motherly knight). Over the course of the story, our inexperienced heroes will meddle with forces beyond their control and find themselves responsible for the fate of their quaint little hometown. They’ll also fight some spherical frogs, travel to a forgotten land in the sky, befriend a robot or two, and anger the local librarian. But that should go without saying. 

Introduce yourself! 
Hi! My name’s Bobby “ponett” Schroeder. I have a background mainly in visual art and writing, and I’ve been working in RPG Maker VX Ace since 2013 after being inspired to try making my own game by Splendidland’s masterpiece Megaman Sprite Game. I’d always wanted to go into game development, but this was the first time it felt like it was actually feasible for me to make something fun on my own. By the end of that year I released a much rougher freeware version of SLARPG, originally known as Super Lesbian Horse RPG.

I do most of the work myself, but I have several people helping me with some NPC and enemy design work including my boyfriend Anthony Field (@exclamationpointman on Tumblr) and my friends Thomas Landon (@schloogywoog), Gee (@fattoads), and Thom (@sidewalkwitch). My lead composer is the incredibly talented BEATR!X @neutralnewt) with more music contributed by other friends such as internet pop icon blacksquares (@blacksquares).

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially?
*Bobby: Super Lesbian Animal RPG is primarily about a timid transgender fox named Melody. At age 22 she’s sort of coasting along on autopilot with no clear idea of what she wants to do with her life. One day, she and her girlfriend Allison get roped into a new adventuring guild founded by their friends Claire and Jodie. Melody sees this as an opportunity to impress Allison and to make herself useful by becoming a paladin and learning healing magic.

At its heart, the game is about the relationships between four girls in their early 20s. They’re all trying to define themselves as people, they all have their own personal baggage, and they all have their own motives for seeing this dinky little adventurer’s guild as a life-changing opportunity. And now, thanks to the trouble they get themselves into, they also have to figure out how to be heroes. It’s also a game where you can have an anthropomorphic rabbit with a mohawk kiss her girlfriend and then swing a sword made of zircon at a magic tumbleweed

As I said, the game was originally released in a much rougher form under the title Super Lesbian Horse RPG. It started out as a cute, goofy little game where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were dating (of course) and went on a bizarre adventure, but it soon turned into a genuine RPG with a more sincere story. It also got much, much more attention than I ever expected. My use of copyrighted characters made the game difficult to distribute, though, and in hindsight I was holding myself back by presenting it as a fangame. So in 2015, I decided to radically overhaul and flesh out the game with a new, expanded cast that I have full creative control over. And now here we are today, with a game that’s probably got more new material in it than old, but still hopefully has the same charm if you enjoyed the original.

How long have you been working on your project?
*Bobby: Work on the original project lasted the entirety of 2013, with me foolishly releasing the 1.0 version on Christmas 2013 (my 20th birthday—I spent most of the day frantically squashing bugs). I returned to the project in 2015 and have been working on the new version on and off for about two years now.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project?
*Bobby: The humor is definitely inspired in part by Mother and Paper Mario, although my talkative protagonists might make it closer to something like a point-and-click adventure game. I’ve also always loved really casual comedy that skews towards normal conversation in stuff like Home Movies or Homestuck. Adventure Time has undoubtedly been a big influence, too, as one of my favorite shows, with its “anything goes” fantasy world and colorful cast of characters—but also because of its focus on grounded, introspective character moments in a surreal, fantastical setting

Gameplay-wise, early Final Fantasy titles are a big influence for sure, and I’m trying to take a page out of Zelda’s book when it comes to exploration and level design. But tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons are also having an impact on the way I design encounters. I think tabletop games are still the gold standard for RPG battles, because they’re often less about stats and repetition and doing what the designer wants you to do and more about improvising a fun story. Of course, an RPG Maker game can’t compete with having an actual DM there to run an encounter, but I’m trying to give players lots of fun little “hey, what if I tried this?” moments with unexpected consequences.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them?  
*Bobby: Honestly, the big thing for me is always time management. As development continues and my skills improve, I often find myself polishing areas and assets I’d already worked on before. If I didn’t force myself to work on new stuff too I’d probably spend three years just polishing Greenridge to a mirror shine.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept?
*Bobby: Developing the protagonists further has really broadened my horizons writing-wise. I always wanted the game to have a nice emotional arc on top of all the jokes and surreal dungeons, but over time I’ve fleshed out Melody, Allison, Claire, and Jodie more and more, making everyone feel less like charicatures and more like real people with relatable motivations. The graphics have also gotten a lot better after several years of pixel art practice, and the level design has gotten less linear.

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?
*Bobby: It started out as just me. Friends on Tumblr quickly showed interest in contributing designs and music to the game just because they liked the project, and before long a lot of different people were putting their own little mark on the game. Some of my favorite characters in the game have been designed by friends, and I don’t know where I’d be without the absolutely phenomenal soundtrack.

What was the best part of developing the game?
*Bobby: I love designing characters, and writing in all these little details to make them feel real, and figuring out how they talk to each other, and seeing my audience pick out their favorites. It’s a very rewarding process for me. The second best part is getting to listen to the soundtrack and realize “Wow… this is gonna be in a game that I’m making. And it’s gonna be SICK.”

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?)
*Bobby: Without a doubt, Melody. She differs from myself in a lot of major ways, so I wouldn’t call her a self-insert, but she was created to give myself the relatable fat bisexual trans girl protagonist with anxiety that no other piece media was ever going to give me. A lot of her insecurities in the game are even loosely inspired by stuff I’ve been through in real life.

I also have a ton of fun writing the villains, but they’re spoilers.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently?
*Bobby: I wish I’d been more consistent about my work ethic in the past. I worked EXTREMELY inconsistently on SLARPG throughout 2015, and I probably could’ve gotten a lot more done back then. But hey, live and learn.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is?
*Bobby: Oh, I’m absolutely hoping to revisit this world! Part of the reason I’m putting so much effort into revamping a game I already released is so that I can work with this new cast and setting again in the future. I’m not planning too far ahead right now, but I do have some vague ideas for more games I’d like to make in this world, possibly through the eyes of characters other than Melody.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release?
*Bobby: I’m looking forward to being able to play some longer games in my backlog without feeling guilty about it, haha. I’ve been dying to play stuff like The Witcher 3, NieR: Automata, and Final Fantasy XV, but I’m always worried it’ll just take time away from my work. It’s a wonder I managed to finish Breath of the Wild this year.

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? 
*Bobby: This answer is gonna be a bummer, but I’m worried about is the harassment I’ll have to deal with for putting out a game about LGBT characters. I’ve already dealt with this on several occasions, although thankfully it hasn’t progressed past slur-filled anonymous messages. This toxic state of the gaming community is why I’m currently planning to release the game exclusively on itch.io, rather than exposing myself to Steam’s hostile userbase. But it’s a story that I think is worth telling, and for every piece of hate mail I get 20 messages from people telling me how excited they are, which is why I haven’t given up.

Question from last month’s featured dev: Is there any portion of your development that’s gotten you outside your comfort zone?
*Bobby: I think it’s easy to say that most of it has been outside my comfort zone, actually. Working on SLARPG has really pushed the boundaries of what I previously thought I was capable of as an artist. When I first started I literally made a dungeon that was just a straight line with one 90 degree turn because I had no idea what else to do with the canvas. Now I can make dungeons that are actually slightly fun!

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs?
*Bobby: Study the games and stories you love, and find out what really makes them tick. Don’t just mimic surface level things, but study the mechanical, structural, and thematic elements that make them so memorable. Oh, and don’t put too much effort into a fangame if there’s even the slightest chance it’ll get taken down, haha. Make something original loosely inspired by the things you love instead.

We mods would like to thank Bobby 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 SLARPG if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum