Diary of a Certain A: Chapter I Release date: 5/10/2020 Developer(s):@doaca Genre: Adventure Warnings: Death, suicide, school shootings, bullying, swearing, family problems/abuse
RPGM titles like Hello Charlotte EP 2,Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass,Soma Spirits: Rebalance,Brave Hero Yuusha EX, and No Delivery, along with other popular pixel titles like Long Gone Days and Oneshot, plus over a dozen asset packs and more!
From itch.io:
We live in a time of racial injustice, inequality, and police brutality against black people. We hope that everyone takes a stand in any way that they can. We’ve partnered with creators from all across our platform to support organizations that are working directly with those affected.
We reached out to our community and an unprecedented number of creators donated over 740 projects to be part of what we believe is the largest bundle ever. Over $3,400 of paid works are available Pay-what-you-want with a minimum donation amount of $5.
DEVELOPER(S):Choko ENGINE: RPG Maker VX Ace GENRE: Horror, Adventure WARNINGS: Flashing images, loud sounds, sudden sounds/images, full list (contains spoilers). SUMMARY:Chris Winter, find himself alone and lost in a black void filled with nothing but coldness. The only warmth you feel comes from your breath. In this void the young boy sees a door filled with light, trying to reach the door only leads to the boy to fall deep into a world filled with nothing but nonsense.
Only when you find the key, then you’ll be able to leave.
Introduce yourself! *Choko: Hello, I’m Choko! I’m the developer, artist, and writer for Verloren. I’ve been messing around with rpg maker since 2013 but finished my first finished game in 2016 which is Desolate Village. I’ve also made other games since then. Those being Demon Tea, Friend Hunt, and Star Detective. So Verloren isn’t my first rodeo in the whole game development stuff, but it is the biggest project I’ve ever work on so far.
Besides game dev stuff, I’m a huge rpg maker games, horror games, rhythm games, and just games with a interesting style to them.
What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *Choko: Verloren is a horror adventure game that focuses on Chris Winter, a young boy who finds himself alone and far away from home because of this he won’t stop for anything to find a way home and learn why did he arrive here. During the course of the game Chris would meet others who have their own goals.
What inspired me to make Verloren is a bit hard to say from what I first started to work on it back in 2017, I was mostly trying to work on another project after finishing Desolate Village. It could have been something else but I really forgot.
But since I took a huge hiatus year break during 2018, I would personally say the time I actually initially started to work on Verloren was in February of 2019. Since everything was rework with a fresh outlook on everything, so the whole head space with Verloren is totally different from 2017-2018.
What inspired me when I went back to rebuild/fix the game was friends, since their support made me feel I could go back to work on the game. During 2018 I would say I wasn’t in the best mood while working on the game, so the support my friends gave me really helped a lot and encouraged me.
How long did you work on your project? *Choko: I’ve been working on Verloren for three years now. But will say 2019 to now is when actually development started/actually got going. 2018 I took the whole year off to cool down/chill. So the Verloren of 2017-2018 is very different from the Verloren of 2019 to now. If that makes sense….
Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Choko: Oh boy, this section might be very long since there’s a lot of games and media which inspired/ influences Verloren, though for many different reasons.
Will say the two rpg maker games that inspire me a whole lot when it comes to everything they do is Mare and Akademia (I know it’s just a demo still at the time writing but it’s very good. Good demo, like the characters are great!! Everything is very nice!) Other rpg maker games do inspire me, mainly friend stuff but Mare and Akademia are two games I really love and wish I can make Verloren a game which has characters which feel realistic in a way they do. Like please go play them.
Besides rpg maker games will say that NieR Automata, Okage: Shadow King, RE 1/RE 0, Deemo, Rule of Rose, Smile For Me, and the Kirby series are games that just really inspire me with Verloren, there’s just certain aspects of them which I hope I can capture in Verloren.
Other than video games, I do get a bunch of inspiration from artist I follow, comics/manga, and anime though if I mention all of them it would just lead me to ramble away, but will say Pandora Hearts and Death Parade are two series I really love and both. I just enjoy series that shows character interaction and bonds, because that’s a main part in Verloren. I really just get inspire by character development if you couldn’t tell….. ^^;
Have you come across any challenges during development? How did you overcome or work around them? *Choko: Besides the 2018 thing I mention earlier.
There has been tiny bits of challenges, like with creating maps, since it takes me a while to get into the mood to make them, but wouldn’t really call it a challenge. Since all the time I just have to take time away from the map to gain motivation to make them.
Another challenge I guess would be writing cut scenes which I love, though it’s a whole process of making sure the characters aren’t just rambling or going off-topic since when I write I tend to get in character, as in voice act the lines or try to think how they would. Though the process isn’t really a bad challenge since it just takes a while until I get it right.
Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Choko: There’s been soooooo many changes to this game. The biggest change I would say is the characters, they had a lot of design changes and personality/motivation changes.
But other than that, I would say the mood of the game change a lot, also how scenes play it, originally it just felt like stuff happen to happen. Now it makes a lot more sense and isn’t just some random thing I added. Sadly I can’t list everything that change because that’s spoilers but trust me everything change for the better.
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? *Choko: At the beginning there wasn’t a team, since I wanted to do everything solo. I mostly enjoy doing art, writing, and eventing the game.
Though currently now there is a team, mostly with people I know, it’s more so just a critique/feedback team + voice actors. Currently there are only two VAs since I didn’t want to focus on voice acting before I had most of the game done, in the far future I may make a post about it.
But so far the whole team is more so just a chilling area then anything else and I enjoy all the fun talk that happen there.
What is the best part of developing a game? *Choko: The best part of creating a game is to see the characters you created come to life. I just really enjoy seeing everything come together. Idk I just find it cool that when making a game all starts out as concepts/ ideas and then after days/weeks/months of work it becomes a actually thing you can look at and show others. Most cutscenes in Verloren I get super happy when I finish them up, because I can see them as a real thing rather than a bunch of ideas of “this is what I’m going to do”.
Also the joke/shitpost memes….they are also the best part of making a game.
Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Choko: Yep!!! I play a lot of rpg maker games, I really enjoy seeing what other people do. I just find it cool that anyone can pick up the engine and learn how to use it.
Also it’s a fun way to find inspiration, just seeing other rpg maker games and being like “>:O I didn’t know you can do that!!!”.
Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Choko: This question is very hard, mainly because I relate to because a lot of characters in the game I relate to in tiny levels.
For my favorite character it’s Vladimir….I do like every other character in game. Chris is my second favorite I have to say (kinda a lie since ties with another character) but Vladimir number one, he’s just soo much fun to write. He’s maybe the one character who has a lot of scenes which gets a huge smile from me.
Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Choko: Not really, mainly since I was lucky to be able to take a huge hiatus which help me in 2019 to rework everything. So every problem I had with the game I fixed.
Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Choko: I would just leave the game alone after I finish Verloren, it’s a game that doesn’t need any follow ups because I feel it would just take away from the impact when you get to the end.
There really isn’t anything I would need to explore, since Verloren is meant to be a single game and that’s it.
What do you most look forward to upon finishing the game? *Choko: I look forward seeing how people react to the full game, I am low key shock on how people are reacting towards the demo and all the tiny predictions/speculations. Also the warm positive feedback towards Vladimir is shocking, since I thought no one would like him because of all those jokes/puns.
I hope the final game has the same positive reaction, also that other characters get a warm positive feedback towards them.
Was there something you were afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Choko: The only thing that worries me is that if I mess up and people can’t understand reasons why x character did that. Since one of the main things with Verloren is that characters have their own way if viewing stuff.
Like morality is pretty gray because I don’t want to write a black and white story.
Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Choko: Main advice I’ll give out is placeholders are your friend. Don’t spend time making assets for a system you didn’t test and you test it and it doesn’t work. Just have a placeholder graphic which helps you test it and when it’s done you can always slap on the asset.
Following up with this, create a debug room. It would come in handy to test systems/ events than having to play through your game to test it and learn you need to fix it.
Question from last month’s featured dev @cheesesteak-horror: Do you have creative processes you practice before starting development? *Choko: No, not really. I often just jump right into development and go from there. Most of my practice come from when I work on small stuff or just when I’m bored I often just mess around with things.
We mods would like to thank Choko 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 Verloren if you haven’t already! See you next month!
We’re finally launching the community suggestions form for Game of the Month! You can check it out here!
Before submitting, please read the rest of this post and make sure you clearly understand the rules and guidelines.
What is the purpose of this form?
This form is where you can suggest a project (upcoming or completed) to be considered for our Game of the Month feature. The purpose of this form is to gauge the community’s current interests and to discover potential projects that we might not have considered otherwise. (Please note that all suggestions will be taken into consideration, but we do not guarantee that any suggestions will be featured.)
You may submit one suggestion per month. Submissions will be reset on the first of every month, but records of suggestions from the previous month(s) will still be kept.
You are allowed to submit your own game.
You are allowed to submit other people’s games.
You are not allowed to use sideblogs or other people’s URLs to submit multiple times - if found out, you will be restricted from participating in the GOTM Suggestions form in the future.
Additional Notes:
While you’re allowed to submit other projects of devs who have already been featured, please note that we will not be re-featuring anybody for quite a while yet (interviewing the same person six months apart might make for a stale interview!).
Devs of older completed games may be harder to reach for an interview/feature if their dev blogs have been inactive for a long time. If possible, please also provide their other social media accounts (main blog, twitter, etc).
Like our list, our GOTM feature is for community projects only. The project must have a tumblr dev blog.
WARNING: Anyone who misuses this form with malicious intent (impersonating others, slandering projects, etc.) will be banned from participating in ALL future forms and community events hosted by RPGMGames.
If you have any feedback or concerns, feel free to send us a message. We look forward to working with the community to find potential features!
DEVELOPER(S): Veynn ENGINE: RPGMaker VX Ace GENRE: Horror, Exploration WARNINGS: Suicide SUMMARY: One day, a young boy wanders into the woods with only the twisted, mangled remnants of dreary branches obscuring the bleak horizon. As the sun starts to set beneath ruby-red clouds, the boy, Noël, happens upon a desolate cross-bridge atop a river of blood. Upon crossing over it, he finds himself standing by a gate wrought from stone. Confronted by the fantasies his beloved grandmother read to him as a child, the boy finds himself lost in a dark ‘Wonderland.’ However, all is not that it seems. While exploring, Noël must gather the memories of those forsaken souls who roam lest their hearts shatter.
Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!
Introduce yourself! *Hiya everyone! I’m Veynn; the developer of Träumerei and Kinderszenen. I’ve been in the RPG Maker fandom for about two years now. I absolutely love the horror genre and wanted to try creating something immersive!
What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Veynn: Essentially, Träumerei is a horror game with dark fairytale elements that starts off with the protagonist, Noël, 'wandering’ off into the woods one dreary day. In-order to save himself, he must continues to explore the twisted world he stumbles upon…. I was inspired to create my game after my dreams and nightmares. I thought they were interesting so I felt like putting them to paper. Also, when I first started working on this game I wanted it to be much shorter and have a creepy, whimsical 'woodland’ atmosphere like that of Little Red Riding Hood. Though in the end it wound up much differently.
How long have you been working on your project? *Veynn: I started working on this project around June 2015, but after the demo I ended up revamping everything. So, all-in-all I’ve been working on this for about a year and a half.
Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Veynn: Yes; I was influenced by Little Red Riding Hood, folklores, and myths in terms of atmosphere!
Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Veynn: Progress has been going quite swell but I’d say my biggest challenges occurred right when I first started working on this project. Since I was new to RPG Maker it took me a bit of time to figure out how to use it and exactly what style I should use. I kept switching between pixel-based art and alternative styles before settling on a 'painted’ 2D sidescroller.
Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Veynn: Minus the style change, not much has changed over time. Though, I’d say it was originally going to be slightly shorter and less detailed in terms of character backstory.
What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? *Veynn: I’ve always been the only developer of the game, but I recruited voice actors for the primary characters.
What was the best part of developing the game? *Veynn: Could I say…everything? Hahahaha, it’s been such a fun experience. But if I had to choose I’d say I enjoy character and background designing the most!
Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Veynn: I regret making the demo so short, but as it’s not actually 'canon’ I don’t find this to be too big a problem. If anything, I wish I had settled on a particular style much sooner–there are a lot of old maps that I did like but I can’t quite use them in the game anymore due to the conflicting art styles.
Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Veynn: As for this game and its characters, I most likely will not do anything with them as I feel there would be no necessity. However, I am working on a small side game that take place in the same universe.
What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Veynn: I look forward on hopefully bettering my other projects after garnering experience from working on this one!
Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Veynn: Not really, no.
Question from last month’s featured dev: At what point in development do you start making the game? Do you write out the story/dialogue/events in its entirety before programming? Or do you just have general concepts planned and flesh things out as you go along? *Veynn: I actually did write a very, very basic outline for a 90 chapter webcomic months before I decided to make Träumerei a game project. So, I’d say I started development a few months after drafting the first basic plot synopsis. After that, I started to work on both dialogue and eventing before saving programming for last.
Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Veynn: Make sure to plan ahead, but more importantly, have fun! If you want to make anything, go for it! Do whatever makes you happy. And, even if things may seem daunting at first it does get the easier as more time goes on. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice and help or to work alone or with a team–in the end just rely on your judgement and feelings. It really does seem difficult at first, but it’s absolutely well worth it to try. All you need is patience and enthusiasm!
We mods would like to thank Veynn 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 TRÄUMEREI if you haven’t already! See you next month!
DEVELOPER(S): Aishin ENGINE: RPGMaker VX Ace GENRE: Fantasy, Adventure, Puzzle WARNINGS: N/A SUMMARY: In the world of Arcadea, people can accomplish their dreams. How? Through video games of course! Everybody who lives in Arcadea has a special arcade machine they can visit in their dreams that lets them fulfill their strongest wishes. Whether it’s to go on an adventure, or make friends, or fall in love, or solve a mystery, or completely start a new life, there’s a game made just for them.. The game follows Maisie, a new arrival to Arcadea. She’s not very interested in all this gaming stuff; her only goal is to find an important person. But along the way, she can’t help but be roped into other people’s problems. She also can’t help that the arcade machines seem to glitch around her. A lot.
Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!
Introduce yourself! *Hello everyone! My name is Aishin and I’m the developer of ARCADEA! I have been in the community for about 8 years. I started working with RPGMaker in 2014 and played around with some horror game concepts that never came to fruition. I realized that drawing dark or creepy things and trying to scare people wasn’t really up my alley. After failing to make a horror game, I attempted a more happy and relaxing concept and was much more satisfied with the results.
What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Aishin: ARCADEA is a fantasy story that mainly involves adventuring through different strange lands, solving puzzles, and doing quests. In between the adventuring segments, the player plays little mini-games on arcade machines that act as foreshadowing as well as introspective character explorations. It’s a game about the safety as well as the troubles of escapism. It’s also games within a game and that’s always fun right? My initial inspiration was from seeing other RPG Maker games. Being in the community and seeing other games being developed made me strive to make one of my own!
How long have you been working on your project? *Aishin: A little less than one year so far. The story and characters have been through many revisions and changes. I’m happy to say that I am fully satisfied at the final revision and I will be bringing the world to life as best as I can~
Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Aishin: My game was influenced by fairy tales, mainly Peter Pan and The Little Mermaid. I also was heavily inspired by the MOTHER series and its quirky humor, as well as very meta games such as OneShot, Libretta, and Undertale. Also To the Moon, as it was the first RPG Maker game I have played that was not horror. Games that, after playing them, makes you kind of sit there… in wonder.
Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Aishin: The biggest challenge was actually finding time to sit down and work on the game. I’m about to finish my third year of pharmacy school and the workload leaves me too tired to even pick up my tablet pen sometimes. However, every moment I actually do spend on the game is very satisfying and I am getting faster and more efficient with everything: spriting, mapping, drawing, eventing, checking for bugs, etc. I’m just waiting for school to be over so I can start putting my all into this game! Oh and also debugging. Oh man do I hate script conflicts.
Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Aishin: Many many MANY aspects. Originally, the game wasn’t even going to have arcade machines! Crazy stuff. After the addition of the mini-games, everything just…happened. The characters all got fleshed out backstories, the main character actually became a CHARACTER rather than a player’s avatar, more games and puzzles were made, the world became more dense with ‘stuff’…. The story became simpler. But the actual themes and concepts around the story became more real.
What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? *Aishin: I’m the sole developer of the game. I have a couple of friends that act as my beta testers. They also help with edits, proofreading, and ideas. I am planning on finding a composer in the future for music compositions (the one thing I can’t do by myself :c).
What was the best part of developing the game? *Aishin: For me, it’s seeing everything coming together in action! Seeing my character sprites moving around on a map I made, saying dialogue that I wrote is such a fulfilling feeling. And making the maps as beautiful as I can is pretty fun! And then a bug happens and you just sit in a corner and cry. loljk
Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Aishin: I wish I learned Ruby before starting this project. I had to learn as I go but unfortunately that lead to random script issues. I had to request a friend’s help to solve them and luckily it was nothing too bad. The good news is, I am now able to resolve script conflicts on my own! (And with google)
Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Aishin: This will probably be a stand-alone game. The story and characters have a definite beginning and end. I feel like there’s no need to expand on this world any further.
What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Aishin: I would like to see people play it. Whether they like it or not, I hope I get some critique on the game. It would be nice if people really enjoyed playing it c: Of course, more sleep is another thing to look forward to.
Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Aishin: GAME BREAKING BUGS. Also I really hope there aren’t any weird story plot holes…
Question from last month’s featured dev: What are some practical tricks you’ve learned in RPG Maker that novice (or even advanced) developers might not know? *Aishin: - If you want to make the screen pan, make your character transparent and have them walk where it’s needed (have a dummy sprite act as your character in the meantime). - Take advantage of the addition and subtract effects of pictures when doing lighting for maps (especially parallax maps). Also you can have the light or shadows fade in and out by using the 'Move Picture’ event and adjusting opacity. - USE THE ’\!’ BEFORE ANY DIALOGUE CHOICES THE PLAYER HAS TO MAKE. This prevents the player from accidentally clicking through too fast and picking an answer that they don’t want! I can’t tell you how many endings I messed up on getting because of this.
Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Aishin: Definitely try! I would start with a free program like RPGMaker Lite and play around with it. I think what turns most people away is feeling that the RPG Maker program is very complex. But it’s actually pretty easy to pick up on! Also, starting small is very helpful. Making a ginormous, long game immediately is pretty daunting, especially if you’re inexperienced (although some people have managed to do it). I would at least know a little bit about events and scripts before jumping into a huge project. And if in the end, you feel that making games isn’t for you, you at least get some experience and knowledge out of it. As well as a greater appreciation for games and the work/process that goes into game development!
We mods would like to thank Aishin 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 ARCADEA if you haven’t already! See you next month!
Zashiki’s Hostel - A Hostel Management Game with Horror(?) Element
Story: After 40 years of hard work in a big city, you (MC) finally saved enough money to open your own hostel in countryside. There are some rooms in the old house you bought that still need to be fixed and re-furnished. However, the more your reconstruction plan goes, the more secrets of the old house are revealed…
Gameplay: Player can manage the hostel and interact with guests and staffs during day time. Once the guests have left, you can go inside each room to fix or add more furnitures which will upgrade room fee! At night, your MC might also come across strange phenomenons in the hostel.
The game is still in making and I will tell you more about it soon. ;->
Thank you everyone for the support for Grimm’s Hollow over the years! A fanpack, containing an artbook, some wallpapers, and developer’s notes, has been released if you’re interested. (It’s currently on itch.io, but it’ll be making its way onto Steam later this June.)
RPG Maker Cola Podcast | Season 2 Episode 3: with ghosthunter and Harmless Games
Hey guys! I co-guested alongside the wonderful developer of Lockheart Indigo (free on Steam, check it out!) on a podcast recently. It was fun, and we talked a little about game development.
*looking at anniversary date* oh wow, it’s been a year.
*looks at concept art date and ages 10 years* but it’s really been … 2 … 2018, huh?
Grimm’s Hollow started off as a kooky side project I showed my friends now and then, so I feel very fluttery in the stomach reading the kind and genuine messages that are sent my way because of it sometimes. Thank you all dearly, and take care.
