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With INDIE INTERVIEWS, I talk to the game developers hanging here on Cohost to learn more about new games you might love.
Today, a chat with @insertdisc5 to discuss storytelling through their RPG, In Stars and Time!
Introduce yourself for everyone here on Cohost! Who are you?
Hello everyone! I'm Adrienne, or insertdisc5 on the interwebs, and I'm a gamedev with a current obsession with timeloops. I recently released In Stars and Time, a timeloop RPG, alongside publisher Armor Games Studios. I also moonlight as a 2D animator and cartoonist when I'm not making video games.
Tell me more about In Stars and Time, since it just came out. It looks absolutely amazing. How would you pitch it to someone who's curious?
In Stars and Time is a timeloop RPG all about Siffrin, who on their way to beat the evil King to save the country of Vaugarde with his companions, dies before he even enters the final dungeon where the King resides. But before he has time to curse himself for his clumsiness, he finds himself waking up the day before, alive and well!
The game is all about the concepts of time loops, and the emotions that would come when you’re stuck in one. It’d start as a blessing, because you can’t die, and you can just loop back whenever you want to fix your mistakes, but it’d quickly turn into a curse, wouldn’t it? I really wanted to dig deep into those emotions! That’s what “In Stars and Time” is all about!
Also the battle system is literal Rock Paper Scissors.
ISAT is currently available on Steam, Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4&5!
How did you find yourself first getting into game development?
I just like video games! I actually studied game design in college for a bit, but ended up switching to animation for various reasons (mainly: Goddamn That's A Lot Of Code). Then in 2017 I participated in the Yuri Game Jam over on itch.io, and released my first game, a visual novel called Serre! So I ended up doing code after all, heh. I always had some cheap/free engines like Renpy and RPGMaker I had downloaded "just in case", so I'm glad they finally became useful!
I've noticed that in addition to the final game (and a demo), you also have "Start Again: A Prologue" as a short game and "Start Again" the comic. How did these all influence each other, and do you feel like you've been able to refine or further develop what you've been trying to convey through this core story?
I started writing the Start Again comics in 2017 as well, as a way to get out some ideas about a video game character stuck in a timeloop, and how they'd react to it. Then 2020 and the lockdown happened, and I was working from home, and I badly needed a distraction! I wrote down a bunch of ideas for what would eventually become In Stars and Time, but knew that starting with The Big Project would become hellish very fast. So I decided to create START AGAIN: a prologue, as a prototype to get myself more used to creating a game. Working from those original comics was very fun, since I made those on a whim, but ended up using them as a pitch bible of sorts! Things like the main character's design, the meadow they wake up in at the start of each loop, some of the characters- they appeared in the comics first. As for the prologue, it definitely helped me develop my game design skills, and figure out what worked, what could be done, how to improve certain parts, and so on. It was also very fun to add some hints as to where the story was going, so I could get people excited for ISAT!
You're an adept cartoonist, animator, and storyteller. But even with skills like that, I know how much work, learning, and frustration can also go into making a game. Did you find it challenging? Were there times where you felt like you were tripping over the programming or game design aspects of the process, and thought "making a comic or animation would have been so much easier"? Or maybe I'm wrong for assuming that the visuals and writing were the easy part!
GOD I HATE PROGRAMMING SO MUCH. This is like maths to me. When I can figure it out it's the best thing ever and I'm the smartest person alive. But when I don't, this is hell on Earth. I quite honestly wouldn't have been able to make ISAT as good as it is without the help of my additional programmer (nsfw link) Isabella Ava who managed to bring all of my coding ideas to life! Although I have to say, even with how horrid programming is for me, I kept thinking "wow... this still is so much easier and faster than making a comic/animation". I couldn't have made this 20h game into a comic, I would have just DIED.
The game design aspects however were pretty easy to figure out, especially with Armor Games Studios' help! My first builds of the game had very few tutorials, but their feedback of adding more to help out the players also made me think about adding more things to help the players out and make their timeloop experience smoother.
Any advice for aspiring indie devs out there?
- Just Try And Make The Darn Thing
- Ok But First Try And Make It Small And See If It Works
- Game Jams Are Good. Find One On Itch.io And Make A Small Game
- Google Everything You Can't Figure Out On Your Own In Five Minutes
- Just Try And Make The Darn Thing!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!! TRY IT!!!!!!!!!!
Lastly, are there any indie games out there you've been playing recently? Any favorites to shout-out?
Now that my own game is out, I've been catching up on my to-play list! I've played STOP BURYING ME ALIVE, BEAUTIFUL! by angela he, which I found absolutely STUNNING both visually and UI wise. Same thing with The Phantom of the Black Rose Revue: Act 1 by Yamino, which also has such interesting and thought out transitions! Narrative wise, I really loved The Game of Theseus by hatimb00- they've been iterating on the myth of Theseus in a dozen different games, but I have a soft spot for the visual novel iteration, so simple and yet so impactful! WAIT THAT'S ONLY VISUAL NOVELS!!! UUUH ok I wanted to make a joke and add a non-visual novel indie game I've played recently and legit I've only played VNs in the last six months. I like my stories, what can I say.
And also I've been playing Lethal Company with friends and this game just rules.
Thanks so much for chatting, Adrienne! For everyone else, go check out In Stars and Time on your platform of choice! I've really been enjoying it so far.
