With INDIE INTERVIEWS, I talk to the game developers hanging here on Cohost to learn more about new games you might love.

This happens to me all the time: I see a cool game out there, and I wish that there were beginner-friendly tools to make something like that. It was a thought I had specifically upon seeing Disco Elysium: "is there a way to make a game with a general layout like this?" Then, a few months into using Cohost, my wish was answered! I found Narrat, the new narrative game engine by @liananana. It looks like a great way to get started on narrative games that incorporate stats, skill checks, and inventory. I wanted to reach out to Liana to hear more about it.

You can get Narrat on the official website

You can get Infierno Rubi, one of the games shown above, on itch.io.

You can get Will This Bitter Night Bring Change? - Two Women in Trouble, one of the games shown above, on itch.io

You can join the Narrat Game Jam that's going on right now!

Introduce yourself for everyone here on Cohost: Who are you?

Hi I'm Liana, a trans woman from the UK. I've been making games, websites and other things for a bit more than a decade now. I used to work making web games, though these days my work is more typical non-game web development. And I've been working on narrat the last 2 years or so as my main side project

Tell me more about your game engine, Narrat. I've been very tempted to start learning it the past few weeks.

So Narrat is essentially a game engine for making narrative games with RPG mechanics. This is a relatively vague definition as the customisation and scripting system mean you could use it for a few different kinds of games, but fundamentally it's for making text-heavy games with branching dialogue, and (optional) RPG mechanics.

So early on, I was inspired by Disco Elysium and wanted that basic layout with visual stuff on the side and dialogue on the right in a vertical panel. I find that this layout is much easier to focus on that your typical visual novel layout where it's individual dialog boxes. Feels more like reading a page that you can scroll through for context. The whole characters and skills system was also inspired by that game.

With INDIE INTERVIEWS, I talk to the game developers hanging here on Cohost to learn more about new games you might love.

One of the best parts of playing indie games is seeing how everyone approaches it differently. Often, people come into it with completely different backgrounds and skillsets. They may have a strong experience with programming, or with art, or with music. You may already know of Lena Raine (@kuraine) for her music in Celeste, Chicory: A Colorful Tale, or recent Minecraft updates. Did you know that she also works on games of her own? I decided to have a quick chat with her to discuss her personal projects ESC and ANOTHEREAL.

You can find ESC on Steam and itch.io

You can follow ANOTHEREAL (codenamed Project Astray) on Cohost: @anothereal

Introduce yourself for everyone here on Cohost! Who are you?

Hey! I'm Lena Raine, and I'm most well known as a composer for indie games, notably Celeste, Minecraft & Chicory: A Colorful Tale. I've also written a kinetic novel called ESC, and done all sorts of support work for other projects like Steven Universe (I mixed the soundtrack for the movie!) and Deltarune (did some additional arrangement for a few tracks in chapter 2!). I have a pretty extensive list of things I've worked on over on my studio website https://radicaldream.land

Is there a project you're working on currently? Tell us about it!

I'm currently scoring two games in development: Earthblade, which is being made by EXOK (the creators of Celeste), as well as Beastieball by Wishes Unlimited (the Chicory team!). Both have been in development for a while now, so I've been keeping pace with development in my composition! They're both super different styles to write for, so I'm really enjoying the contrast of moody open world action VS turn based volleyball rpg with a pretty wacky vibe.I'm also working on my own solo game, Project Astray! It's my 2nd game project, and I'm learning a lot as I go, improving my coding & art skills while building things out for it.

Now that Cohost has added Asks, I've enabled Asks on this page.

Feel free to send me a question using the "Ask" button on this page's profile.

I'll be tagging these posts "asks" and "ask igoc", so feel free to block those tags if you'd like. You can also "show asks" or "hide asks" at the top of my profile when reading it.

What types of Asks should we send?

Honestly, I'm not sure! Whatever you'd like, I guess? You can send questions related to games, you can send indie game recommendations, recommendations of game developers you follow here on Cohost, and other such things.

Please do not use this Asks inbox for the following:

• Advertising your own game. I'd love to see posts about your game, but please not in this inbox. If you post about your game regularly in the "#devlog" or "#indie games" or "#gamedev" tags, I will probably see it eventually. Because I try to only post twice a day on here, I will never be able to Share or post about everyone's game. Sorry!
• Asking for an interview. I'm still chipping away at interviews, and the best way for me to see that you're interested is by commenting on the Introductions post pinned to my profile! I will never be able to get to absolutely everyone, but I'm still happy to have more.
• Making fun of or complaining about a person's game that I've previously featured on here.
• Completely off-topic questions

Excited to hear from you! If you've got questions or indie game reccs, ask away!

With INDIE INTERVIEWS, I talk to the game developers hanging here on Cohost to learn more about new games you might love.

I've seen the colorful work of @ctmatthews pop up on my Cohost feed over and over again, so I knew I had to chat with her to talk about her projects! We discuss sidescroller inspirations, Assist features, and custom level editors. Enjoy!

You can wishlist Ducky's Delivery Service on Steam

You can find Chessplosion on Steam and itch.io

Introduce yourself for everyone here on Cohost! Who are you?

Hi I'm C.T. Matthews, or you can call me Cass. I make strange 2D action games about ducks! Previously I spent a long time working as a programmer at various game studios and competing in fighting game tournaments (I won Evo a couple of years ago!). One day I'll make a fighting game of my own...

Is there a project you're working on currently? Tell us about it!

I'm working on Ducky's Delivery Service, an action game where you are a duck who uses a propeller backpack to fly around and deliver mail. It's inspired by games like Balloon Fight and Crazy Taxi and it's coming to Steam and itch.io on July 20th!

How did you find yourself first getting into game development?

I was always a huge fan of arcade-style 2D action games, and in the mid 2000s I became completely obsessed with Japanese indie PC games such as Melty Blood, Suguri, La-Mulana, Sispri Gauntlet and the Touhou series. These drove me to want to make games of my own so I studied software engineering...and started working as a programmer at a AAA game studio on a project that I wasn't really interested in at all. The curse of entering the workforce during the 360/PS3 era of western AAA games...

After a decade of working for various game studios and daydreaming about all the cool games that I would be able to make if I had infinite free time, I eventually forced myself to sit down and make a game from start to finish. That game was Chessplosion, and I kept going from there!