 We’re already at our 20th developer interview! Can you believe it? Thank you so much for your support on this series. This week, we’re revisiting one of the games that made a strong impression during the Hungry Ghost Games Festival--Blood Lily Loop. And with us today is their developer, Sounding Stone. Please check out the game on Steam! 1. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this interview! Could we get an introduction to you and what you do at Sounding Stone? Hello, I'm Sounding Stone, an amateur indie game developer. I have two main series: the horror-oriented Physical Exorcism Series (includes the Blood Lily Sub-series) and the fantasy JRPG-oriented Peacemakers Series. I am the only core member of the former, and I handle planning, scriptwriting, and marketing for the latter. 2. Horror seems to be a recurring genre with Sounding Stone games! Are there horror games that you personally enjoy which may be similar or very different to your studio’s games? Personally, I'm quite fond of Mad Father, Misao, and Gakkou de atta Kowai Hanashi. The first two games taught me how to design horror games. They allow players to explore the game world to a certain extent and gather partial information that they can use to piece together the full story. The latter was one of the inspirations for my new work, Blood Lily Ghost Stories. 3. Apart from horror, Sounding Stone has also developed a few RPG games. How does the team manage the different projects within the studio? Honestly, my method for managing schedules is quite simple. Since 2021, I've created an online Excel file for each project, drawn a basic Gantt chart, and shared the file with the programmer and illustrator. That’s it. For your reference, below is a portion of the development schedule for Blood Lily Loop.  4. You sound like an organised person! How do you manage bumps in the road with your team? Thank you so much for your kind words! I suppose my role isn't much different from that of other schedulers. I create a list of tasks for the project, confirm the availability of and estimated time required for the programmer, illustrator, and translator via email or online meetings, plan the most efficient schedule, plot it in a Gantt chart, and track everyone's progress. If someone falls behind, I ask them why, reassess the required time with them, and then modify the Gantt chart. 5. What is a typical week or workday like in the studio for you? I have a full-time job unrelated to game development, so I am only available on weeknights and weekends. I spend one weeknight and Saturday morning watching anime, and I use the rest of my time for game development. 6. What are the benefits that come with using the engine RPGmaker? Since most Sounding Stone games seem to be developed on it. I always use RPG Maker because its visual interface and built-in commands enable me to display graphics and text, set variables, and perform conditional checks. These features reduce my programming workload and make it easy for me to develop story-driven 2D games. 7. How has reception been for the latest Sounding Stone game releases? Were there any pleasant or unexpected surprises? Blood Lily Ghoststories is one of my most popular and highly reviewed works in recent years. It has performed well in Japan, and longtime and new fans alike have shown great affection for it. I am deeply grateful to them 8. What keeps you inspired to continue game development? I enjoy challenging myself by exploring subgenres within the broader horror and fantasy categories that I haven't explored before. Once I decide on the subgenre of game I want to create next year, I'll gather the necessary materials and add my own special touches. I suppose this is how I stay inspired. 9. What is Sounding Stone currently working on? I'm currently hard at work on two projects: (1) Killers Can't Sink a Yuri Ship, the latest installment in the Blood Lily Sub-series, and (2) Bloody Emperor, the darkest chapter yet in the Peacemaker Series. The former is a B-horror mystery comedy, and the latter is a JRPG about a princess knight's psychological downfall. If you're interested, please wishlist them! 10. Where can we subscribe to the progress and news about Sounding Stone games? Please follow the progress of Sounding Stone Games at the links below: X: https://x.com/i_khaos YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SoundingStoneIndieGame/posts - Thank you so much for reading our developer interview series! If you are keen on arranging for an interview to feature your game, I would be more than happy to receive your request! Please drop an email to [email protected] My play of Blood Lily Loop (Demo):
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Over the past 2 weeks, I spent a pretty penny to pull for all 5 Lis (and lost pity twice in the process :")). In this article, I will be sharing my honest thoughts on the new event format and banner. You can watch my full playthroughs of all the cards here: Hearts Ablaze Part I: Xavier, Zayne and Rafayel Cards Hearts Blaze Part II: Sylus and Caleb Cards Before we jump in, I wanted to give a quick shoutout to my incredibly talented friend Monotohma for the amazing 5 Lis x Hime wallpaper/starting screen that we got to showcase for the 2nd part of our Hearts Ablaze series! Thank you so much! Mono does great work, so please consider them if you are looking for something similar.  My initial hope for this banner while watching the trailer was that it would be set in an alternate universe (AU) where the boys are performers or idols of sorts. I had the idea that MC would be a producer, backup dancer, or play a role different from the usual. There is so much potential for worldbuilding and unique interactions between her and the Lis in an alternate universe, but knowing the LADS community, our fanfiction writers are already hard at work. (Please recommend me some!!!) Unfortunately if that is what you're looking for in this banner, it isn't that. As a harem girlie, I felt that the strength for each card for me were Caleb, Rafayel, then tied between Sylus, Xavier, and Zayne respectively. Let's talk strengths! All the cards had sweet moments that made me blush, squeal and laugh, both in the kindled moments and during the dialogue. That's a given with all Love and Deepspace 5-stars! So if you are a player who mains a specific Li and want to seek more interactions with him, pulling for your own preferred Li(s) is worth it. The kindled for every Li were incredible on their own with well choreographed moves, catchy songs, and dazzling outfits. I liked that every Li was given a slightly different genre of song to dance to, which was what motivated me to collect them all. A lot of consideration was given to design the party suits for all MC x Li pairs for this banner, so that's a definite bonus to pulling. I adore the outfits and how each costume embodies the personalities of the Lis and seemed very in-character for what they might wear, despite the odd circumstances. Paired with Illusio, the community has been going wild with replaying them, which adds a lot of value in my opinion. However, on top of the expected deliverables, I felt that Caleb and Rafayel's cards were especially memorable. Allow me to explain why: Caleb: It could be due to Caleb being the latest addition to the roster, which results in interactions, context and tension with him still feeling a little behind the other Lis despite him being the childhood friend/gege to MC. I felt that Caleb's card focused on building his relationship with MC and is a continuation from his birthday card where they 'stepped over the line'. It adds intimacy to their relationship and I liked that the story felt smooth and the dancing kindled made sense with the plot. With every other card, the dance segment felt slightly abrupt and the story could have easily continued without the scene even happening. But with Caleb's card, it felt essential to the story. I read out every dialogue in my playthroughs of the cards on stream, and I'll admit that Caleb's card truly regressed me into the meimei role, despite being an eldest child in real life. His lines are so convincingly annoying that you can't help but be a huge brat with him. I love that! This card leaves you wanting more of CalebMC, so that you, too, can be a professional yearner. Rafayel: Rafayel's card was surprisingly plot heavy and involved an interesting, motivation-driven trip out of Linkon city. The plot of the story was gripping and I found myself at the edge of my seat wondering what will unfold throughout. It has a lot of action and references to his main lore, and there were moments of vulnerability that were precious to me. It's hard to say a lot without spoiling it, but I highly recommend reading through this card. Although the kindled was still a little abrupt, Rafayel seems to embody the idol personality most naturally, so when it came to it it didn't feel too out of the blue. For those looking for spice, Rafayel's is also one of the spiciest in my opinion. Sylus, Xavier, and Zayne: Sylus, Xavier, and Zayne's cards felt something like a day-in-the-life with (insert Li). All 3 cards happened over the course of (supposedly) a few days, but it felt like 1 day with many different activities instead. The activities themselves were fun to partake in individually, but plot wise I would have preferred a bit more direction instead of doing a carousel of activities just to end up in similar situations for all 3. That said, there were many good moments with the individual Lis, and if you're craving more time with them, definitely pull for these cards. Although some parts are a bit disjointed, you can take it as pulling a many-moments-in-one! I would take each card as a compilation of sweet activities with said Li and pull for the cards because I enjoy the interactions with them. Xavier and Zayne's cards were more slice of life and domestic(?), and Sylus is a lot more action packed. A few lore tidbits are included in Sylus' card too, so Sylus girlies might not want to miss out on it. All in all, I have no regrets pulling for all 5 Lis, but length and worldbuilding wise, beating Tomorrow's Catch-22 is a tall order. I was hoping to know more about the Polar Night too since it was mentioned as the reason for festivities, but the explanation for it was maybe something I missed. I hope we'll see some future callbacks to the moments in this banner since it seems to be canonically happening in the main timeline. Perhaps that was a purposeful move instead of giving us a 2nd AU!
 Playing the demo of Fearbonding during the Hungry Ghost Festival Games Festival was quite the unhinged experience. But chat and I enjoyed it thoroughly, with many feeling on edge with the game’s thrilling twists and engaging graphics. We had the opportunity to interview Night Asobu, the solo developer behind Fearbonding and Parasite in Love. Reader discretion is advised.
1. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this interview! Could we get an introduction to you? Hi, I’m Nia! I’ve been making visual novels since the 2019 Otome jam. I love romance, horror and historic stuff. Some of my favourite visual novels are PARANORMASIGHT and Hakuoki. I also have a bachelor’s degree in Game Design. 2. What inspires you to create games? Horror is a fascinating genre to me, because it’s so subjective what can scare a person. I have a morbid curiosity so I tend to try out more unconventional ideas, like in one of my previous games, Parasite in Love, I turned a brain-eating amoeba into a Yandere, because parasites scare and fascinate me. In my upcoming game, Skin Tailor, I’m exploring what a horror dressup game would look like. Besides horror, I think anything can become an inspiration. Sometimes I don’t even know which specific thing caused me to get a new idea for a game. There are lots of ideas I write down and put away, because I don’t have the time or skills to realize them yet. 3. What games and media do you enjoy in your free time? And did any have an influence on Fearbonding? A big influence was the Manga The Summer Hikaru died. The panels and art amazed me with how they told the story and showed the characters emotions. Studying it helped me understand how to create depth, mood, lighting and texture in a manga style. I also enjoy lots of toxic BL, so making Fearbonding felt pretty natural to me, haha. Among other things I enjoy is Sultan’s Game, which became one of my favorite games. It’s disturbing, horny, and gives you multiple interesting choices to overcome its obstacles. I also read all kinds of mangas/manhwas, like villainess isekai, regressor stories, tower/dungeon stuff. 4. As a solo developer, what does your day to day life look like? It depends on the phase of development. Currently I’m in preproduction for Skin Tailor, my upcoming horror dressup game. Which means loads of research, making notes, making multiple google docs on aspects of it, like historic research or writing character profiles and their background. As a solodev I also switch often between tasks, like coding the prototype, making sketches for art assets, writing explorative prose, and checking my outline with my editor. The list goes on. During production, when I really defined how many assets I need, I go through the list and try to finish them one by one. Once I put them in the engine, I replay the game very often. Especially when you want a polished game, it’s important to check if the scenes in the visual novel really come across like you imagined them. Sometimes I add an image to enhance a scene or look for a fitting sound effect. There are marketing and social media tasks too, like making sure the game page communicates what the game is and in a way that makes people want to play it. There’s press outreach too and making social media posts. 5. Fearbonding is a unique story that made me feel invested in the fate of the characters quickly. Were there characters that inspired Hinata and Kosuke? I’m happy to hear that! It was actually a parasite for this story as well, haha. Parasites can have all kinds of relationships with their hosts, which serves me well for writing character dynamics. The reason why I chose that parasite was because I wanted to write a yandere story with a more balanced character dynamic. Lots of yandere stories are about a comparatively good and/or naive person who gets dragged around by the yandere. Which can be very engaging as well. For this story I wanted manipulation from both characters. Therefore I created a character that would benefit from getting involved with a deranged person like Kosuke. 6. What game engine is Fearbonding designed on and why? It was made in Renpy! Renpy is an engine that covers most visual novel needs, like saving, loading, a dialogue system with skip functions, and so on. It’s free and I don’t run into many bugs while making games. 7. Were there any new skills or perspectives you gained from the development of Fearbonding? Fearbonding is my first commercial game. Through that I learned more about the steam backend and what they need from me as a developer. I also learned lots about the manga style and refined my drawing skills, specifically for a monochrome artstyle. There’s so much I learned, it’s hard to remember it all and list them here. 8. What kind of experience do you hope players of Fearbonding will have? I hope you enjoy the dark mood and the character dynamic between Kosuke and Hinata! They’re definitely freaky in their own ways. 9. Do you have any upcoming projects? Yes! I’m working on Skin Tailor, a medieval horror dressup game and visual novel hybrid. You skin your supernatural enemies, create disguises and infiltrate vampire owned blood farms to rescue your comrades. You can wishlist it here. 10. Where can we subscribe to the progress and news about your games? You can follow my steam developers page. I also have Itch.io, Tumblr, Twitter, Bluesky, Youtube and Tiktok - I am really looking forward to doing a proper playthrough of Fearbonding one day. Please support Night Asobu by wishlisting or getting their games! And staying tuned to their socials for future updates on Skin Tailor! I am so excited to see what a horror dressup VN will look like!  Today’s developer interview takes on a slightly different format, with Bremit Studios being the first studio I have had the chance to record an interview with! Big thanks to Ruth and Yint Oo for being such great interviewees and for providing much insight into their experience as indie game developers here in Singapore. Before you read on, check out and wishlist their upcoming game, Numinous!
*This interview transcription was edited for conciseness and clarity Hime: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this interview! Could we get an introduction to you and what you do at Bremit Studios? (To meet some of the other members, you can check out their early Instagram reels which introduces a number of them!) Ruth: Hi I’m Ruth and I’m the supporting artist. I designed most of the characters that are in the game. You will probably know of detective zero and the pontaniak if you’ve seen our reels, I also drew some of the marketing posts! When I’m not doing character designs or 3D models for the characters, I also help out with the 3D models of other assets in the game. Hime: I must say the chibi pontianak that’s often on the SNS is quite cute! Ruth: Thank you. Yint Oo: Hi I’m Yint Oo and I am one of the game designers at Bremit Studios. I am also the lead narrative writer, so I write the story and film some of the reels in my free time. All our reels on Instagram were edited by me. Hime: So you’re also the social media marketing manager? Yint Oo: (Laughs) Yep. Hime: What is Bremit Studios’ founding story? Ruth: From what I remember, everything started out with Jie Lun, or JL, as I’ll be referring to him as. Wait, Yint Oo, do you remember more? I remember JL and Syafiq, the technical artist, started this whole thing up around the time of our final year project (FYP). Yint Oo: We already had experience working together. We were all in the same team except for our main programmer. So when the internship letter came in, we were given the opportunity to either attend an internship or try entrepreneurship and start our own business. That’s when me and Ruth were invited by JL to join the team, and that’s how Bremit Studios was formed. But before that, we were already like-minded and close friends, and did our FYP together, so there was already team synergy. Hime: Currently you are working on a horror game called Numinous, can you tell me more about that? Ruth: Numinous is a Southeast Asian inspired horror game. It’s mostly based on the legend of the Pontianak, who is a woman in a white dress that you might have heard about. There was once I turned to a friend and said “Hey, ghosts aren’t really that scary, right?” and she replied, “Ruth, don’t test that.” The same friend told me that if I smell frangipanis at night, I should start running. Yeah, that was my introduction. Hime: Any firsthand experiences with the paranormal? Yint Oo: Most of us have gone to Changi Hospital just for the experience. We went there to take pictures. But for my own experience, when I was doing night guard duty as a soldier, that’s when I may or may not have had my first experience with the Pontianak, because I smelled the frangipanis and heard some whispering. It wasn’t just me, of course. Some of my platoon mates experienced it too. But in my mind, it was research material for the game, so I was elated. I wasn’t scared, even though the rest kind of were. It felt like, “Oh wow, so this is Pontianak.” Hime: A while back, Bremit Studios also made a trip to Shen Zhen. What was the purpose of that trip and what was something you learned from it? Yint Oo: Ruth didn’t come along for that trip. The Shen Zhen trip was mainly for business exchange. The maker space there taught us about some of their technology and we learned to code with it. We also shared more about our business with them. It was a place where we could bond with likeminded people. Hime: What is Numinous currently designed on? Ruth: It is designed on Unity. We had tried porting to Unreal once but we couldn’t get it to work, because Unreal is a really different engine. So to port over the entire game would take too much time. Hime: Ah I see, and the release date for Numinous is also to be announced, right? Do you have a scope or goal that you hope to release it by? Ruth: Currently we want to get most of the work done after the rest of the guys finish NS. So this would be sometime around 2027 or 2028, after that, it’ll be full speed ahead. We will likely be able to finish and launch around 2028. Hime: Oh so some of the members are still serving their army obligations? Yint Oo: Yep, most of us are. So that really delays the development time. Hime: I guess that’s one of the unique challenges being an indie developer in Singapore, especially if you’re male. Both: Yeah. Hime: We’ve seen a number of clips featuring playtests by various people. Are the playtesters people from the team or people outside of Bremit Studios? Yint Oo: Most of them are from outside Bremit Studios. Some of them are our friends and some are complete strangers. We decided to turn some of the playtests into marketing material with the funny moments and reactions that they have. Hime: It’s really good and very entertaining. Ruth: Most of the outside ones are either those from Scape or some of the other events we’ve been to like Symbiosis Game Fair. We got a lot of people to try out our games then and get firsthand reactions. Hime: I remember encountering your studio during the Scape RE:PLAY festival, is the event related to some sort of program Scape is running? Ruth: For that, we were simply invited to booth at the RE:PLAY festival. But I would say it was really fun. We got to see a lot of other indie developers and there was an internship group of our juniors who also had a booth there. Hime: That’s so nice. It allows you to reconnect with people who are somewhat familiar. What advice would you give to people who have been invited to do playtesting? Ruth: I would normally advise playtesters to look out carefully for the puzzles and clues. During the Scape test, most people were not able to figure out the first puzzle of the game, so it hinted to us that we needed to make our puzzle a little more obvious, which was good feedback. Hime: So you’re looking for an authentic playing experience that will inform the team on what to do next? Ruth: Generally, yeah. I would also ask potential playtesters whether they have played horror games before or whether this is one of their first few games, because the playing experience would differ based on that. Someone who’s played more horror games would have a better feel of how a horror game should be versus someone who is new and just figuring out the ropes. So they may not be able to figure out what to do initially. Hime: Do you play many horror games yourself? Ruth: Okay so funny story, I’m not much of a horror game player, and in the beginning when we all started Bremit Studios, our game was initially not a horror game. Yint Oo: Yeah. Hime: Oh? Ruth: When Syafiq pitched to me to join the team, he initially presented a food game, a visual novel. And I was like, sure. We attended entrepreneurship boot camp and presented our food game. Then around two weeks before we were supposed to start, JL got an idea for his lecturer about doing a horror game instead, because it would be more popular. So he sat us down and said “Hey, let’s do a horror game.” and we agreed. Yint Oo: Most of the guys in our team took a lot of time playing horror games like Dead by Daylight, Outlast and Amenesia. I cannot forget Amnesia because we were all sharing one incubator space in our public polytechnic, and when we came by the office to work, we would take some time before and after work to sit down and play a horror game. Amnesia was the game I was tasked to play and I screamed like a little baby. Ruth can attest to that. Ruth: Yeah. Yint Oo: Even developers get scared. When we were doing our own jumpscares, I was beside JL when he was showing it on the engine and I jumped out of the seat getting scared by our own jumpscare that we made. Hime: So from this research of playing different horror games is there anything you think helped to inform the development of Numinous? Ruth: A lot of horror is about sound design. Yint Oo: Yes, and the music. Ruth: When it suddenly gets really quiet or when there are creepy sound effects it really helps put people on edge. So we want to incorporate good sound design into our game as well. Hime: In polishing a game like Numinous, what part(s) is/are the most time-consuming or challenging? Yint Oo: Maybe it was when we were designing the puzzles because we were trying to find the right balance between making it simple enough to understand but complex enough for players to need to rack their brains a little. We had to go through multiple iterations of the puzzle so it took quite some time and reworking. Two weeks can be just to get some of the puzzles in, and even now we’re reflecting on whether the puzzles are good enough or whether we should redesign them. Ruth: True, the puzzles take a lot of tinkering to make them the best they can be. Hime: Something I noticed with horror games is that once you’re stuck, you’re stuck. There’s not much of a way to get new hints or to navigate. Do you think that this is something horror games should incorporate more of or do you think that the backtracking is also part of the horror experience? Yint Oo: That’s an interesting question. When I get stuck I get very frustrated, but I think that is part of the experience of a horror game. Puzzles that are too easy don’t feel scary at all. I think backtracking is annoying but it is part of the experience. It really depends on what the designers want their horror game experience to be. For the majority of the horror games I’ve played, the backtracking enhances the feeling of being scared and clueless, and if you put in clues that might be taken away. Hime: So there’s a delicate balance between making the player feel helpless, but also in control. Yint Oo: Yes. Ruth: One of the other guys, Syafiq, spent a lot of time on the shaders, atmosphere, and foliage. The game is set in a rural, jungle-like compound environment, and grass and foliage takes a lot of time to render. I remember he spent a lot of time figuring out how to make the grass not crash the game. Hime: Optimisation is a tall order. Yint Oo: The first look of the environment was very Roblox-like and blocky, so he spent many days trying to make it look like a real Kampung. Hime: What keeps you inspired to continue game development? Ruth: I would say what inspires me is that I’m already here. I’ve learnt that the world of making games is really fun when you go all in and it is really rewarding when you get to finish a project. However, it is also really hard. The joy of game development can also come from working with a team of people that you like working with. It’s fun working and hustling together. Yint Oo: After spending so much time and effort to make an experience for someone then seeing these people enjoy the experience you make, is irreplaceable. Hime: What do you anticipate for the release of Numinous as the first game published by Bremit Studios? Ruth: We’re going to have to tackle a lot of bugs and a lot of testing, that’s what I anticipate for release. We’ll probably update some puzzles minorly after getting feedback too, so I think that will be what happens. Hime: Will there be an early access or beta test? Ruth: We have a demo out so that we can get early feedback on how the first 15-30 minutes of the game feels, then we can apply it to the game. Hime: Sounds like there will be a lot of firefighting after the release that you are anticipating! Ruth: Most definitely. Hime: Where can we subscribe to the progress and news about Numinous? And should content creators be looking out for any campaigns upon release? Ruth: You can get updates on our Instagram or hop into our Discord! (I think we have a Discord?) Yint Oo: Yes we do! I am also reminded to update the Tiktok. Hime: Thank you guys so much for the time! If you have yet to wishlist Numinous, check it out on Steam and please support Bremit Studios on their socials! - Thank you so much for checking out this interview! If you have any feedback on the format or structure, please leave a comment. And if you are a game developer who is interested in being interviewed, drop me an email at [email protected]! On 23rd October, we embarked on a sampling journey through I was a Teenage Exocolonist, ILA: A Frosty Glide, Chicory: A Colorful Tale, and Night in the Woods. VOD here!
Unfortunately, The Sexy Brutale did not have keyboard and mouse support, and with my controller busted, I couldn't play it ;; That said, I will probably download it on my handheld console to try it on the go instead! I had a wonderful time with all the games, but since my experience was a really short one, in the next segment I will be pairing my short experience with a sweep of the reviews on Steam. I was a Teenage Exocolonist Hime's experience: I initially intended to give each game about an hour's playtime, but with I was a Teenage Exocolonist, I found myself immediately immersed in the world of Sol and her alien planet compatriots. The prologue is gripping, and the interactions you get to have with the cast feels genuine and believable. The writing is engaging at each moment, while leaving enough crumbs to have you reading on. Within the short hour and a half I experienced it, I felt like a part of their world was brought to life. I laughed, sobbed, and had my heart broken along with Sol, her family and friends, and I would happily do it over and over again. Your choices really feel like they matter in this game, though that remains to be seen by me until I get the chance to see how things could have gone differently. Steam community: From the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam, I picked up that many players felt the writing, art, music, and replayability of the game were worth praising. Many players left reviews on how the game left them the same way it did me—in beautiful shambles and wanting more. The only points for improvement I observed was that the gameplay loop might become repetitive, and minor tasks like having to walk around takes up time in subsequent playthroughs. ILA: A Frosty Glide Hime's experience: I signed up for the ILA campaign on Lurkit because the thumbnail graphics looked adorable! Upon opening the game, it was a different visual experience than I expected, with blocky minecraft-like graphics, which were still cute, just a surprise XD. Thankfully, this game supported keyboard and mouse controls, which were quite intuitive and easy to use. The only setbacks were my own poor timing and depth perception, but that's a skill issue on my end. The game follows a young girl exploring an island in search for her cat, Coco. Once you land on the island, you're greeted with some mail from your supportive dad, and get on your way. The first part of the island seemed to be 'tutorial island', where you had to overcome the terrain using taught mechanics and maneuvers in order to move on to the next stage. This island was straightforward. The puzzles and parkour really begins on island 2. On island 2, you are greeted by a shop manned by a witty magical broom, where you can finally spend some coin! But from I gathered, the things available in this first store were just cosmetic. It took me a long time to clear island 2, not because it was hard to traverse, but because I got stuck at some point and had no ways to receive any clues. We managed to figure it out eventually, but I wished there were an option to get some hint somewhere. :") Because we played it only 2 days after launch, no guides were available yet, but I'm sure some community guides or walkthroughs will emerge later on. Still, the relaxing graphics and great sound design made it a pleasure, even if I was a little lost. Steam community: ILA is super new so there's only a 12 reviews so far, and I'll be leaving mine later on just to help increase its visibility. But all 12 have been positive with people praising the game's smooth controls, vibrant world, easy flow, and relaxing atmosphere. Game length wise it seems to be a short game, completable in a few hours. A great experience for anyone looking for something short and comfy. Chicory: A Colorful Tale Hime's experience: I remembered seeing the trailer for Chicory many moons ago and thinking it looked like an adorable and unique adventure game, so when I saw the campaign for it on Lurkit, I signed up immediately! From the get go, the story has you wondering 'what is going on?' and keeps your attention through quirky characters who informally guide you through the controls of the magic brush. This game seems like it would be easier to play with the tablet or mouse, since where you use the brush matters. I loved how we could paint on anything, and there were a number of delightful surprises we found from using our powers. I found myself stuck at one point, but thankfully there was a little phonebooth where we could ask for help. The hint system is unique and funny, and the puzzles are at a moderate challenge level to me. The last thing I expected was having to fight with a brush, but you do soon after you begin the game! I think there's a lot more in store in Chicory for us to discover. Youtube videos on the full gameplay range from 6-7 hours. Steam community: From the overwhemingly positive reviews on Steam, the game seemed really well-received. Many players enjoyed the creativity, cute art, music and wholesome story. A number of reviews mentioned the game having value as a kid-friendly game which also has a powerful story and childlike charm. The controls are reminiscent of early click-to-colour games, which probably had a part in the mildly nostalgic feel to it. The reviews shared my opinion that there were many discoveries and heart wrapped up into this delightful package of a game. Night in the Woods Hime's experience: Night in the Woods is a chill and mildly chilling(?) game about a little cat named Mae coming back to her hometown in fall. (Great setting for Halloween!) My favourite part of the game was the witty writing. Mae's kind of a sassy cat, but that was definitely one of the fun parts. It made me want to know how she would interact with all the characters in the small town. It had many heartfelt moments too, from reuniting with her parents, to reuniting with her best friend Gregg. And many parts of the story had charming interactive segments. The story has an underlying sinister tone which I hadn't yet uncovered what it was about, but its a very laid back experience, which lets you linearly follow Mae and her story. Steam community: According to reviews on Steam, many players shared my sentiments about this game being chill, entertaining with quality writing, sound design and visuals. The characters have depth, especially the little cat you play. The many minigames you add little joys throughout too. It is highly recommend for lovers of story based mystery. Many players say it is perfect and relatable for those on their way to the quarter-life crisis mark. One user, onidavin, described it well with the term 'economy of language'. The story is well written while being snappy, instead of what some may expect of a story-driven game, which often has a lot more words. -- If you were looking for a game to pick up for the Halloween season, I hope you consider these that we had the pleasure of playing! ^_^  We have a lovely feature today with the developer of Deadly Heart Gambit! One of the games we got to try during the Hungry Ghost Festival 2025. Thank you for supporting this developer interview series thus far, Please welcome Blink Hydrate and check out their games on Steam! 1. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this interview! Could we get an introduction to you? I am a solo developer. My name is a reminder for eye resting and staying hydrated. Deadly Heart Gambit is my most recent game. It is a very wholesome game inspired by Buckshot Roulette! I also made a fan game for Neuro-sama Birthday Game Jam!  2. What inspires you to create games? I enjoy reading stories. I wanted to be a writer. I ended up making story-driven games. Anime also inspires me a lot. My favorite anime are Mob Psycho 100, Bocchi The Rock, Attack on Titan. I like to use VRoid Studio to create cute anime characters! 3. What games do you enjoy in your free time? And did any have an influence on the games you created? My favorite games are To the Moon, Doki Doki Literature Club (DDLC), Undertale, and Omori. The iconic line Alice Forever is a direct inspiration from Just Monika in DDLC. I would recommend To the Moon to everyone. It influenced me so much that I want to create games that make people cry. 4. As an indie developer, what does your day to day life look like? Procrastination! And also, I’m too busy with my day job. I wish I had more time for my games. 5. Deadly Heart Gambit requires the player to balance risk and reward. Do you enjoy games with risk-taking and are you a risk-taking person yourself? I don't think I am a risk-taking person. I play games with risk-taking to understand more about game design. Deadly Heart Gambit is inspired by Buckshot Roulette with risk-taking as a core mechanic. I believe risks add fun to a game.  6. What game engine is Deadly Heart Gambit designed on and why? Deadly Heart Gambit is a game from GMTK Game Jam 2024. The game jam version was made in 96 hours. Unity Engine was used for 3D support and assets. I’d like to use Godot Engine for my future games. 7. Your previous game, Push the Cat with WASD, featured some characteristics of wall-breaking. Is this something you like including in your games? Yes. I believe there are some ideas that can only be better expressed through the medium of games, and fourth-wall breaking is a great example of that. 8. Can you tell us more about your upcoming game? It is a game inspired by my favorite games. I want to create something profound. Something meaningful and powerful. It will be a game that explores ideas such as Existential Dread, Absurdism, and The Burnout Society. Here is an original song for the game! Please have a listen! 9. What advice do you have for players trying to complete Deadly heart Gambit? The most satisfying part of the game is predicting the Joker. Since the value of the Joker is 14, you can try playing higher cards (10, J, Q, K). The cards won't rotate when the next card is higher, so these higher cards can better indicate where the Joker is. For example: If J, Q, and K are drawn, you can play 10, and if it does not rotate, the next card will be the Joker. 10. Where can we subscribe to the progress and news about your games? Follow me on X, Bluesky, and Youtube! Please share my games with your friends! Also, you can send messages to Alice-sama's Marshmallow inbox.  Thank you so much Blink Hydrate for the interview! I’ll be looking forward to the next one! Thank you dear readers for supporting this series thus far, are there any other games you’d like to see featured? Leave a comment or email [email protected] if you would like to see how we can work together!
This event was such a joy to play through, but I have my biases as a Xavier main. Please enjoy the event with me! Ok I'm still reeling in from what happened earlier last week with this card. The storytelling was wild and there was so much tension and sensuality throughout! I loved the story setting and how unexpected the ending was. Though this myth felt shorter than Rafayel's and Xavier's, the kindled animations and tense dialogue more than made up for it. At some points in the story, the relationship between MC and Zayne felt a little ambiguous, like a situationship or a couple on the brink of divorce. Yet with a little nudge and compromise, the two find themselves closer than ever and make advancements in their relationship and the society of Niava. Yet, Zayne still holds a hint of hiding something from our girl. The story kept me guessing what their endgame would be. Even though the trailer shows a mild spoiler to it, the journey getting to that point was a true ride and a half! Trailer + Kindled Reactions: THE BLINDFOLD ACCESSORY AND BATTLE ANIMATIONS ARE ALSO CRAAAAAZY
I hope we'll use his cards lots! Interview with FallenCranberry Studio—developers of Lover's Enigma + Kickstater Affiliation!23/9/2025  Lovers of Otome gather round! For this week's developer interview, I am honoured to present FallenCranberry Studio, the developers of the Singapore-made Lover's Enigma! The demo was just updated to include another day in the story and showcases gorgeous artwork, interesting characters, and mysteries to uncover. Although I did not manage to schedule the demo in during the Hungry Ghost Games Festival, there were a number of content creators who I've watched try it! Lover's Enigma is also part of the Fall in Love Visual Novel Festival presented by Studio élen, whose game A Tithe in Blood was one we played a while back.
The Lover's Enigma Kickstarter campaign just went live, and you can support their development using my affiliate link here! Don't forget to wishlist the game to support it's visibility before you read on. Big thanks to Mausberry for taking the time to craft such thoughtful answers to this interview! 1. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this interview! Could we get an introduction to you and what you do at FallenCranberry Studio? Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity! I’m Mausberry, I’m the team lead for FallenCranberry Studio. FallenCranberry Studio specializes in making anime-style visual novels. We lean towards more psychological and romantic plots that we hope will excite players! 2. What is FallenCranberry Studio’s founding story? We originally started out as a game jam in another company, seeing as we were specialized in certain fields for making VNs (T/N Visual Novels), we eventually branched out with their assistance and birthed FallenCranberry Studio! 3. What kind of games in the Otome/Visual Novel/Immersive Sim genre do you enjoy? I grew up playing Otome games, i.e the classic Mystic Messenger, Heart No Kuni No Alice, Amnesia etc. Though now, being a working adult with adult responsibilities , it’s hard to find time to play the ever increasing backlog of games. (The copy of Bewitching Sinners has been sitting in my steam library for months.) Either that or I spend money on Love and Deepspace. 4. Who do you think the individual love interests will appeal to? Do any of them fall into familiar Otome game tropes? It’s hard to say WHO, we’ve had a surprising amount of players telling us they like the character that’s already dead! So right now we’re as confused as anyone. However, if players like guys that are usually funny, but have a serious side to them, we think players would like Haruki, the exorcist MC’s mother hired. If players like a short tsundere gamer with attitude problems, they may like Ren! If players love a cool kuudere man who does his job second and you first, they’ll love Ryota! And if they want a corpse, why not choose Kazuki…? 5. What game engine is Lover’s Enigma designed on and why? Lover’s Enigma was developed on Ren’Py! We decided to choose Ren’Py because it was easy to build a game that has all the base functions required for a visual novel prebuilt! 6. In polishing a game like Lover’s Enigma, what part(s) is/are the most time-consuming or challenging? Probably the UX and art. It’s hard to get proper feedback for UX until players give us reviews, even with internal QA being done, that said, please join our discord or leave reviews on our steam demo! It helps us a lot! Art is always subjective, and different people have different opinions on how the UI or CGs should look, even internally, sometimes we can’t agree. Sometimes it more or less comes down to a coin toss. 7. Were there games or art styles that influenced Lover’s Enigma? We were heavily inspired by DanganRonpa and World of horror in terms of art styles. While we were playing the games, we thought “Woah wouldn't it be cool if there was a dating sim that looked spooky” so here we are. 8. Are there unique challenges that come with being a Singapore-based indie game studio? Starting out as an indie studio is particularly hard, in terms of securing finances and building ourselves from the ground up. It’s pretty stressful since it’s our first time doing all of this, but I'm eternally grateful to everyone who has stuck by and helped us out since! 9. What kind of gaming experience do you hope players of Lover’s Enigma will have? We hope we’ll give players a thrilling experience while also falling hard for the boys we made! Generally, we just hope players enjoy the game we put literal blood sweat and tears into. We hope we’ll get them talking about Lover’s Enigma for years to come as well, and maybe a fandom wiki is when we know we made it! :D 10. Where can we subscribe to the progress and news about Lover’s Enigma? You can follow us on all our socials! On twitter it’s @koibitononazo, on our discord you can find fellow Enigmas (and sometimes, even us!) to talk to, and tiktok where we post lil funnies every now and then. - Hime's Affiliate Link Thank you so much Mausberry for accepting the interview despite your busyness! Please support their kickstarter using my affiliate link here, and if you are a developer looking to get an interview or someone to try your game, please feel free to reach out to [email protected]! Thank you for enjoying this series thus far! ♡  I have been honoured to have many developers willing to take up an interview with me, and I am excited for you all to read them week by week! Thank you so much to all the devs and team members who have poured in time and effort to entertain my questions, please check out all our developer interviews here. Today, we have Young Buffalo Studios! An studio of passionate individuals based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In this interview, Nhat Linh brings us through what inspires her to continue game development, and reveals some Vietnam-specific Easter eggs you may find in their upcoming game, Night Shippers! If you are a fan of comedically scary co-op games (think R.E.P.O and Lethal Company), wishlist the game before you read on! Night Shippers also participated in the Hungry Ghost Games Festival 2025. Unfortunately, I was unable to play the game on stream, but I had a really fun time trying the playtest with some friends off-stream. My two cents will be at the end of the interview. 1. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this interview! Could we get an introduction to you and what you do at Young Buffalo Studio? Thank you for the opportunity. My name’s Nhat Linh and I’m the founder and studio director at Young Buffalo, a studio based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. 2. What is Young Buffalo Studio’s founding story? I’ve been in the gaming industry for 18 years, mostly on the publishing side with esports-focused genres such as MOBAs and battle royales. My team members are all relatively young and have some prior experience developing games, but mainly in mobile. Vietnam has many studios and lots of developers, but most focus on mobile and hypercasual games. When we came together, we really wanted to contribute something to help grow the indie and PC scene in Vietnam, so I founded a studio in Ho Chi Minh City to make PC games. 3. I noticed another game, Divine Guardian, which is also upcoming for the studio alongside Night Shippers! How does Young Buffalo Studio handle development of multiple games at a time? We almost have two separate teams making two games simultaneously, but it’s hard to handle both projects smoothly at the same time. Right now, for 2025 and 2026, our main focus is Night Shippers. 4. Night Shippers is a co-op experience, while Divine Guardian is a singleplayer experience. What sparked the concepts and desire to create games like Night Shippers and Divine Guardian? Divine Guardian is a 2D Metroidvania with stories inspired by Vietnamese folklore and history. It was our first studio project, and we chose Metroidvania because we naively thought it would be easy to make and complete. We later learned that while technically it’s not hard to make a Metroidvania, it’s very hard to sell, and the ceiling for the genre is very high. Streamers weren’t enthusiastic about the demo even before they played it. Night Shippers, on the other hand, is a co-op horror game. You can tell it’s inspired a lot by Lethal Company and R.E.P.O.. We had a few streamer friends recommend that we make one, and we realized that if we could make a good co-op horror game, the commercial viability would be much higher and streamers would be more willing to play it. We chose the concept of shippers as the main characters because they’re everywhere in Southeast Asia and East Asia. During the pre-production phase, two movies about shippers came out that people liked (Upstream from China and Rider from Thailand). So we picked “bike shippers” as the main characters because it fit the game. 5. What game engine are your games designed on and why? In my opinion, you can make any game with either Unity or Unreal. For us, it happened quite randomly. For the first title, we chose Unity because most developers in Vietnam three years ago used Unity, there wasn’t much of a choice. For Night Shippers, we chose Unreal because our game designer felt it would be better and more convenient for programming netcode/multiplayer. 6. Young Buffalo Studio seems committed to incorporating elements of your base country, Vietnam, in your games. From the divine forests of Divine Guardian to the Vietnamese neighborhoods of Night Shippers. Are there any inspirations from the country and culture that were included but may be missed by the international audience? Thanks for asking this. First, we want to make games for Vietnamese players, but it would be great if we could spread Vietnamese cultural elements to a global audience through games. In Night Shippers, there are some internal jokes only Vietnamese players might get, such as: Vile healing is actually our medicated oil brand (similar to Singaporean medicated oil). Big pipe smoking, where you might pass out if you inhale too much. The dirty writing on city walls (“No trash,” “No pissing”). The first map (Old Town) is a depiction of Hội An, a famous tourist town in Central Vietnam. Some monsters come straight from our urban legends. 7. What is a typical week or workday like in the studio?
We work from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., five days a week. Our development cycle moves fast, there’s a patch or minor update every two weeks, so the crew works two Saturdays per month for small crunches. I don’t see any breaks in the release month for Night Shippers. 8. What keeps you inspired to continue game development? I want to say money, but it’s actually not. For us, it’s the feeling of seeing players enjoy and have fun with our game that keeps us going. Since releasing Night Shippers, we’ve had quite a lot of negative and brutal (but necessary) feedback, but also many people saying they laughed and had fun playing. Even a small livestream with a group of friends and fewer than three viewers, bursting out laughing over a janky bug, can make our day and give us hope to finish the game.. 9. What misconceptions do you think there are about being an indie game development studio? Many people I’ve met still think this is purely a tech job, but in fact, making a game, especially an indie game, is more like creating art, like music or a movie. Secondly, while it’s not exactly a misconception, people often underestimate how hard it is to succeed as an indie dev or studio. Your chances of making games for a living are about the same as becoming a professional singer or football star. 10. Where can we subscribe to the progress and news about Night Shippers? We are most active on Steam and discord, please join our discord to see the latest content & update for Night Shippers. You can also follow us on X. - Mini review When I tried Night Shippers with my group of 3 other friends and 2 spectators, we all had good laughs throughout. During our playtest session in early August, what was meant to be a short 1 hour trial turned into about double the time easily! It was a session full of laughter and funny moments. What set Night Shippers apart from existing comedy horror co-ops was: 1) The delivery system. Instead of trying to get as much loot onto a designated ship, you are tasked to deliver goods from NPC to NPC. The NPCs can show up in hilarious places, spawning right in front of you or in the most dangerous of alleys. 2) The difficulty. Easy and medium were manageable once we got the hang of the game progression and maps. But try as we might, we failed to complete a single delivery in hard mode. The challenge of hard mode is a huge jump, which made it many times more exciting but also many times more difficult. We resigned defeated one the NPCs started dropping more items than our pockets could hold and we found no way to counter the monsters. That said, if we had spent more time, I am sure we would have discovered some workarounds. The map navigation was also much more tough, with obstacle-course like areas which required us to move skillfully. 3) Universal upgrades by default. Something very satisfying about Night Shippers was levelling up the entire team with each upgrade. Completing every level meant a mini meeting to see which available upgrade was most needed by the team, and we could enter each level with better abilities every round. 4) Teamwork in unlocking areas. Some areas are locked and you need to communicate with your team to see if anyone has found a key. There were times we could not find a way to unlock a door, but somehow another team member ended up on the other side. So we would find ways to work in our situations. In that case, we threw the goods over the fence to have our teammate deliver it before the timer ran out! Overall, Night Shippers was an enjoyable experience for my friends and I. We found some bugs along the way but they added humour and there were none that were game-breaking for us. If given the chance, please give it a try! - If you enjoyed this interview, please follow my socials or join my Discord to get the latest notifications on new ones that drop! You can also support what I do by tuning in to my streams on Twitch or donating on Ko-fi. Every little contribution helps~ right now, there is also a September promotion where each donation of $25, you will receive a sweat emote! As it is contributing to my new air conditioner fund ^_^! |
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