We had the chance to chat with narrative designer Matthew M. Ritter! Check out their game Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago on steam! Perhaps you will find some inspiration in this interview to continue your craft!
“Hello! I’m Matthew Ritter. I’m a narrative designer as far as the video game industry is concerned, though I’ve worked all over. I’ve written for TV, Movies, books, radio, writing mills, ghost written stuff, done some speech work, some journalism (badly), lots of terrible poetry, worked as a professional pixel artist for like five years, did QA for like ten years, I’ve done localization and punch up work and lots more.
In the video game industry I’m mostly known for having worked on the narrative/scripts/line writing of a lot of games. Having touched games at places like Teyon, Telltale, Dontnod, Silver Volition, DotEmu, Bandai, Sega, and plenty of other companies I’m sure I’m forgetting. I’ve worked on some games people love and plenty of games people hate! I’ve worked on enough stuff that I have credits in a few games I didn’t realize existed because I worked on them years before they came out and they’d transformed so much by then (but some very good producers never let names slip) and it took me hours to figure out why I was even in the credits.
Now I’m working on Yolk Heroes, a game I describe as JRPG + Idle game + Virtual Pet = Fun?
Most people tell me it’s a bad idea and the game will never find an audience. I’m here to figure out if they’re right and I’m dumb!
Thanks for caring about anything about me, here’s the answers to your questions.“
1.What initially inspired you to become a creator, and how has that inspiration evolved throughout your creative journey?
Nothing. I’ve always wanted to do it. Or, everything. All the art humanity already makes. Before I could read or write I made my grandmother fill out the word bubbles to my horrible bubble comics. I’ve always wanted to make things. I was always aware everything in our world was made by someone. I want to be one of those someones who makes the things that we think are neat!
Spent a lot of time trying to learn, film school, working at places like Telltale and Dontnod, working freelance for just about everyone, did the english loc for the recent Robocop game, wrote a bunch of graphic novels, often had rich people tell me that my game ideas were not commercial enough.
2.Can you share a specific moment or experience that fueled your passion for your current creative project?
Someone told me the game would sell less than a thousand copies recently and told me I was a liar when I said we had about 10k wishlists on steam so I really hope they’re wrong. Does make me want to sell more than a thousand copies though.
3.What challenges have you encountered as an indie creator, and how have they shaped your approach to your work?
I’m not very good at anything, so I always have to try and find people more talented than me to do the things I can’t do. Often leading me to end up trying to be ‘project lead’ to pretend to have something worth offering.
4.Are there any particular creators who have significantly influenced your style or approach? How do you incorporate those influences into your own unique voice?
I could never name them all, or even a top 50. Everyone. Playwrights, philosophers, game designers, people who built mausoleums out of rocks they found, monsters, heroes, novelists, essayists, photographers, film makers, comic book creators, singers, dreamers, my parents, my friends, my enemies, people who have helped me, people who have hurt me, people who have tried to kill me, people who have saved my life.
The person who I met at the supermarket the other day in a really neat hat.
I’m pretty inspired by the way we all are and the way we try and express ourselves to others.
5. How do you navigate the balance between staying true to your artistic vision and adapting to feedback from your audience or collaborators?
If I just wanted to make things for myself I can do that. I don’t need to try to market it or show it off. I could just sit and make things for myself. I want to make things for other people, so my artistic vision includes what other people might want. I need to be able to communicate to them clearly what I’m trying to say. Being able to have a connection with people who don’t know me and never will know me is the major goal of my artistic aspirations.
6.Can you recall a memorable success story or milestone in your indie creator journey that stands out as a turning point for you?
I’m sure it’s just around the corner.
7.What role do setbacks or failures play in your creative process, and how do you overcome them to keep moving forward?
I mean, it basically is the creative process. You set goals, try and solve problems, and if you fail to solve the problem and reach the goal you try and figure out how to adjust the goal or reach it some other way. It’s a process of setting goals and seeing how close you can get to them with realistic assumptions and then trying to adjust future assumptions to be more accurate.
Also, always being wrong.
8. How do you manage your time and energy to sustain a consistent creative output while juggling other aspects of life?
Poorly.
9.Have you found any unexpected joys or rewards in the indie creator community, and how has it contributed to your overall experience?
Oh, more than I can count. However, a long time ago when I was doing a kickstarter it was re-tweeted (almost a decade at this point) by one of my game design heroes at the time. I doubt he even remembers doing it or me. It was very important to me at the time, though.
10.If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring creators, what would it be based on your own lessons learned?
Try not to beat yourself up too bad if you have to make choices like surviving over working on your dreams. This life isn’t fair. Sometimes it isn’t possible to do everything.
11. What are your thoughts on All Ages of Geek? What are some things we should change/do? What are something you enjoy about our website?
That one is hard, I mean, you seem to be doing great. The podcast is neat, the mascot is neat the website is easy to navigate. It reminds me of 2010s nickelodeon website and that’s not a bad thing?
12. Goals for 2024?
If I’m very lucky, making enough money on this game to make another game and keep making games. That’s the dream.
SUPPORT THE GAME
—
