We had the pleasure of chatting with Triority Interactive Novels all about their work. “Visual novel developer about a megalomaniacal kleptomaniac and her put-upon “friend”
1.What initially inspired you to become a creator, and how has that inspiration evolved throughout your creative journey?
My desire for programming started when my father bought a Commodore 64. From playing games and looking through the Programmers Reference Guide and typing in games from books, I knew it was something I could do and, more importantly, it was fun.
Started writing games and various utilities on the C64, Amiga, Archimedes and then PC. After a while, I started to want to get into a different genre, and after playing some visual novels on an Android phone, I started to see what story I could come up with for the PC market – and test Steam and Steamworks at the same time. Thus my first two projects (Two Wars and The Mansion) came to be, although in the end they went nowhere.
2.Can you share a specific moment or experience that fueled your passion for your current creative project?
Welcome To… Chichester series was mostly inspired by playing the demo of Go! Go! Nippon visual novel. After getting bored with some previous text-based adventure games I had developed, there was a need for something I could really get my teeth stuck into, and a sort of guide around some location was an idea I could develop.
However, just showing locations of a place (in my case, Chichester), wouldn’t be interesting and too similar to the Go! Go! games, so I thought I would make for a more exciting game, by having the player arrive here, but not through choice. After that, it was a matter of working out the storyline and characters.
3.What challenges have you encountered as an indie creator, and how have they shaped your approach to your work?
The main challenge is money – or rather the lack of it. Originally, I was hoping to be able to use stock character graphics, but people complained about that, and when I moved to Ren’Py from VN Maker, I had to get new characters designed, along with backgrounds and other graphics.
Whilst I would have liked to have everything done in one go, it just wasn’t financially viable, and has to be done in batches – six years after starting with the character graphics designed, the process still hasn’t finished!
That also dictates how quickly a game can be released as well, so everything has to work around what is available and what will be soon.
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?
Escu:de’s Re;Lord series has had significant influence: Two characters from my visual novel are loosely based on a couple of witches from the series; I have used some quotes from there as well; and the last episode of my visual novels used to mimic the time travel aspect of the last episode of Re;Lord, although in my case, I’ve re-written all of my last story to be completely different now so that it matches up with previous episodes in my series.
5. How do you navigate the balance between staying true to your artistic vision and adapting to feedback from your audience or collaborators?
In most cases, feedback has been easy to adopt into either the storyline or a graphical change. For example, I was recently informed that Americans were confused about using “custom” in a business sense, so I modified the story to give an explanation.
In another case, it was a matter of completely changing an animation to one that gave an equally interesting display.
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 think the most memorable success story has been Welcome To… Chichester 2 – Part I. So far, it’s the game that’s had the most review and has been fairly positively reviewed. I’m hoping my current one will reach that level again, when it’s released.
7.What role do setbacks or failures play in your creative process, and how do you overcome them to keep moving forward?
With setbacks, it’s important to not to make the same mistake again and try to move on with the project as soon as possible, either with a different process, person or idea.
I’ve had people just disappear after being commissioned to design graphics and so on. Besides the financial toll, you then have to spend time looking for an alternative.
However, the only thing you can do is learn from the experience, and continue development.
8. How do you manage your time and energy to sustain a consistent creative output while juggling other aspects of life?
I usually do all my programming after work – it’s one of the advantages of a highly-paid part time job – it gives me a lot of time to develop my projects, which I am very pleased about and lucky to have.
I do feel for the others who can’t fit anything in for weeks at time – it would be extremely irritating and frustrating.
9.Have you found any unexpected joys or rewards in the indie creator community, and how has it contributed to your overall experience?
The indie community has been great – so many people have been willing to help out with various things, which is incredibly helpful – saves both time and money.
It’s also nice to meet fellow developers and exchange and debate ideas too.
10.If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring creators, what would it be based on your own lessons learned?
I think the most important thing to remember is that you can’t let setbacks derail a project – even if said setbacks come from unfaltering advice, comments, or even reviews.
Someone will like your project, so it’s worth persevering.
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?
I do like the website – lovely layout with a nice bit of humour in there too. Everything is clearly laid out and easily navigable.
12. Goals for 2024?
The main goal for 2024 is to release WTC : Love’s Labour’s Lost, the third and last side-story in the Welcome To… Chichester series. I’m hoping it will be around June/July, but we’ll have to see. In addition to that, I would like to update some graphics for a previous game and then add in graphics for the penultimate episode of the main WTC series. All in all, there will be a lot to fit in!
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