Review Fix discusses the indie RPG with a twist, You Are Not The Hero, with developer Donn Manalili. YANTH takes players into a new perspective as they must step into the shoes of Petula, an every day NPC swept into the madness of heroes ‘saving the world’ once again.
Review Fix: So with consoles constantly upgrading and graphics evolving all the time, you would think that pixel games would have fallen off the map a long time ago. They seem to keep surviving though. Why do you think pixel art games have survived so long even after the style has become obsolete?
Donn Manalili: Personally, I don’t think that higher-fidelity 3D graphics should be considered a natural evolutionary step from the pixelated graphics of old. They should be thought of as different forms of art. 2D pixel games have a strange alluring power to them. Most of us gamers graduated from pixel games to 3D games, so we tie that allure to nostalgia. However, ask any kid who didn’t grow up with a Sega genesis or even a PSone who owns a DS and ask them what their favorite game is. Chances are it’s a game that uses pixelated graphics.
I also saw a twitter post about a dad who had his kids play his old SNES games. Their only complaint was that it looked wrong on the HDTV. Once the dad busted out an old CRT set, they quit complaining.
Review Fix: For a lot of players, pixel games are a great gate to nostalgia. The downside is they are often heavily reliant on an excellent story to counter the limited capabilities of an 8-bit/16-bit world. What sets YANTH apart from the flood of pixelated indie games?
Manalili: That statement is true for RPGs that use pixelated graphics, but not necessarily all pixelated games. There are a ton of pixelated games that use little to no story and provide great addictive gameplay. That being said, we are making an RPG and we are using pixel graphics. I read all of the comments that our backers write on our Kickstarter page. A lot of them sympathize with the NPCs and they want to get back at the heroes. They also want to know about the stories that are happening outside of the heroes’ reach, so I think we have a compelling storyline to tell, and we
can craft unique gameplay from this.
Review Fix: Going back to the nostalgia factor, many younger gamers don’t see the appeal to the “classic style” of gaming. What were your plans to appeal not only to the older core gamers but the newer generation who might be more reluctant to start playing?
Manalili: I almost want to say that we’re mainly targeting the segment of gamers that grew up with traditional RPGs. Of course it’s going to be difficult to entice gamers who did not grow up with our sense of nostalgia, they’re creating their own nostalgia right now. The thing about indie games is that we need to cling to specific niches that cannot be filled by triple A studios because they’re too risky. This is how we can make our living, by providing things that are too risky for Activision or Electronic Arts to invest in. Our niche doesn’t have many young gamers. I don’t want to say
that we’re avoiding them, but it would be great if they saw our game on Steam, liked the title and the graphics and tried it out for themselves.
Maybe they’ll keep playing and spread the word.
Review Fix: For you personally, what is your favorite part of YANTH?
Manalili: My absolute favorite part of YANTH is just developing the game. I have so much fun creating cutscenes, new mechanics and debugging. Most developers won’t understand this, but some might. I get a lot of joy from fixing bugs that are difficult to fix. It’s like a game of its own that tells you “wow, you’re smart, good job!” haha.
Review Fix: Looking at the gameplay, it seems that combat is not a big part of the game due to the fact that your character is meant to be pretty average. How does that effect “boss fights” in the game?
Manalili: Boss fights in the game will be quite a challenge to implement. We can’t just wait for an opening and hack them with a sword until they die. Petula will have to find unique, ways to deal with or run from these bosses. I like to reference a boss fight in Batman: Arkham Asylum. The boss fight where he fights Mr. Freeze is one of my all time favorites, because it kept me thinking and engaged. I had to use all of the tricks in my bag to take him down, and it was really fun. I’d like to translate that kind of gameplay into YANTH.
Review Fix: This one is more for the aspiring developers out there, what are your biggest obstacles for the production of YANTH and what advice can you give to those who aspire to be an independent developer at some point?
Manalili: There were quite a few big obstacles to overcome, and some more to overcome to make YANTH a reality. I suppose the first was that I needed experience. As a kid, I enjoyed using the RPG Maker engine to play around with. I could never get anything to work, but it was fun nonetheless. I would return to the engine a few times throughout my education, but I never thought I would be using it to develop an actual game, a good one that people want to support and buy. I’m glad that I took the classes that I did. The art classes, computer programming and 3D modeling and animation have all helped me to gain a better perspective in how creating a game operates. I would say that without that formal education, I probably wouldn’t be able to follow through with YANTH.
Another obstacle is funding. Crowdfunding wasn’t available three or four years ago. It’s new and it’s amazing, especially for us small-time developers hoping to make a living out of doing what we love to do. It’s a godsend, and every one of our backers are our angels. The biggest obstacle from now on would be to budget our funding the best we can and make this game a reality. I’m in a fortunate position that I can work on YANTH full time, so as long as things go smoothly, there
shouldn’t be a problem.
For advice, I would tell those aspiring to be an indie dev to never give up and to start early! A year ago I would never have thought myself in this position, but I took classes on the side that I thought would help me become a developer, and they’ve helped immensely. Every little thing helps. When you have free time, do some research, look at some low-barrier game engines and play around with them, find some friends that have similar aspirations. Save some money here and there. When the time is right to move on and make your dreams a reality, you’ll know and that’s when you move things into overdrive.
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