Show Me The Games

CR: Planet Stronghold is a non linear visual novel with very strong roleplay elements. You have relationship system, romanceable character and strong plot like in visual novels, mixed with a very detailed RPG system featuring: turn based fights, four different classes, inventory, over 40 enemies including some boss fights, over 50 unique items (weapons, armors, and more), a quests system and an exploration map.

CR: Some of my games are indeed very similar to those books, others also mix other gameplay genres. In Flower Shop I have mixed a farming simulation, in Bionic Heart there are some interactive scenes where you have to pick the right actions like in the old Legend Entertainment Games, in Vera Blanc I have some minigames like the mind reading one. In each game I try to add to the main story-based gameplay other kind of gameplay to add variety and hopefully make the games more fun to play.

CR: Yes definitely! The RPG fans miss those old days, and that's one of the main reason why we see so many successful indie making RPGs the "old school way". I'm not saying that the new 3d RPG are bad, but that there is also a good amount of people that wants something else beside a shiny 3d world, they want detailed fights, a full rule set, a deep plot, and so on.

CR: Yes, exactly. Since I moved to python and the Ren'Py tool, all my games runs on all PC,Mac and Linux machines, even very old ones. Recently OpenGL HW acceleration was added, but you can still play them in software mode and they're guaranteed to run even on very old systems, as long as they have Windows2000 or newer installed. Only exception is Mac that requires 10.4, but considering Apple's frequent OS updates, it's still quite "old" :)

CR: Oh no, I wish I was capable of doing such art myself! I hire several artists of various manga styles depending on the kind of game, and I'm very picky about who I choose, because I strive to have my games use the best art possible that I can afford. I really don't like much the modern 3d art. For some games, it's necessary: however I prefer a static but well drawn image to any 3d character. To me, 3d characters seems to have less charm, less personality, than hand-drawn ones.

CR: Well, at the moment of doing this interview, I'm developing with another coder friend a sequel of my game Universal Boxing Manager, in full 3d. The main reason why I shifted direction though, is that if you do certain kind of games (sports sim, tycoon games) people nowadays expect a certain level of quality and detail. 3d real-time art, very detailed simulation model, and in the case of sports sim, even the use of real athlete names! And I realized that I couldn't create such games alone anymore, so if I make new ones will be only with help of other coders. Another reason is that I always liked manga, but only recently I discovered the world of visual novels and dating sims and I completely fell in love with it!

CR: Haha it's just a nickname I made up many years ago when I first started reading the famous Dexterity forums, but I decided to keep it. It's actually based on the fact that Jack was my real nickname when I was working in a office as employee, and then I added Norton because I am a big fan of the actor Edward Norton :)