Hi Drifty and thank you for agreeing to visit us here at LewdPixels Towers. Now without further ado, let’s get to it!
Q: What was your first introduction to adult gaming?
A: My introduction to adult gaming was as late as last autumn, when I got my hands on Man of the House on Steam. So you can safely say I was a late bloomer.
Q: What’s your favourite adult game (other than your own)?
A: Ever since I came across VN’s for the first time, I’ve enjoyed the story part of them. And the two first I read, Depraved Awakening and Acting Lessons, will always stand out as pillars of VN’s for me.
Q: What made you want to make your own game?
A: Originally I never intended to write a story, even though I always have stories to tell. At some point my kids were laughing when I told them a story during dinner, and they said “You should write a story.” It wasn’t until much later I sat down and actually decided, maybe I should. It didn’t take more than a few weeks of toying around with ideas until Leap of Faith was finished. Later when I found Renpy and Daz, I knew I had found the tools to actually do it.
Q: What part of the development process had the steepest learning curve for you?
A: Daz and Renpy are both pretty easy to learn, but when you add Premiere Pro, After Effects and then try to learn everything at once, I’d say that was the hardest part.
Q: The bridge scene was told beautifully. What inspired you to create that situation?
A: Thank you, I’m very glad you liked it. The whole bridge scene comes from personal experience including a girl jumping from the railing of a bridge. The hard part was to transfer that scene to the game and do it justice. I still think I could have done it much better if I had used that scene later on in the story when I was more familiar with Daz. But for a beginner, I am very happy by the way it turned out.
Q: You mentioned a real life scenario inspired the Bridge scene. Did that also inspire Cece?
A: Like the other Characters in Leap of Faith, Cece is also a mashup of several people I’ve met in my life. But yes, there’s some of that girl in Cece as well, which shines through quite well at times.
Q: Is everyone involved in the RL bridge scene okay?
A: That question is somewhat hard to answer, because events after that real life experience of mine helped me form some of the story elements for LoF. I would love to answer that, but some future events in the game is meant to take you completely by surprise, which is why – for now at least, I’ll keep silent about it.
Q: You said previously some of the dialog the mc says was inspired by RL events, for example the bench scene,can you elaborate on that ?
A: Lots of the scenes are inspired by personal experiences. I feel I should add though, that LoF is still not a story about a specific person or single event from real life. I still prefer working with personal experiences rather than getting inspiration from movies or stories. Real life can be just as exciting as a movie.
Q: You’ve put together an interesting feelings/emotions game mechanic for Leap of Faith. What was behind that?
A: The main reasoning behind the mechanic is to give the player more control over what happens in the intimate scenes, allowing you to shape them to your liking instead of force feeding everything that happens. For now they are much more limited than I would like them to be, but when I get my hardware upgraded they will include a lot more visual elements and animations depending on your choices.
Q: If you could give yourself one piece of advice back when you started out, what would it be?
A: I would probably have said the same thing I was thinking when I did start it; “Why didn’t you start this earlier.” Other than that, it would be to not listen too much to the community and have faith in my story. Don’t get me wrong, I love critique and I listen to suggestions of how to improve, but being completely new to this I was overwhelmed by the Stephanie hate in the beginning and did some changes I wish I hadn’t in retrospect.
Q: What past knowledge or experiences really helped with the design and writing of Leap of Faith and its characters ?
A: I was a photographer at one point, working at the Institute of Photography in my home town. What I learned there was a huge help when it came to learning Daz lighting and camera handling, and made me look at it differently than what every tutorial I watched said I should do. Other than that, I’ve been a music producer for 12 years, and getting the tunes I wanted for the game was a huge boost in the development process, knowing how I could use them to help shape the atmosphere in the game. When it comes to stories I have no prior knowledge, but this game is a great learning experience.
Q: What has surprised you most about the reaction to Leap of Faith?
A: Honestly, the adult gaming community as a whole. The way they care about the characters in the game, or come telling me touching stories. It has changed the way I approach doing my scenes and make me look extra carefully that I’ve got it right. Even the way devs help each other with most everything connected to developing a story, tips and tricks, helpful software, or getting together to create a memorandum to a developer who’s passed away.
Q: What are some of your most memorable or favourite moments in the game so far or are those still to come? (No spoilers!)
A: It’s very hard to select a specific moment that stands out for me. But I did put a lot of effort in the scene where Cece and the MC is sitting at the bench at the end of Chapter 2. That scene is more important than most realize, and I wanted Cece to show emotions with every part of her face. I did a lot of adjusting that you can’t use ‘expression-sliders’ for, like moving her lips, brows and cheeks without overdoing it. In the end I was very satisfied with the result. But there are also a lot of future scenes I’m looking forward to do. Even a not so happy one that is going to be a hard scene to do emotionally. Hopefully I can get it right.
Q: With regards to Leap of Faith, what (or who) was your inspiration behind some of the characters?
A: I had a lot of fun creating the characters for Leap of Faith. All of them are a mashup of a whole lot of people I’ve met in my life. I tend to notice things when spending time with people, and I love every quirk and weirdness I see.
Q: Which of the characters in the game is your favourite?
A: This is going to sound like a diplomatic answer, but my favorite character is the one I’m working with. I spent so much time creating them, so when I put them in a scene they come alive and basically they do the job for me, and we just have a lot of fun together.
Q: What is some advice you can give to upcoming writers, artists or developers?
A: That’s a tough one, because I don’t feel that I’ve been doing this long enough to have any real weight behind my advice. But as mentioned before, be true to your own story and don’t let anybody dictate what you should and shouldn’t do. You will always step on somebody’s toes, and that’s just the way it is. Though, maybe don’t try and step on them intentionally.
Q: Hypothetically, if you won a Game of the Year award, what would be your acceptance speech?
A: Haha. That’s a good one. But I am eternally grateful I have a family that sees that this is something I enjoy doing and support and encourage me to keep doing it. It would have been a lot tougher without their support. And speaking of, I have to thank my Patreons for supporting me as well. You’re awesome.
Q: What or who are your influences?
A: When it comes to VN’s, I have to mention DPC for writing Acting Lessons. It was the VN that became the decider that I should use Renpy for this, and it also showed me that my type of story could be something people would like. Other than that, past things, or actually most things in my life influences the story in some way or another. There’s always something to pick up that’s a good addition to the game.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add or talk about as far as yourself, the community or future updates before we wrap up ?
A: Without sounding too cheeky, I can’t wait to continue this journey with the ones I’ve met in the community so far, and to meet a lot of other cool and talented people. We’re only halfway in the story so far, and there’s lots left to tell and experience still. And who knows, maybe I have a story planned out after this too.
Thank you for reading this interview, and please check out Leap of Faith!
