Misfit Games: Interview

 

 WHAT WAS THE FIRST GAME THAT YOU'VE PLAYED THAT MADE YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH GAMING?

I can't say that there was one specific game I can point to and say "this is it, this is what started my love of this medium."If pressed to say one game in particular that made me want to be a part of the industry, it would probably be Dragon Quest VIII back on the PS2.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START YOUR OWN VIDEO GAME STUDIO/PUBLISHING COMPANY?

Like I said with the previous answer, Dragon Quest VIII heavily inspired me with its colourful open world with a vibrant cast that can be both wonderfully humorous and not take away from the somber moments.

It made me want to create a world just like that.

WITH MISFIT GAMES HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME AND MEANING BEHIND IT?

There were over a dozen names that were either suggested to me or personally thought up that the biggest issue was just choosing which to use.

There wasn't any particular meaning behind it beyond what all game devs do.

In the end I asked a bunch of people which of the names they liked most and made a tally chart of what was voted and Misfit Games was the one that won.

WHAT IS THE PROCESS IN CREATING YOUR GAMES USING RPG MAKER?

 I've often described game making in RPG Maker as the story equivalent of Lego, anyone can arrange the parts into just about anything, you just need to know how you want to arrange it so it's difficult to answer this question in a technical perspective as there's very little technical knowledge to convey.

So much of game making is streamlined with it that you theoretically only need to write the story if you so choose, no need to draw art, compose music or design maps which is why I originally started using it, as that let me focus on writing instead.

Not to say I never paid attention to these aspects, but I didn't have to learn how to animate or loop music.

I would just let words flow for a scene, listen to a bunch of music and decide which song felt like it best fit that scene, rinse and repeat for the rest of the game.

WHAT CHALLENGES YOU'VE FACED WHEN YOU CREATED YOUR FIRST GAME?

 The biggest challenge is one that every writer can probably relate to, you got all these pieces but connecting them to make a complete narrative is a struggle.

In Hexed, I didn't think about how every chapter flowed into the next, I just had ideas for events I wanted to have happen and decided at one point that I needed to stop adding new stories.

Another slightly less troublesome challenge is the balancing of the gameplay.

I've always thought that I made my games very easy but any time I've seen someone play them, they either find it too difficult or too easy and there ends up being no good way to judge what way to balance it outside of what feels right for someone of my skill level.

IS MOST OF YOUR GAMES TURNED-BASED OR MORE MODERN THAN THE GAMES THAT WE ARE
GETTING TODAY?

 All of my games have currently been turn-based as that is the default with RPG Maker, not to say that will or won't change, more that this is what I've used so far.

I don't feel any particular need to change it either, as fun as the idea of doing other kinds of games sounds.

WHAT GAMES HAVE YOU DONE BEFORE THE LATEST ONE YOU ARE WORKING ON NOW?

 That one is difficult to give a solid answer to as I work on many stories simultaneously, some I started before Hexed which is currently the only game I considered "finished" (Is a project ever truly finished?) and some I started after it.

I suppose the best answer I can give here is that Besieged King is one of my earliest projects which I think shows in my writing, hence I'm currently rewriting the entire game as I go along improving other aspects of it, adding new content or translating things.

 TELL US ABOUT THE NEWEST GAME THAT YOU ARE WORKING ON NOW?

Following up on the previous answer, I wouldn't say I'm working on a new game at the moment, in fact I've got so many old projects hanging around that I've had to stop myself from posting them online so my page isn't just a mess of half-baked demos.

Right now I've been focusing on adding translations to my current games.

However, I hope to commit myself to some of projects that are nearing completion as it'd feel good to knock them off the backlog.

 WHY SHOULD PEOPLE WANT TO PLAY YOUR GAMES?

 Ah, my favorite question! /s

I wish I could say more than "I write the words goodly to tell the fun adventures" as that feels like a weak answer but it really is the aspect of my work I am most proud of.

DO YOU PLAN ON BRINGING THESE GAMES GO TO EVERY PLATFORM?

In theory, I would want my games to be for every platform possible as I believe games shouldn't be locked down.

Only thing that stops me from doing so is how difficult it is to port to other platforms.

Making the games work on mobile is difficult because you can't just render it as a file that phones understand, you need a separate program that makes this already processed project into something phones can understand like a pkg file.

As for consoles, that require you to get permission to publish to the platform.
You can get around this with the fact that RPG Maker exists on various consoles so they become their own respective markets but that requires making your game again from scratch which means any time you want to update it, you need to do everyone once more for every console you release on.

WHERE CAN PEOPLE FIND YOUR GAMES AND SOCIAL MEDIA?

You can find my social media on Facebook and Twitter and my games can be found on Itch io and Gamejolt.