Around the time GAMElitist got started with its plans to dominate the world there was a game announcement that sprang up involving “story-telling”.
“Ridiculous!”, I thought. “Why would anyone dare soil gaming with something as trivial as… story-telling? No… not just why, but who would dare!?”
We’re lucky to have gotten an interview with the man behind the madness. His name: Kan R. Gao. His game: To the Moon (currently, check out his others at
www.Freebirdgames.com)
Why use the video game format to tell your stories? Why not utilize a film or book format?
Kan: CUZ I’M SUCH A REBEL!
*Gasp!
Well, I just love the concept of being able to “walk through” the story and its settings. Even when the story is linear (which To the Moon is, for the most part), you still gain this sense of “involvement”; and in the end, that makes the whole experience a lot more satisfying.
Is there a particular source of inspiration for your upcoming game To the Moon?
Kan: Three real-life happenstances started it, and then it was aided on its way by films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Memento, and perhaps the montage from Up (possibly, since I’m not sure if I saw that before or after). And even a bit of Doctor Who, now that I think about it.
One of the more major real life influences was my grandfather, who had a crisis with his heart condition at the time – it really made me think about death and how I would look back at my life when my time’s near.
The other two influences are highly classified – one of them is because it would give away spoilers, and the other is because I honestly don’t think I should for others’ sakes. But hey, that leaves room for speculation; that’s always fun.
Now, exactly what genre is To the Moon, as far as gaming genres go?
Kan: To the Moon is to RPG and adventure game as a platypus is to beaver and duck.
I think the feel of the settings and storytelling experience feels more like a classical 2D RPG, but there is no combat or grinding, for that matter. Instead of levels, the “progress bar” is the time of Johnny’s life, as you go from the eldest version of him to the youngest. Its purpose is to tell a specific story efficiently and effectively, and there are no fillers or time-drains.
How did Laura Shigihara end up getting involved with the project?
Kan: I went to this antique shop a while back and bought this thing called an “Awesomeness Magnet”, then I walked out of the shop and she flew out of nowhere.
A few years ago, we were both in this game-making community (before Plants vs. Zombies) and she was making her own game called Melolune. I thought it was really cool to see someone else doing their own music for their game, let alone of such fantastic quality! We started talking about compositions and stuff, and she later kindly helped sing my first lyrical song for my first game: Quintessence, and was the one who got me into writing more songs with vocals.
So naturally I asked her about it when this project started, and she awesomely accepted to help! I’m really humbled, and To the Moon is really fortunate to have her contribution.
Wonderbar! What hurdles have you had to overcome while developing and publishing your own games?
Kan: Time management; such as remembering to allot time for eating food. I’ve since programmed a sound recognition device that falcon-punches me when my stomach growls at just the right frequency.
Why choose this particular graphical style with your games?
Kan: I’ve always been a fan of old school 2D RPGs even beyond the nostalgic factor, and it’s also a relatively efficient style to produce and find resources for – so it’s a win-win choice. While it’s not a state of the art graphic style as far as technology and realism goes, I think graphics and aesthetics are separate things – as long as they’re good aesthetics, any style can do wonders.
What about new ground? Is there any new ground that you were trying to break when creating To the Moon?
Kan: I didn’t exactly make it with anything meta in mind – nor did I even consider how to categorize it in terms of an easily recognizable genre. As many fellow indie developers do, all I did was make exactly what I wanted to make, and with some luck, found that there exists others who happen to like what I like! Who knew, right?
Looking back, though, I suppose I did fancy the idea of stories other than the ones written around combat and exploration mechanics being used more in the genre. Not because I’m not one for bar fights with 7-foot dudes, ’cause I do that, like, all the time; but just to be able to experience some more varied stories through this wonderful medium.
On a slightly related note, I do hope that those who play To the Moon could keep an open mind as to what games “should” be like, and just treat it as some kind of a hybrid between a game, a book, and a pixel movie- or even better, don’t treat it like anything at all other than just this vessel of a story. That being said, I think the experience is still much more like a RPG/adventure game than something like a visual novel or a coconut.
Would you say that you went out and found inspiration or did inspiration come and find you?
Kan: How the game really got started and came to be was basically the following: bad stuff happened and I was too stubborn to let it go in vain – so I decided to use the momentum to try and make something good out of it.
So a bit of both, I suppose. Life gave me lemons, so I ate those sour suckers and made a game.
If you could describe your game in the form of a popular catchphrase, what would it be?
Kan: First, it’s like “derp”. Then, it’s all… “live long and prosper”.
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I’d like to thank Kan Gao for a wonderful interview. I’ll definitely be picking up To the Moon soon.
LIVE LONG AND PROSPER.
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Zitat von Wolfskopf
ein Danke an Narcissu für das aktuell halten dieses Threads
Ich war erst im Diskussionthread und seh mir jetzt erst den Trailer an, irgendwas hab ich falsch gemacht... aber es ging ka eh nur ums prinzip...
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