Hello! On October 16th 2024, the development team for The Stars Under Lockehurst was invited to a Live Q&A with MisterShins, a casual streamer who enjoys MMOs, RPGS, and VNs, livestreamed on Twitch! This event was followed by MisterShins' complete playthrough of TSUL. Please enjoy!

EVENT START

MisterShins: Please welcome two of a very large team that created this game: This is Polly, Pauline Reinacher, right?

Polly: Yes!

MisterShins: Polly did character design, CGs, sprites, UI and the prop art. Toffl did background and UI art. And they have kindly agreed to join us here and be with us for the playthrough of their game. We just want to ask a couple questions. If you guys have questions for them, feel free to shout them out and I will try to grab them as we go. Thank you guys so much for joining us. This is a big team and a very ambitious game. How did you guys all come together?

Polly: I’ll go ahead and answer for that. Firstly, thank you so much, again, for taking the time to check out The Stars Under Lockehurst, and to Widdershins as well, for extending the opportunity to us so we could all come together.

MisterShins: Thank you Widdershins.

Polly: This is really, really awesome. 

MisterShins: But, it’s my great pleasure, like it’s been such a pleasure playing this, thank you.

Polly: *Laughs. I’ve got, uh, a prepared answer from our founder for Null Jam Games, since a lot of our team wasn’t able to make it, so to help represent them here, I’ll go ahead and read his answer out loud, Vitaliy. 

Polly as Vitaliy: This server started with me and a couple people that agreed to join up to do a metroidvania game jam. I've been doing game jams for a while before that, but this was the first time I did it non solo. I really enjoyed meeting new developers (artists, writers, musicians, programmers, etc), working with them and learning from them. So I thought it would be really cool to kind of start a small community server of folks that enjoy working on game jams (partly because I wanted to work with people I vibed with and not have to look for new people every jam).

MisterShins: *Laughs. That’s a big consideration.

Polly as Vitaliy: The "Null" part in the name came from the fact that the first two games we worked on, we constantly faced null error exceptions that would show up on one person's computer but not the other and then it would rotate. We would do a new project and it would sometimes happen again so it was a constant struggle of "who's got the Null virus this time" Then Null Jam Games was created off of that, with the ghost representation, (our little icon)

Polly as Vitaliy: Null Jam Games LLC (founded this year) started from the idea that some of us were more active and consistent on the server, and we would work together to create a full game for Steam and/or other platforms and release it for market, whether for personal profit and/or for further development of Null Jam Games, as some sort of organization for doing game jams and commercial releases (from the game jam games or independently). 

Polly: And then toffl, if you would like to add in your personal note about how you came into the team.

Toffl: Yeah, so I joined a bit later. I joined about a year ago. Actually I just found a recruitment post on a discord server. I thought I would send a message because I was trying to get back into game development. I actually haven’t done any game jam before (prior to joining NJG) that.

MisterShins: Oh, so this is your first-?

Toffl: No, no. Before that one (The Light of Ileban, toffl’s first project with NJG), a year ago-

MisterShins: Oh, the metroidvania?

Toffl: No, The Light of Ileban.

MisterShins: Oh, oh, oh, okay.

Toffl: *Laughs. Which was, not the first one (first ever formal game jam with NJG) with the team, but the first one that I participated in. But it was also horror themed so it was during October. I started around since then, joining several jams we’ve been doing together.

MisterShins: That’s so cool. So, you guys have been part of- So, this is really the result of you guys having a little community. Like, I feel like a lot of people come into Spooktober, at least, like they kind of happen across it. And they’ve done something on their own, or they’re interested in giving it a shot. They kind of meet up with a bunch of people- Like that’s how they form. But you guys have this little community outside of Spooktober, for this purpose. So that’s pretty cool that you have that. Brings a lot of, like what Vit said, having a bunch of random people that you gotta recruit for a jam is very stressful, right? 

Polly: Yes. *Laughs.

MisterShins: Having that comfort of having a team you can trust, that you get used to working with, I imagine is huge. 

Polly: Yeah! I’ve joined around the same time as toffl; I’ve been with the group for about a year now, we have a track record of some really, really amazing games under our belt. When Vit pitched the idea of doing Spooktober, we were like, “Omg. Yeah, 100% we’re gonna do this.”

MisterShins: *Laughs. That’s awesome.

Polly: It’s awesome too, because for a lot of our team this was also their first visual novel game.

MisterShins: Oh, really?

Polly: Yeah, it’s really amazing to see everything that everyone came through with. Especially in just a month, so.

MisterShins: It’s a big game for a month. I don’t know how many, how much dialogue is there. I imagine the script for this is probably over 20k, 30k words? I don’t know.

Toffl: I actually think it’s 40.

Polly: Yes. 🙂

MisterShins: Is it 40,000? Okay, uh- Yeah. 

Polly: It’s around 40,000. *Laughs.

MisterShins: When you (Polly) told me the playtime was gonna be as long as it was, I was like, “Oh, wow.” *Laughs. This is bigger than I thought.

Polly: Yeah, it was an extremely huge endeavor on our Project Manager and SOLO Lead Writer, Molli Shuker’s part. They did- my goodness, an incredible job bringing not only four entire love interests to life, but in worldbuilding, and the experience that the player has, it’s just- I, I am in awe of them.

MisterShins: Yes, it feels very large. As I was going, realizing that, “Oh, I could have like, there’s branching paths for all four of these characters, really?” I kind of- *Laughs. Widdershins tricked me, she’s like “You gotta do this one!” This is her thing, like. Oh, and Rex is in the chat. 

MisterShins as Rex: Hi all, surprised I caught the end of this. Some dedication to play the whole thing. 

MisterShins: Is Rex the monster design sprites and prop art? Is that the same Rex?

Polly: Yes! Mhm!

MisterShins: Hi Rex, welcome! Rex, if you’d like to join us in Discord feel free, if not, that’s okay too. But thank you for popping in and saying hello.

MisterShins as Rex: I am, ye! I am! *Laughs.

MisterShins: So I wanted to ask you guys about, uh, obviously Lovecraft is an influence on this. But what else inspired this story? Are there any styles of literature or cinema that you guys have referenced for this game?

Polly: Yes, so I have Molli’s answer here for that one.

Polly as Molli: So Lovecraft was a huge influence (I even put in some references to his work in some of the shop names), but I wanted to have a wide array of media to get inspired by. Interestingly enough, a romance visual novel called Hustle Cat by Studio Date Nighto, was a huge inspiration for the pacing and writing the romance. Though, in Hustle Cat the love interests turn into cats, not horrifying monsters.

MisterShins: *Laughs. I think I remember Widdershins playing Hustle Cat.

Widdershins, off mic: *Laughs. Definitely played Hustle Cat.

MisterShins: Yeah, I remember Hustle Cat. Okay. That’s funny, wow. And for anybody that doesn’t know, Molli Shuker is the Project Manager and Writer, yes?

Polly: Yes, that’s correct.

MisterShins: Great note from Molli, ha, Hustle Cat! Widdershins says Hustle Cat is delightful. That actually really surprises me. Can you guys sort of walk us through, with a big team like this, what’s the creative process like, where do you start with putting a game like this together?

Polly: Yeah! I’ve got Molli’s answer for that one as well.

Polly as Molli: We started very high level and worked down from there. What style of horror do we want? What is the tone of the game? Will there be romance? What should the soundtrack sound like? We had polls within the team to figure out which directions spoke to us the most. Luckily for us, our group is drawn to ocean-themed horror so it was pretty clear early on where our passion was.

MisterShins: *Laughs. Nothing like a group dedicated to ocean-themed horror. I like it.

Polly: It’s so funny. I think we have like, if I’m not mistaken, two games that are on itch.io that draw from ocean creatures (yes, Conchsequences and TLOI as mentioned previously!).

 Polly as Molli: Once we had that, all of us began working in our disciplines on some “proofs of concept.” For me as a writer, I like starting with characters and a setting then building the plot around them. Because of this I was working closely with our character artists to reflect their designs in my writing. In such a fast paced project like this, we’re doing a lot of work simultaneously. A lot of the process involves collaborating with your team to make sure everyone is on the same page with our creative vision.  [Rex enters the call.]

Polly: Hello Rex!

MisterShins: Hi Rex, welcome!

Rex: Hi, sorry. Just dropped in.

MisterShins: No, no, we’re so glad that you could join us. Guys this is Rex, they did monster designs, sprites and prop art for the game. We’re just excited that you’re here, thank you for being here. Wow, great answer there. So with a big team like this, I imagine that there are a lot of challenges with so many, sort of, hands in the process. What were some of the biggest challenges you guys faced?

Polly: Toffl, you can go ahead and start if you’d like.

Toffl: Yeah, sure. I did background and UI art here, but in previous jams my position was actually Technical Artist, so I would do a lot of work in-engine. So for me, personally, it was really a struggle to not have any access and control over that. Especially with the UI. It was difficult to communicate exactly how I wanted everything to be done. Also ended up having some issues implementing the VFX, because it wasn’t entirely compatible in the end. Yes, so that was a big challenge for me.

MisterShins: So with doing UI, I imagine you have to work preeeetty close with Vit, with the programmer.

Toffl: Yes, yes, exactly. I would always send these really long messages, with like, “...this element has to be in this place,” “...has to have this hex code color.” Stuff like that, so. Communicating what I wanted took basically half my time off the UI.

MisterShins: This is challenging. So, no movement unless you’ve got cooperation from this other person.

Toffl: Yeah, exactly. And we also have a timezone difference, of course. So I usually leave these messages, Vit would see them the next day, probably.

MisterShins: Oh, are you guys all over the world?

Toffl, Polly: Yeah.

MisterShins: Like, from all over- International team?

Polly: *Laughs. Yeah, we have some friends over in Europe, and then friends scattered across the US. I’m the most distant, geographically (in terms of the) US- I’m over in Alaska, so. *Laughs. So, it’s a really weird “in-between."

MisterShins: Oh, you’re in Alaska?

Polly: Yeah. *Laughs.

MisterShins: Oh, goodness. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay, so that’s a challenge all by itself. “We can communicate, but it’s gotta be 4AM. Or whatever, for you.” Yeah.

Polly: It was, yeah, it was definitely a challenge, and I’m very grateful to Molli for keeping us in line, and making sure that we were staying on track as much as possible, communicating as much as we needed to as possible. That ties into what I was going to mention for the biggest challenge that I personally faced. It was time management, which is funny. I have a really bad habit of balancing work and life sometimes. I get really, really ambitious about pushing something to be the best it can be- So ambitious that I’ll end up losing sleep, or, y’know,  losing time with my loved ones.

MisterShins: [Humming in unfortunate agreement] Ahhh. That doesn’t sound familiar at all. /s 

Polly: *Laughs. My husband had to drag me away- Ah-! *Laughs. Is… that… (about) Widdershins, possibly…?

MisterShins: Yeah, maybe. 🙂I mean. I don’t- I saw Widdershins. 🥲I saw her. I heard her.

Polly: You SAW Widdershins. 😭Ohmygosh.

MisterShins: *Laughs. Like, I saw her back. 

Polly: *Laughs.

MisterShins: And… I heard her typing. [Reminiscing, longing. Mournful MisterShins] A lot. I also heard a lot of grumbling and banging on her desk. [Widdershins keyboard mashing] Yeah, which you can hear now.

Polly: That’s so funny, ohmygoodness.

MisterShins: Amra, who did the game just before this, Paddy Makes Breakfast, was the only person that I talked to that was like, “I’m very proud of myself that I got on ahead of things. Y’know, I did things early.” Pretty much everyone else I’ve talked to about doing a jam, especially this jam that’s one month, has said “...you start and you have a month, so you don’t plan as ambitiously in the beginning.” But as things start rolling, you start having to cut things. I know one of the slogans of the jam was “Winners don’t crunch,” or whatever, but it’s really hard not to do that. I think a lot of people fall into that trap, it’s just so hard, right?

Polly: Yeah, it’s tough too, because- I mean, part of it is a lot of us were really, really passionate about the project, and we wanted to see it through, and as you said, we ended up having to cut a little bit from scope (for context, our team WAS able to achieve all MVP tasks in production, but we did crunch on many assets during the final week, and we had to cut many nice-to-haves, including MC customization, and some VFX as toffl mentioned due to incompatibility.) and having to settle with “Oh, we’re not going to be able to get that background in,” (A reference to our team unable to provide a background for the King’s Pub Karaoke scene) … “We need to make sure our assets actually get in the game and work,” (A reference to our hardstop for asset production, which was September 27). 

MisterShins: Right?

Toffl: Honestly, we wouldn’t have to cut as much as I expected. I think we got all of our background we had planned, done except two (Clarification, it was only one (King’s Pub). Charlie provided a last minute BG asset for the lobby of Gilman’s Inn.). And, we even have one more Love Interest than we originally planned.

Polly: Yeah. 🙂

MisterShins: Oh wow, really?

Rex: I was gonna say, it was almost like we scoped up. 

Everyone: *Laughs.

Rex: Which was kinda mad.

Toffl: Yeah, I also remember way in the beginning we had like, “Ok it’s 3 Days, and then it was 5 Days, and then it was 7,” I think (Referring to plot line structure). 

Polly: Yeah, ohmygosh. Yeah.

MisterShins: I was looking, as I was playing, I was going “...where did they cut?” Like. *Laughs. I think there was one scene where I felt like, “Oh, that could’ve been a dialogue scene,” and it was explained towards the end. But I didn’t notice any, like, “...we’re saving time-” cuts. Especially dialogue, so, well done guys. It’s a big game for a one month jam. Very big game.

Polly: Thank you so much!

Rex: I think that Molli especially got in everything that she wanted to get in the seven days, so.

Polly: Yeah. Absolutely, yeah.

Rex: It’s impressive.

Polly: Extremely!

MisterShins: It’s amazing. Since we’ve got artists here- I’m really intrigued by the monster design. So you have these really wonderful human character designs, and then they all have a monster form. I kinda wanted to know how you selected elements of the monster form- Or, did you start with the monster? Or did you start with the human? Or are they not at all related? Can you talk a little bit about them, the human or character design?

Polly: Yeah! I have a really wonderful note from Molli here that I’ll share first.

MisterShins: Oh, sure.

Polly as Molli: It started out as a rough idea: “...small coastal town, people going missing, romance the monsters.” From there, I wanted to build out what our mystery was, who was involved, and why everything was happening. One of the first things I did was write up a backstory for the town of Cape Lockehurst and figure out what exactly the conflict in the town was. From there, I got feedback from the team and then started layering on the characters the team felt most drawn to. We had quite a few options for love interests, but kept only four to keep scope reasonable. Once I had the setting, plot, and characters, I built out a flow chart to organize the order of events and how the player’s choices can change them. The flowchart was simple and color coded because I am nothing if not a lover of organization. 

MisterShins: *Laughs. We need people like that in our lives.

Polly: ABSOLUTELY.

Polly as Molli: When it comes down to the actual writing and characterization, I tend to pull out specific details in a scene to set the mood. What does this place smell like? What can the player hear? What is the first thing they notice about a character’s appearance? How is the player physically feeling? When it comes to how I wrote out each character’s personality, I started out with looking at our concept art, inspirations, and existing characters in the game. From there, I identified what makes this character unique and what their personality is. I didn’t go overboard, just kept it simple to a few key words. I sorted out their backstories as monsters and then how they fit into the town of Cape Lockehurst. Once I had all that, it was easy to put them into the story and write how they would interact with the world, other characters, and our player.

MisterShins: Wow, great answer from Molli.

Polly: I have some notes as well about how specifically the characters came to be, since that is what I helped the team out with.

MisterShins: Please.

Polly: Yeah! We have a game that pulls in from Lovecraftian stories as you can see, one of them being more obvious, Mikel for Cthulhu. Our art department worked with Molli to pitch stories and creatures that we knew of from Lovecraft, and also from mythology and folklore, so that I could take visual elements or key factors from these source materials, and design charming and mysterious characters out of them. Since we wanted an element of romance, they each have a bit of a flirtatious or attractive charm point in each of their designs, where Molli was able to completely breathe them to life in their writing.

MisterShins: Yeah, they definitely felt like they were great characters. No question.

Polly: Yeah! One of the character designs actually has a special place in my heart, and it’s the design for Sanraya. I thought it would be really, really cool to have a character and monster inspired by South East Asian mythology, namely Philippine mythology. I’m Filipino-American, and coincidentally, this game came out during the current month of Filipino-American History Month, so I was like “Ohmygosh, we have a little bit of my identity thrown in here! It would be awesome!”

MisterShins: That’s perfect. 🙂

 Polly: So, Sanraya actually pulls from a pretty good handful of SEA mythology. I took some inspiration from Nāga, which are especially prominent in Hindu mythology, but also known in Filipino folklore as fresh water mermaids or snake-like mermaids, with some stories describing Nāga to take on human forms. I also took inspiration from the Magindara and Sirena, portrayed as vicious mermaids in Philippine mythology. They are described like you would know of typical siren stories, luring in sailors or fishermen with an enchanting voice- but instead of taking their boat to the rocks, they eat them whole!

MisterShins: Just swallow them whole. Ohmygoodness. Luckily, Sanraya is now living her best life.

Polly: Yes! 😂 She lives her best life; eating ramen and drinking apple cider! I love that for her! *Laughs.

MisterShins: Doing karaoke, going to karaoke!

Polly: Going to karaoke! Yes! 😀Living her best life.

MisterShins: That’s fantastic.

Polly: And then, Rex, if you wanted to add your own notes, since you did absolutely incredibly with the monster designs! 😄 Would love for you to talk about them.

MisterShins: Yes, they were very impressive monster designs.

Rex: As Molli said it was a lot of mythology and folklore for inspiration. One of the bits of stuff that I got I think, was from Greek mythology. The B&B duo was actually Scylla and Charibdis, the Twin Sea Monsters. Yes, the dog tentacles are a thing in the book.

MisterShins: Oh, is it?

Rex: Yeah! She’s got like, a girdle of dog heads around her mid-waist, it’s weird. 🙂

MisterShins: Oh, wow.

Rex: Like, I had to include them,

MisterShins: When I saw them, I was like…Oh! Is that…? *Laughs. I was surprised by that. I was more surprised to learn that is part of a mythological creature, that’s very interesting. 

Rex: Yeah, I also take a lot of stuff from nature, like interesting fish, and smash it together with some human stuff. I’ve done that before, I’ll do it again. 🙂

MisterShins, Polly: *Laughs.

Rex: I’ve done a lot of creation for it in this team. Yeah, I think in most cases we developed the human and monster forms together, so they’d reflect each other as much as possible.

Polly: Mhm.

Rex: And if you kind’ve go back through and look at the character designs and monster designs, knowing that they go together- Polly did a really good job with the character designs, of putting in little details that reflect the monster selves. Like the cuts of clothing, and the colors, and the accessories here and there. So, it’s quite fun. It was definitely fun when she was doing it, to spot little hints.

MisterShins: Yeah, that was the thing that I was noticing was those little connections between the human forms and the monster forms, they’re really fun. 

Rex: Sanraya’s sleeves. 

Rex, Polly: *Laughs.

MisterShins: Oh, yeah!

Rex: That’s one thing I really like. There was someone I watched playing through that noticed the identity of the eel monster because of his mustache. I was very happy. 🙂 I was like, “YES! Someone got it.”

MisterShins: *Laughs. Very sharp. Is there an element of the design, of the art, or actually any part of the game that you guys are most proud of?

Polly: … I have a really silly answer (It’s fishing.) but if toffl or Rex want to go first. *Laughs.

MisterShins: It’s a good place for silly answers. 🙂

Toffl: *Laughs. Yeah, sure I can go ahead. And I just have a very short answer, but I’m really proud of is just the big picture. I think out of all the game jams we did, this game feels the most complete. 

MisterShins: Oh, that is something to be proud of. 

Toffl: Yeah, and I just really like how it all comes together. And even though I could be like, “Oh, this background is detailed, or whatever, could be improved,” it just all comes together nicely. And, there’s nothing missing, y’know?

MisterShins: Absolutely.

Toffl: And it’s all just, I’m really proud of this year’s amount of art. We did have several background artists (Charlie and Dominik alongside toffl) and we have, I think, 20 or so unique backgrounds alone. 

MisterShins: Oh, wow.

Toffl: So, that’s honestly an insane amount for less than a month.

MisterShins: It really is, and I didn’t- It’s one of those things, kinda like programming that gets sort of taken for granted. As I was playing the game I appreciated the backgrounds. It didn’t occur to me, but yeah, there are A LOT of backgrounds. We played Tell It Slant here of course, at the beginning of the month. And I think TIS had like… three? Maybe four (backgrounds)?

Polly: Oh, but they’re beautiful. They’re gorgeous.

MisterShins: Yeah, they’re absolutely gorgeous.

Toffl: Yes, they are.

MisterShins: As a player, I feel that you don’t appreciate that; how variety can make the world feel… bigger. As if it’s more lived in.

Polly: Yeah. 🙂

MisterShins: So, it didn’t occur to me until you just said it. Like, yeah! There are a lot of backgrounds. The world felt very fleshed out because of that. I’m glad you pointed that out. 🙂

Rex: I think it was kind of the same (for me) actually. Just the whole of it, and how we all came together for this really ambitious idea and actually managed to pull it off, so. We’re all still kind of… adding stuff. 

Polly: We are. 😆

Everyone: *Laughs.

Rex: It’s going. It’s still going.

MisterShins: Still going! Yeah, no, we still have two weeks until voting ends, so. I was gonna ask… I skipped one of my questions. Where did it go? Let’s see… Well, this might be a question for Molli, but I wanted to ask about the writing. Did Molli have an answer for the challenges she faced while writing the narrative? It sounded like she was very organized. *Laughs. So, I don’t know if this was something she had an answer for.

Polly: Molli does! 😀 And, it’s a shared struggle across the whole team actually, like we all dealt with this, but.

Polly as Molli: I definitely put a lot of weight on my shoulders with the amount of writing I planned out. While I got my work done with time to spare, it was difficult at times to make sure I was hitting my goals on time without losing sleep. 

Polly: That’s the end of Molli’s note there, but I can add on to that specifically, Molli, and a lot of our team- We spent a lot of long all-nighters, pushing, making sure we could achieve a lot of ground each day. Because, forty thousand words is a lot! 😭 It’s a lot to do in a month!

MisterShins: It is a lot, yeah.

Polly: I was checking in with Molli, like, “Hey… it’s 2AM. 😭”

MisterShins, Polly: *Laughs. 

Polly: PLEASE! We need to sleep! But, y’know, they were just as excited, just as passionate. Just as excited to get through, and here we are now, able to say we accomplished that much! 

MisterShins: It’s staggering to me that, that we just spent, well what, four hours, four and half hours, running through the game as quickly- I mean, I could have taken more time. Easily. But then, you have three other routes to explore after that! It’s just insane. 

Polly: Mhm!

MisterShins: “Because you died so much.” Widdershins said it’s because I died so much. “You could’ve died more.” [Widdershins cackling]

Polly: You could’ve died more! 😂

MisterShins: I only died 6 or 7 times.

Polly: Those are rookie numbers, gotta work on those!

MisterShins, Polly: *Laughs. 

Rex: There was a lot done at the fishing game as well… 

Polly: Oh god… the fishing…

MisterShins: I did really badly on the fishing game. I ended up skipping.

Rex: Same. 😎

MisterShins: Sorry Rex. 

Rex: It’s okay. I can’t do it either.

MisterShins: So there’s a lot of little choices here. Because there’s a lot of writing, a lot of choices, can any of you guys talk about how you made sure those choices end up having a meaningful impact?

Polly: Yes. Molli has an absolutely wonderful note about this.

Polly as Molli: Most of the choices in this game influence who the player ends up solving the mystery with (and kissing, of course).

MisterShins, Polly: *Laughs.

MisterShins: I almost went for the hug. I was like, we’re getting to this point, we’re gonna do the hug. But Widdershins would’ve made me sleep on the couch.

Polly: Oh, that’s too funny.

Polly as Molli: I didn’t want our game to feel like the player just needs to say the right things at the right time to “win” a character. From the start, I sorted out what sort of personality traits each love interest finds attractive. Mikel finds unpredictability attractive while Sanraya prefers tenderness. This helped me to plan which choices would lead to which love interest’s route. For example: The more the player makes decisions that Garret finds attractive, the more they spend time with him, he will be the one who helps the player solve the mystery. Since this game has a mystery element, I also wanted the player’s choice to impact what information they get firsthand. Investigating the beach will yield different results than reassembling old documents. The player’s view on the plot will be colored by which leads they sought out first.

MisterShins: Wonderful. Another great answer from Molli. What do you guys hope that the players will take away from this game when they finish playing?

Polly: [With a mischievous air] *Laughs. I want Rex to start. 🤣

Toffl: *Laughs.

Rex: …Oh… I thought Polly was gonna be reading this… Damn. 😔

Everyone: *Laughs.

MisterShins: So glad you’re here, Rex! 😆

Rex: ... Yeah, me too. 🙄

Polly: *Laughs.

Rex: Um, so. Yeah. Monsters can be… monsters deserve love. Monsters can be loved as well.

MisterShins: Haha yeah! I love that.

Rex: Yeah. 🙂

MisterShins: Oh, that is such a good answer. 

Rex: Mostly, I just think it would be cool if they came away with it having a good time. Befriending, maybe even smooching, y’know? To some undercover cosmic horrors. And that’ll be pretty neat.

MisterShins: Wonderful. 

Polly: Molli had a nice note!

Polly as Molli: It would depend on the ending they got. There’s a bittersweet satisfaction to our Normal ending while our True ending should be more uplifting. Generally, I want players to feel like they were transported for a few hours into a compelling mystery while romancing their favorite love interest. 

MisterShins: Very nice. Did I get the True Ending?

Polly: You did, yes! 

MisterShins: I did? I did! Okay, I got the True Ending. Alright. I was like, “...could something better have happened?”

Polly: Oh no, it’s all downhill from there.

MisterShins, Polly, Toffl: *Laughs. 

MisterShins: Oh, it’s all downhill… Your friend becomes a marine biologist but they’re sad about it…

Everyone: *Laughs.

Rex: Could’ve been gods.

Polly: Hey, spoilers!

MisterShins: We don’t get godlike powers… Toffl, did you have an answer on this one? Or did I just put you on the spot?

Toffl: *Laughs. No, I didn’t write a note actually, pretty much just, I’m glad of people that had a good time playing it, I suppose. No matter what they take specifically away from it, as long as they took some enjoyment from it, I’m happy.

MisterShins: That’s a great answer. Just having people enjoy the work that you do, is pretty satisfying. If you guys could go back and give yourselves one piece of advice when you started the project, what would it be?

Polly: Molli had a response for this.

Polly as Molli: To start writing much earlier! 

MisterShins: *Laughs. This is what everybody says. I love it. So consistent. “Start early! Get it done early!” 

Rex: I don’t know how she could have started writing earlier to be fair. 

MisterShins: Oh, metalpower is here (Antongiulio) in chat!

Polly: Oh, that’s Anton!

MisterShins: Hi Anton! You guys, Anton worked on composition! Music was wonderful! Thank you for joining us metalpower! “Starting early, same,” says metalpower. 

MisterShins, Polly: Uh…

MisterShins: Sorry, go ahead.

Polly: Oh no, no, no, you’re good. I was going to say, the last tiny little note Molli had was…

Polly as Molli: Even if the text doesn’t make it into the final version of the game, getting words on paper helps a lot when it comes to brainstorming.

Polly: And then my own note, on a similar wavelength there was to set aside more time to rest the creative mind and hand. Next time around, I definitely want to make sure to take things at a more realistic and healthy pace. 

MisterShins: Right. 

Polly: Since after the jam though, I’ve been more adamant about treating breaks like a break, and since then it’s been restorative. But definitely next time around, not going to repeat the same process again.  *Laughs.

MisterShins: So getting sleep, all that. Taking care of yourself. 

Polly: All that good stuff. *Laughs.

MisterShins: Those are good, good goals. Widdershins says, “Realistic pace? Breaks?? I don’t know her! Who’s she?” 

Polly: [Reading Widdershins’ comments in chat] “Is she tragically hot?!” (A reference to Mikel’s line in-game regarding the Scam Artist). 😂

MisterShins: *Laughs. Probably. One last question. If anybody in the chat has any questions for the team, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m sorry if I missed anything. But, what are you guys doing next? Do you have any irons in the fire? Are you allowed to tell us? 

Polly: If toffl or Rex want to start first. 🙂

Toffl: I can go first, I guess! I’ll continue working on an on-going project, and I also already have another visual novel project that I spontaneously decided to join! Because, I’m really hooked on visual novels now.

Polly: Ooooooh!

MisterShins: Oh, good! I think we need more of that! I’m very keen myself, on the hope that more people, more English speakers at least, will get into visual novels, to become a bigger deal than they are. So, that’s great. Are you able to tell us anything about what you’re working on? Or is it still in early development?

Toffl: It is in early development. But I can tell you, I suppose… it’s a roguelike (referring to the first project, not the visual novel project) and it’s a pixel art game. And, we have been working on it for about half a year, I believe. And, we plan to get our next demo by December. 

Polly: Ooh, that’s exciting!

MisterShins: Wow! Very exciting! Well, I wish you luck. 

Toffl: Thank you!

MisterShins: …Uh, Rex? 😀

MisterShins, Polly: *Laughs.

Rex: I’m actually working with toffl on the pixel art game as well! 

Toffl: Someone has to design the enemies! 🙂

Rex: *Laughs. Yeah. That’s one of the very many indie projects I’ve got underway there. Always looking for more stuff. That’s it really.

MisterShins: Awesome. Polly, you’re up.

Polly: I am working on two things! If you’re familiar with the Spooky Month animated series on Youtube by SrPelo, I am working on a fanmade visual novel game for it called Tender Lovin’ Cannibal.  I’m responsible for the social media and community management for the team that’s behind that project, and there’s some really, really exciting things happening around Halloween for that game, so be sure to look out for it, @team_treats on socials everywhere! And then the other thing is, I also do social for Null Jam Games! Their project that’s currently in-development right now is called Shelter’s Edge, and it’s an apocalyptic pixel survival-horror game. It was also originally developed for a game jam, but is now being pushed to market. So, look out for some fun stuff from NJG in the nearby future!

MisterShins: Oh, that’s so cool. You guys are so busy!

Polly, Toffl: *Laughs.

MisterShins: Unless we have any questions for people in chat, I think… It’s 3:30AM. I should probably wrap up. *Laughs. 

Polly: Yeah! It is super late for you and your wife, ohmygoodness. 

MisterShins: We do this all the time. Widdershins doesn’t sleep as far as I know. I’m just as bad. I really, really appreciate you guys sharing your lovely game with us and with the community here. We get a lot out of this. Especially taking the time to speak with us; it’s kinda like when you go see a local band, and you buy their t-shirt, and nobody knows them yet, but then, overtime people go on and they do more things. I feel like this moment in time is really precious, when you’ve made something that anybody can easily access and see your work, and follow you, and learn about you, and how all these artists develop, is really cool. Thank you, for taking the time, for joining us. Again everybody, this is Pauline Reinacher: Character Designer, CGs, Sprites, UI, Prop Art, for The Stars Under Lockehurst. Toffl, Background Art, UI Art. Rex, who did Monster Designs, Sprites and Prop Art. In the chat we have metalpower/Anton, who did the composition. Thank you so much for joining us. Is there anything else that I missed, anything else you wanted to talk about before we go?

Polly: I don’t think so, besides our shared gratitude again, for this amazing opportunity to talk about our game, and for witnessing your absolutely lovely narration!

MisterShins: Oh, thank you!

Polly: I loved it! It was so much fun! I loved the voice acting you did for all the characters! It was fantastic! I loved it.

MisterShins: You can’t say that about..my- My ears are turning red. 

Polly: Awh, haha! 

Toffl: *Laughs.

MisterShins: I’m still like.. “MICHAEL?” (referring to the initial mispronunciation of Mikel’s name in the playthrough) Never gonna live it down. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, I really appreciate the compliment. I’ll take it. Alright, well, if that’s everything, we’re gonna hang up here and find somebody to raid, because Black raided us, and I lost my raid person. But again, this was The Stars Under Lockehurst. Just a reminder to everybody: There’s still a link at the top of the chat to go check out the Spooktober Jam entries. You can find this game, you can download it for free, you can play it yourself! You can play one of the other routes, and if you play, please rate. It helps the teams to gain visibility and cache exposure, all that. The judging ends at the end of the month. There’s two weeks to play it and rate it, when those ratings really matter. Thanks everybody for joining us! I’m gonna go ahead and hang up. Thank you guys, have a good morning, evening, afternoon, night! Hopefully we’ll talk soon!

Everyone: Thank you!

EVENT END