A few months ago I played a small indie game made by a single developer called The Witches House and it really inspired me to make my own personal game. The game is a Japanese horror puzzle game and is made with the RPG Maker framework which is a 2D top-down game. What made this game stand out for me was that the game was engaging to play due to its short yet fun puzzles and sprinkles of mystery. The storytelling is hinted throughout the game in small clues as the player plays through the game which eventually all comes together at the very end, all of which can be done in the span of two to three hours. However, what makes this game stand out so much compared to any other game that you can find at the store or online was that it was made by a single developer, Fummy. In the span of three hours of playing through this game, I was able to feel and see the passion, dedication, and commitment he made from the storytelling, the eerie music playing in intense moments, the design and placements of certain clues throughout the dark mansion, all of this created an atmosphere of mystery, fear, and adventure, all packaged in a 2D top-down game that normally anyone would skip while scrolling through Steam’s massive library of games. This experience was something that I haven’t felt in a long time with videogames since these days they are made with other agendas such as marketing strategies, politics, and corporations, all of which shift and change the game from what it was first meant to be, a videogame. Examples of how games have shifted are that it is not uncommon to find a loot box system where game content is hidden away behind a gambling paywall, or how games are pushed to release before their development cycle is finished which means a half-baked game that is buggy and broken upon release, yet consumers are expected to pay top dollar for. Another trend that has recently been happening is that studios will now release their game under the guise of “beta” testing or “alpha” testing; promising consumers that while the game is released in an unfinished state with bugs and glitches, which the game’s development will still be undergoing until its full release at a later date. Instead, the developers release cosmetic items to be sold in the market to milk the player base further while bugs and glitches plague their game until temporary band-aid fixes are made. While I don’t think I at all replicate what Fummy did with his small game, I’d like to at least capture that special feeling of crafting something from beginning to end. Whether that be to tell a story or how the game is played, at the end of it all I’d be solely responsible for everything the player experiences which is something I find simply awesome.
