Indie Superstar

Half a Million Seconds with Celso Riva of Winter Wolves

// July 30th, 2010 // Half a Million Seconds

Celso Riva of Winter Wolves lives in Italy and has been involved in game development since he was 20. His primary projects are visual novels (VN), which he feels are similar to interactive illustrated books. Like books, the subjects may vary: romance, mystery, or horror. VN has seen a spike in popularity along with the boom of Japanese anime and manga. Celso reassures us that while “VN have sexual elements, not necessarily all of them have it.”  What follows is a worksafe look at VN and the development trail of one man who had to make the ultimate indie choice between pasta perfection and hamburger heartburn.

For those who do not know you, please introduce yourself! What’s your background as a game developer?

I worked for a very small Italian software house which made domestic products only, mostly adventure games. After it went bankrupt (not my fault, I swear!), I had to choose between emigrating to UK/USA to pursue a game developer career (since in Italy it wasn’t possible) or staying closer to home. It was a tough decision: pudding and cheeseburger or lasagna and pesto alla genovese. In the end, the quality of Italian food prevailed, so I decided to stay here. But only a few years later I found out about the shareware business model, and so I realized I could work in games but still maintain my Mediterranean diet!

Why did you go indie? What did you mum, dad, husband, or wife say when you said you were “going indie”?

Celso: I went indie mostly because I had no choice. Relocating abroad wasn’t something easy to do even if developing games had always been my dream. My English was even worse 10 years ago than now, so you can understand my fears! The reaction from my family was like this:

Mum: “Why don’t you get a normal job like your father?”

Dad: “You’re quitting your job to start a career as starving indie! Great! You must follow your dream, just don’t ask me for more money.”

Little brother: “Does it mean I’ll have free copies of your games?”

The girlfriend: “You’re quitting your job? I’m quitting mine too then.”

Why are your visual novels so popular in Japan?

Celso: I am not an expert, but I believe most Japanese ones involve sex or at least romance. My sexiest VN game, Bionic Heart, was the only one so far to be mentioned on a major Japanese site. So, yes, it must be that!

One day in 2099, your uncle Otto decides that it’s time for a change, and forces you to follow him on a journey to London. How did your fans receive Bionic Heart versus Heileen?

Celso: That bastard uncle Otto, he always comes up with the most insane ideas! Besides, with a hottie like Lora around, why must he always travel around so much? Traditionally, sci-fi [like Bionic Heart] has fewer female fans. The Heileen setting is more similar to fantasy, so clearly it’s more female oriented, despite containing some light lesbian themes. Not hard to guess which game sold more! However, Bionic Heart became a sort of cult game; I even spotted it in a newsgroup (alt.sex.fetish.robots). You know you have “made it” when you’re in such a group! Bionic Heart was the first game to be fully voiced and was quite popular also because of that. Unfortunately after that game, I realized that finding reliable voice actors is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, so I decided to forget about using them, especially for games with lots of text like VN.

“You know you have ‘made it’ when you’re in [alt.sex.fetish.robots]!”

Guide us through the development process for one of your visual novels.

Celso: I believe it’s very similar to what happens in movies. First I write down a basic idea of the game, including the beginning and AN end. Yes, because visual novels traditionally have SEVERAL endings. It is cool to know that if one ending doesn’t come out too good, you can always add another! Then, I start writing down a list of the characters, including their essential traits (scar on the face, breast size D) and making a list of the various poses/clothes that need to be produced. For some scenes, I even do sketches myself. [Below] is my sketch for Heileen 2.

Celso: Rather than describe the pose, I just sent my artist Rebecca that marvelous masterpiece, which she turned into [the image below] (as you can see is hard to spot the difference from my original sketch).

After all the art is ready (even if I often start earlier), I start writing the various dialogues. They look as funny as this interview since my English is far from perfect, so I also need to ask proofreaders to edit all my texts.

As an Indie developer, what’s right and wrong with Steam?

Celso:   Right — They provide a new channel to indies to get known and make money.
Wrong — They don’t carry my games!

Think for a moment from the mind of a player: if I see that my favorite indie game is on Steam, and considering Steam has discounts 350 days a year, I am NOT going to buy directly from the author. There isn’t much that we can do as indies to prevent this. It’s normal in a major channel of distribution to grab more people with discounted sales.

“[Considering] Steam has discounts 350 days a year, I am NOT going to buy directly from the author.”

Got a funny customer story you’d like to share?

Celso: When I was just starting, I got a weird email from a customer asking how he could register my game Universal Boxing Manager. I replied with the info, but the customer said “but I don’t see any way to enter my serial code.” I had left the FULL version uploaded on my site for a week instead of the demo! And what’s even funnier is that in that period I got more sales than usual for that game!

Tell us about your latest project!

Celso: My latest project was Vera Blanc: Full Moon. I wanted to do a mystery/detective VN game with a “comic feeling” typical of film noir. The manga art was clearly not a good choice this time, and I opted for a classic western comic style. You have a map-system and several minigames that will challenge you. Originally, this was conceived to be a series of games, and the second episode is finished (being proofread right now). I’m also working on a sci-fi RPG with beautiful manga art called Planet Stronghold. I plan to release a public alpha very soon with an autoupdating system so people can always play the latest version.

“Celso Riva Rants!” — You have been given 5 minutes on stage at the IGF awards show and asked to tell everyone what is wrong with Indie Gaming. This is your time – make it count!

Celso: When I see people quitting their jobs now, I am scared for them. Don’t listen to the iPhone fables where a peasant finds an iPhone on the ground and in a few days, he codes a super-prankster game and makes a fortune. Also, major corporations are basically destroying game value. What we can see is exactly what happened in various other forms of creative arts in the past:  mass-production, precise standard, high level of polish, but no originality or new mechanics.

Also this year can be called “The Return of the Middlemen.” What made indies so cool, the direct customer contact, is getting lost. Middlemen definitely abandoned the old rusty retail model and jumped in mass on the ESD. You see Apple Appstore; Windows 8 will also ship with an appstore. Then there’s Android, the social games, and the list goes on. I’m not saying that you can’t make good money, only that it is incredibly more difficult, and if you thought you could make money [merely] with something original, think twice.

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