Interview with Guga, Developer of The Will of Arthur Flabbington

Hello Fabio! Thank you for agreeing to this interview! Before we talk about your game please introduce yourself and let us know your favourite adventure games.

Hi Seoirse, thank you for inviting me. I'm a 37 years old software developer from Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy) now living in Switzerland. As for the adventure games, I'd say Monkey Island 2 takes the top spot, but recently the game that influenced me the most is definitely Thimbleweed Park.

When did you decide you wanted to make adventure games and how did you first get involved?

I always dreamed of making video games since I was a toddler, but the Monkey Island series - as well as all other Lucas games - made me fall in love with the genre. When I was 10 I started making pen-and-paper adventure games for my classmates in middle school, it was kinda like D&D but 100% puzzle oriented: the player would tell me what they wanted to pick up and combine with what, and I'd give feedback on what they accomplished. I tried making my first actual adventure game when I was 17 using Adventure Game Studio, but I never had the patience to bring it to completion. It took me another 15 years, a relocation and two children before deciding it was time to make games in a more serious manner.

What can you tell us about some of the other games you made?

My only other commercial game is Kill Yourself, which was originally an Android game. I first published it in 2015 mostly as a joke attempt to test my own adventure game engine: I needed an excuse to make short puzzles to see if my commands worked, but not wanting to have a boring key and lock puzzle, I jokingly came up with the idea of just having a guy die for stupid reasons. I guess I was haunted by the memories of Sierra games. But the more I played the more I liked the idea, so it became an actual game. After three years it got removed from the Play Store because I had lost a file needed to update the app, and when GDPR came to existence I couldn't add the needed privacy policy. So I remade it into a PC game using Adventure Game Studio in 2020.

From your website https://gugames.itch.io/ you made short Adventurejam. For those who don't know what is an Adventurejam and how did it help you develop your skills?

Game jams are events where people try to make a game from scratch in a limited amount of time, typically three days. Jams focused on the adventure game genre however have longer timespans, usually 14 days. I guess because the focus is not the gameplay, but plot and puzzles. I love the format, because 14 days is long enough to let you design a nicely crafted story, but also short enough that you have to keep your scope small. The hardest part for me was learning to accept that what I was doing was good enough. I - but I guess all people with creative hobbies do - tend to become unsatisfied with my work, I keep finding defects and things I want to change, and then the job never gets done. With the time pressure of a game jam you're forced to go with what you have, otherwise you'll miss the deadline. You have sort of an excuse, because... it's a game made in 14 days, people won't expect great quality, will they? And most of the time your work is way better than what you thought. So, apart from time management, adventure game jams taught me how to be satisfied with my work and be less of a perfectionist. As a plus, there's a lovely community behind those jams. I got to know a lot of indie developers who are exquisite people and absolutely genial designers.

Could you tell us the story (without spoilers) of your current game in development The Will of Arthur Flabbington?

Your uncle recently died, and he left you nothing in his will. He mentions a treasure though, and he left instructions on how to recover it to his two dearest friends. These friends now hate each other and don't want anything to do with it, so the next obvious thing to do is to recover the treasure yourself. But how? Well, by going to a psychic and contacting your uncle's spirit, so you can ask him directly. But things don't go as expected, the summoning evokes the ghost of a random guy and you can't get rid of him unless you really find the treasure.

What can you tell us about the main character?

Jack Flabbington is a mid-30 year old nobody. He lives with his parents, he doesn't have a job, and he's absolutely unamused by life. He's not a bad person, but he's not a saint either - he's mostly well meaning, but his own goals come before any sort of morals.

Can you tell us anything about other characters we may meet?

Your ghost sidekick, Artie, is an annoying brat. Self absorbed, spiteful, unhelpful, ignorant, close minded. The perfect quest companion, I'd say. I loved writing his dialogue, because he always has mean words for everyone, even if it contradicts his own views. I hope people will find the banter between him and Jack as hilarious as I do.

There are a few other characters around town, one of which is an Italian guy with a bald head and a great love for pizza, who may or may not be inspired by a real indie game developer I know very very closely.

What type of puzzles and what level of difficulty can we expect in the game?

All my testers so far commented that the game is extremely hard but perfectly logical. And that's exactly what I was hoping for. There are no "standalone" puzzles, but a lot of obstacles. Especially in the beginning of the second act, you pick up a clear idea of what you need to do, but there's always something that stops you. I tried to put some variety in the puzzles, so it's not going to be all object combination puzzles, but there may be some time or location based interactions sprinkled here and there. And coordination between characters: the ghost sidekick is playable, and you'll need to take advantage of his skills to advance in the game.

What can you tell us of the art style?

I started making games in 320x180 resolution because I'm a retro enthusiast, but also because I couldn't draw or animate well, and pixel art allowed me to hide it, plus I'm way faster when producing content in low resolution than in full HD, and speed is a very important factor in game jams. After years of making games in pixel art I felt I was getting better, so for TWoAF I forced myself to a fixed palette of 256 to improve my color management skills, and I'm happy with how things turned out. Especially since the palette I chose at random didn't have enough reds for my liking, forcing me to play a lot with dithering. You can notice it in the curtains in the first room of the game.

Can you tell us why you decided to do a Kickstarter? If it's successful how will this benefit the game?

The reason for a Kickstarter is in the story of how the game came to existence. TWoAF was born as an adventure jam entry for AdvXJam2021. I had 14 days to make a game, and the theme was "contact". I quickly came up with the story and designed a few puzzles and I was planning on making the whole game in 14 days, but then life happened, lots of unforeseen stuff and I didn't have time anymore. Luckily it was just three days after the jam started, so I decided to change my paradigm and go for a very very short introduction, but fully polished. I wanted to show people what I can do if I dedicate enough time to details. So for the first time in my jam career I found myself with most of the dialogue ready in advance - I always wanted to have voices in my games, but I usually finish writing a day or two before the deadline and there's just not enough time for actors to record and for me to integrate the lines. But this time I had plenty of margin. So I contacted my dear friend Tom Hardwidge (who was working on Lucy Dreaming at the time and couldn't take part in the jam) and asked if he and his wife wanted to voice it, just to be part of the jam somehow. They agreed and had lots of fun, and people seemed to love it. So, after promising in the game itself that I'd be extending it outside of the jam window, I kept adding and adding to the game to the point that it became a full length game... with thousands and thousands of lines.Voicing thousands of lines has a cost that I can't afford at the moment, but I really think voices would make a big difference in enjoyment, especially since it's a comedy game. That's why I'm asking people to help me fund it. And if I go beyond my base goal, I will use the money for translations.

Apart from the game what kind of rewards can we expect with the Kickstarter?

Having your name in the game is a classic reward for adventure games. There's a puzzle involving navigating a cemetery, which at the moment hosts random names. Backers can buy a recess with their name on it and go pay a visit to their own tomb! I know it's a bit macabre, but death and black humor are a constant in my games. Depending on the level of pledge, you can also have an epitaph to be read out loud by the characters, a close-up of your picture, and even a private family crypt.

All things going well do you have any idea when the game will be released and on what platforms?

My goal is to release for Windows, Mac and Linux in June 2023, on Steam and itch.io. The game is ready except for voices, music and sounds, so I guess it's a realistic estimate. Of course there might be delays, but I don't have much left to do apart from fixing bugs when the large-scale beta test starts. Then, if the campaign reaches the stretch goal, I want to release the game also on Nintendo switch.

Anything else you would like to mention about the game?

The game is rated 16+ because there is a reference to marijuana usage. In general, apart from that, some mild swearing like "crap" or "damn", and some slight sexual innuendos, I think it's a family friendly game - but parental guidance is needed. I wanted to make a game that I can play with my pre-teen daughters.

Where can people find out more about the game and your studio

My website is www.gugames.eu, but at the moment it just redirects to my itch.io page. I'm mostly active on Twitter (@gugames_eu) and Mastodon (@gugames@mastodon.gamedev.place)