(The text contains a small number of spoilers, please read it carefully.) ）
The day before I interviewed Perry, the developer of The Evening Bell of The Gothage, I was still working with friends to break through the game urgently. A personally developed indie game, The Evening Bell of Sant Goetheca presents a bloody murder mystery in the form of a literal adventure. As the player follows the confused characters to uncover layers of clues, the greater secrets and more complex worldviews hidden behind it are gradually revealed.
The reason for trying to clear the level at the end of the interview deadline is unusual: I have closed the card, my friends have also been stuck, and I have to search for a few raiders on the Internet. It's hard to imagine how difficult a text adventure game can be, but The Evening Bell of Sergio Gordon is special. The game unfolds in the form of Multi-Point of View Characters (POV), layered on top of each other, telling the story of what happened over the course of a week. The 7 protagonists' respective plot lines are intricately intertwined and influence each other. So when a major character suddenly dies violently, declaring Bad End, the problem may not lie in his or her own behavior, or perhaps in what other people have made wrong choices. In order to detect this error, players may have to go back several days to change the trajectory of their fate.
In a sense, going through Bad End is the only way to clear the game
In games, the act of changing options is called "interference". Each intervention costs "Life Value", which is obtained through character injury or even death. As the plot progresses, players will find that this setting is actually closely related to the worldview. As an "observer" beyond that world, the player finally bypasses the entire 30 Bad Ends leading to death, finds the only solution, and comes to the only exit of the story.
When the subtitle of "Congratulations on Passing" popped up on the screen, in addition to being relieved, I also felt a strong sense of destiny, as if I had witnessed and participated in shaping the lives of 7 characters in just 7 days of the plot. What is even more unimaginable is that the intricate plot line, the huge amount of text and pictures, plus the program and other work, 80% of the work is taken care of by Berry alone. By the beginning of December this year, it was officially launched, the game was produced for 3 years, updated by chapters for more than two years, and has been completely free, with no in-app purchases and no ads.
Players joked that this behavior was tantamount to doing charity: "Is this really something we can play for free?" "For Barry, it's not exactly a game. She didn't want to call herself a game producer, but just happened to think that the story was suitable for the game to be expressed. Whether it's single-handedly taking over most of the game's work or insisting on free release, it's all about getting a better grasp of the initiative and telling the story she wants to tell.
Before deciding to make the game, Barry was a creative enthusiast in a broad sense, drawing, writing novels, doing fan games, and writing CoC running group scripts.
The "two-law reversal" that accompanies the game logo is not the name of the development team, but the name of the worldview. This eventually became the worldview of the story stage of "The Evening Bell of St. Goethe", and she slowly wrote it. It involves many alternate religious concepts, national and geographical, song and self-made language, as well as original characters (OCs), written piecemeal for many years.
"But — no one is watching at all!" She laughed and said, "Of course. It's not enough to just create some characters, some OCs that suit your taste, because characters have to rely on the story to show their personality, and the same is true for the worldview. Without the interpretation of the story, Amway, which sells its worldview, cannot be sold. ”
That's why she thought about making a game. "In short, in order for everyone to see the shining points of the characters, I had to set the right stage for them and let them experience various events. In this way, they can depict their reactions, interactions with each other, and show the various complex aspects of their personalities. After that, you also have to find a way to string together various small plots, twist them into a big main line, and then integrate the details you most want to create into them reasonably enough. Maybe 800 words were written in front of it, the player experienced 800 words, and then it was the 801st word that suddenly realized. It is for this moment that so much has been written in front. ”
Many of the initial options can have unintended consequences for later episodes
This matter smells of "no cost" from beginning to end. This cost refers not only to the economy, but also to time and energy. It's hard to imagine that it would take 3 years to make a complete game for one or two clips that came to mind that were eager to share with others.
Both his major and current job as a student had nothing to do with the game, and the Ren'Py engine and programming used in the game took 3 months to teach themselves. As for the main plot, it takes several times more time. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to meet a companion who was willing to lend a hand.
As a child, He often visited a forum called "Fantasy Forest", which had a lot of RPG Maker-based producer exchange posts, but that was a long time ago. By the time she really wanted to start making games, such forums in China had almost disappeared, and she had to go to foreign exchange forums to find potential collaborators.
"I just posted in the game maker forum in Europe and the United States, saying that to make a game of this style, I have drawn things related to character settings, and I need someone to write the script and make music with me, if you are interested, you can contact me."
In this way, she found the first few writers and arrangers. Everyone is interested and helps out of gratuitous.
"So the first few chapters of 'The Evening Bell of St. Gordon' are a bit difficult to read, because I am looking for foreign writers to cooperate, written in English, and my friends and I translated them back." Barry said. In general, she is responsible for the plot outline, writing the program, drawing the CG, and the writers she works with write the specific script according to her requirements.
The game features unique copywriting for each Bad End
In 2018, the game made its original demo, showing the story content of December 5 and 6. "Of course, the outline at that time was completely different from the finished product now, not only the plot, the code, the UI and so on were rewritten." She said. But at least, the game can be played, and it can show others what kind of story it is. Along with Demo, she also reposted in hopes of recruiting new collaborators.
"The original foreign writers basically terminated their cooperation when the first version of Demo was released. Some of you are busy with work, and some of you have different ideas about the plot setting than me. Therefore, later, Bai Rui's collaborators were all re-found, some were friendly help, some were simply "money and goods", "The screenwriters and arrangers who lasted together were probably two or three people." Most of the dubbing and scoring still depends on the 'banknote ability'."
Her original psychological expectation was that demo would have about twenty or thirty people to play, and the result was more than 300 retweets, "super happy". Many publishers followed suit, and Barry shirked it on the grounds that the game did not intend to charge and make a profit. Hearing that it was a free-to-play game, most of them gave up on it, and only the person in charge of the Traveler Program contacted her and said that they would talk about it anyway.
"They asked me if I insisted on making the free version, and I said yes. They said, "Give it a try, and see how far you can go if that's the case." ”
The Traveler Project eventually became the publisher of The Evening Bell of St. Goethe-Ordre. Berry is not good at dealing with people, and sometimes when she encounters drafts or finds that someone is not suitable for the project, she does not know how to talk to people. With the release, she felt a lot more relaxed. Because the Traveler Program takes on most of the tasks of communicating with the platform and even the players. "For example, how the logo is designed to be more attractive, and the platform docking ah, communication this content can not be on the shelves ah... I don't have to deal with these things outside of creation, they help a lot in this regard. ”
Because the worldview and character relationships are really complex, you can view their factions and relationship diagrams within the game
Bai Rui calculated that the total expenditure added up, and the cost of making this game was about forty or fifty thousand. "This also includes the manuscript that I later wrote to motivate myself to continue to work, hahaha." She added. Those manuscripts were not used in the game, which can be understood as fan works that she contracted for her original world view, simply playing a role in promoting and satisfying personal appetites.
When asked if the story of "The Evening Bell of Saint-Gogette" had any deep meaning, or if there was any core idea that he wanted to express, Perry was particularly decisive in saying: "No! I really patronize to satisfy my own fetish! "Because I like crime and gangster themes, I write a lot of action scenes and crime plots; because I like dog blood entanglements, I write complex characters and family relationships... She didn't want to make it impossible for her to exert her creative desires because of other factors. What you make for yourself, you naturally have to carry it through to the end.
"So this game is free!" I'm embarrassed to ask players for money when I don't think about them at all..." She said, "I'm happy to satisfy my own proclivities." If the players had the same taste as me, they would definitely have a good time. ”
Even if the whole thing sounds particularly whimsical and particularly "self-congratulatory", "The Evening Bell of Saint-Gogdhards" can finally be completed and the full version is launched, or it is due to a more detailed plan and arrangement. "I started making this game after I planned and made sure I could do it both at the code level and at the drawing level." In Perry, there does not seem to be the confusion and uneasiness that is common to the creators.
The production process of "The Evening Bell of Saint-Goethe-Gard" ran through her 3 years from her graduate school years to her new career. When she was still in school, she had more time, and she assigned most of the tasks of writing the script, writing the program herself, drawing CG at the same time, and taking the drawing script to earn extra money to raise the game. After going to work, she maintains the rhythm of writing code from Monday to Friday night and drawing on weekends, except for the big thing that the game is online, she usually does not ask for leave. She's not the kind of character who likes to hang out, so she thinks the rhythm is not bad.
To write "The Evening Bell of Saint Goetheca", even if it is only to write an outline, it requires enough rigor. The actions of the 7 characters affect each other, and each has multiple branches, which is very difficult to integrate. I'm curious about how such a story can be written slowly.
"I first set up the big plot points. For example, there must be a train station plot on December 10, and a plot that must have a character meeting between characters in the warehouse on the 8th. After finalizing these things and then starting to push backwards, in order to achieve these effects, I need the character to make any choices... If they don't make this choice, what side story will happen? ”
After completing the level, players can view the unlocked storyline branches
What bothers Perry the most is the lack of balance between the subjective initiative of the characters. "In fact, out of 7 people, only two people are particularly subjectively active. Therefore, these two people must act first, and then lead others to move. "The young doctor in the story, Lavien, has a weak personality and is the most passive character among all." He is a man with a low self-esteem and a conservative and hesitant approach. If he follows his own character, he will not be involved in this story at all. Bai Rui was quite helpless, "No way, I just had to stuff him into the villain camp." On the one hand, it can show the story from another perspective, and on the other hand, because of this extreme environment, it can play his subjective initiative. ”
Because 7 people are protagonists, the thickness of the plot must also be balanced as much as possible, and it cannot be said that some people's routes are very complicated, and some people have not had any content. For example, Lezele, who played a central role in the final version, did almost nothing except escape in the early version, and the plot was thin, which was once suggested by collaborators to delete it directly. The final Academy Boss Battle also did not appear at all in the original outline, and the main line ending will be ushered in on the train on the 12th.
"I think Lezerlie is actually still a very important character, I don't want to delete it, so I added drama to him, and I accidentally added too much..." Just as the story itself involves the whole body, the change of the script will also trigger a chain reaction. Adding a journalist line digging into family history, and borrowing a boss from a friend who worked on original works under the worldview of "two laws and anti-rebellion", Lezele was pulled from the edge to the middle of the stage. The guardian of a certain "women's clothing gangster" was also added later, because considering the background of the times at that time, it was difficult for the women's clothing boss to command a group of subordinates in a fair and bright manner. In order to connect the new characters with other characters, many past grudge plots have been added. After all, the script suddenly had 100,000 more words.
"In fact, the conflict on the train is more exciting in comparison, because the character matching is very balanced, and everyone takes on a part of the battle; in the boss battle on the college side, there may be two people who are entering the scene, and only one person is particularly highlighted. And because of the boss and the new plot, some of the imagined plots really can't be realized anymore. This is a regret about Pak Rui's plot arrangement.
There were also some serendipity. One of the soundtrackists, Weonix, was a partner she found when she posted on forums abroad and came over for free to help. "He's a very nice guy, and generally I don't need to ask for it, he reads the script himself, and then proposes where to add a tune and write it out. In addition, if there is an extra request, I will write to him and he will create it together. "Morning Star in the Finger Crack" is a song that Barry paid for Lin Fangzhou to help compose, and later changed by Weonix to a minor version, which was accidentally suitable for boss battle music.
Most of the soundtrack in the game is original, and the lyrics are also self-made language
Any project will have unplanned parts, as will The Evening Bell of Saint Goethe. And because Perry did not think of making money from this, he did not think much about the cost problem, which was a bit too "flying". For example, when I first thought "CG doesn't want money anyway", I picked the style that is more troublesome to draw now. As a result, I accidentally drew for 3 years, and by the end of October, I was still drawing CG.
"It was really arrogant before! As a result, there are more than 3200 CGs, and now it is finally finished. "The original script was also 600,000 words, and as a result, everyone inside the production team felt that the writing was too long-winded and sleepy to watch, so they slashed 100,000 words.
Fortunately, the timing of independent production is relatively free. In fact, the game was originally planned to be completed in December last year, but Berry estimated it and felt that the construction period would definitely not catch up, and decisively postponed it for another year. "As a result, in the first half of the year, she was still doing Gundam's fan game..." She seemed to be a little weak on her own bright fishing, but when she thought of doing something to make her "cool", she was righteous.
From the official release of the game's plot on December 5 and 6 on December 5 and 6 in 2019 to the launch of Steam and iOS, Perry has maintained the rhythm of updating the plot every 3 to 5 months. After a long wait, the full version of the game finally went live on December 5, revealing the plot after December 10 – the same day as the beginning of the story. Players who have been waiting for a long time can finally see the follow-up explosive advancement of the plot and the ending of each character.
"I want to see how frightened the player who is playing through the game for the first time!" Barry and the players who have completed the level said happily in the spoiler group. On social networks and video platforms, we can also see that everyone continues to play various Bad Ends with their strength. This is no longer a small project that only twenty or thirty people are expected to pay attention to, or even a "300 retweet" project. In June last year, the game's full-platform downloads on the mobile side have reached 500,000, and Bai Rui also temporarily changed the promotional image originally drawn for the 11th plot to a hetu.
The popularity of the game was unexpected by developers
But no matter how Joghe D'Org's Evening Bell ultimately feels to players, the process of making it is a very pure and "self-congratulatory" thing for the creators, which has not changed with the size of the game and the expansion of the audience. Perry doesn't even know how many downloads the game has now.
"I don't think I've really changed in the last few years. Can't deal with people, can't deal with things, there's no progress. When I encounter problems, I will still choose to do it myself. "Perry has a nonchalant attitude towards this.
She always said that she was not a game developer, did not know much about the industry, and was just a half-hanger. "There are a lot of creators around me, and everyone will design characters, stories, all kinds of interesting things because of pure love and creative desire, and use their imagination to create a world." This pure desire is always similar, and I am only a small part of it, but I just happen to use the expression form of the game. If I think of other stories in the future and feel that the format of the game is appropriate, I will continue to make games. If something else was more appropriate, I might do something else. ”
Now, she's working on the English localization of the game, as some of the participating voice actors also want to play the game. She still chose the most hands-on way, translating with a few friends around her, and then asked the American editor to help proofread and polish, after all, "it is really expensive to find a localization company." If she has free time, she may respond to the player's call to do some peripherals.
After completing the game, a line of subtitles will appear in front of the players: "Thank you for all your efforts to save everyone." "I think the players would also like to thank everyone involved in making this game, and thank you for the pure work that Berry brought because of "wanting to be happy for myself.". This is something very valuable to the creators.