Where we talk about influences on their games, Steam, and challenges with game development
An Interview with Primary Orbit, Part 1
Interview by: Douglas Schules Translation by: Douglas Schules and Hugh Wilson Nettelbeck Daedalus Machine To begin with, can you briefly tell us a bit about your circle? For example, how long has it been active, how many games has it made, and so forth? Primary Orbit Primary Orbit is a circle with me as its sole member. It began in 2015, and we’ve only released our debut work “Märchen Forest: Mylne and the Forest Gift” and its add-on pack. There’s a ton of things I want to make, but the way things are now I don’t have any extra time to develop other games outside those I mentioned before. Daedalus Machine How did the group get its name? Primary Orbit The name “Primary Orbit” expresses my hopes that the circle’s activities will eventually get bigger and grow to become the central activity in my life. Daedalus Machine Can you briefly explain the story and gameplay behind Märchen Forest and its expansion pack? Primary Orbit Märchen Forest is an adventure RPG set in a full 3D fantasy world where you play a girl named Mylne-chan, an apothecary who lives in a small forest and aims to become a full-fledged doctor. The story consists of two parts: the first part focuses on her trying to become a fully-fledged doctor by gathering medicinal ingredients while solving the problems of the people who live in the forest. The second part involves Mylne searching for her missing mother in the underground ruins beneath the forest, and the gameplay changes drastically to that of a dungeon crawler RPG. The expansion builds upon the system of the dungeon exploration half of the original game. It’s an adventure that delves deeper into the world of the underground ruins and the stories of the characters she meets in this world.
Daedalus Machine
Aspects of the gameplay for the first part sounds familiar to that of the Atelier series of games. Was this an influence? Primary Orbit Yes, it was. But, it’s really the atmosphere that’s an influence, not the mixing system. Daedalus Machine Changing game systems, especially mid-game, seems like a lot of work. Why did you decide to change the system of the game for the second part and expansion? Primary Orbit It’s basically that I was studying while I developed the game, so the scope of things I was able to do naturally expanded. Originally, I started development of the game as a way to practice and planned to stop at some point, but when I look at the first half I’m dissatisfied. Daedalus Machine Do you intend, then, to go back and redesign those elements? Primary Orbit Since release I have been continuously updating the game with small fixes, but the first major update was released today! The game is available for download on the Steam store. Daedalus Machine How did you come up with the idea for the game? Primary Orbit Social games in which weapons and characters are continuously improved without end are a common type on smart phones, but I thought that it would be great if I could make a game experience similar to a console on the smart phone… I think that’s how I started development. Basically, the concept was “replicate console game on smartphone”. Daedalus Machine So you began with the concept for the game mechanics first, then decided on the story? That makes sense considering what you said about the different types of gameplay styles within the game itself. What can you tell us about how you came up with the overall story and characters? Primary Orbit I pulled characters from manga that I used to draw by myself in the past. (I drew them as a hobby, so I didn’t make them public). Things I liked from manga and games, anime, and so on…they were packed with things like that. I inserted the story later, and really, I thought about that as I was making the game. I tried to be clear about what message I wanted to communicate. Daedalus Machine What do you want players to experience when playing? Primary Orbit I assume that there are a lot of people who used to play console games in the past who now just play them on smartphones. I’m making this because I want people to remember the feeling of that time when they were absorbed in the console. What that feeling will be varies from person to person, but could be the sense of accomplishment that arises when you just barely overcome an unreasonable obstacle caused by insufficient explanation in a NES era game, the experiences when playing that draw you into the game world, or learning things from games like perspectives on life. If, after they’re done playing the game, players feel like they want to try playing something on an old-school console again, that would make me the happiest. Daedalus Machine I picked up the PC version of Märchen Forest at C93, but I remember seeing a mobile game from Primary Orbit at Digige 2016. What are the differences, if any, between them? Primary Orbit The smartphone version was developed first and from there it was ported to the PC, but content between these versions are fundamentally the same. I am, though, continuing to develop the PC version. The expansion pack, though, has only received a physical release for the PC at this time. The Steam version of the game is about to be released (NOTE: it is available; this interview took place prior) but I do not anticipate that the expansion pack will be available for digital download anytime soon, because we have not made much progress on the English translation. Daedalus Machine So the primary game will be released on Steam. Many Japanese developers use a publisher like Playism to translate their games and release them on these platforms. How did you go about doing this? Primary Orbit When the Japanese mobile version of the game was originally released, Taiwanese and Korean fans volunteered to translate it into their native languages. Afterwards, I showed the game at an event and was contacted by a publisher who offered to translate the game into English. At first the plan was to let the publisher handle the Steam release of the game, but I found out later that because it is a limited liability company they were unable to publish the game from Japan. In the end, I personally made a developer account on Steam and handled the release all on my own. Daedalus Machine What can you tell us about the process of getting the game on Steam? Is there anything that you think other Japanese indie game developers should be aware of? Primary Orbit SteamWorks has clear instructions and is quite easy to navigate. The only part I had trouble with was the section relating to tax information, specifically the bilateral tax agreement. I made the mistake of assuming that I needed to register for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number with the American tax office. So it was a pain in the ass applying for a passport and writing to the American tax office, among other things, but in the end it turned out that was completely unnecessary. On the SteamWorks Taxpayer Identification Number page, Japanese citizens just need to enter their “My Number”. I was surprised to find out that My Number is equivalent to the TIN. Daedalus Machine What have you done, in terms of design or story, to create this console-game feeling? Considering the different interfaces for PC and mobile, what were the different challenges you faced implementing these ideas for these platforms and how did you overcome them? Primary Orbit I went back and played my favorite games from the NES era through to the PS1 era, like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. I also watched gameplay videos of those games online. I referred to both the good and bad parts of those old games. I tried to emulate the way old games are able to convey a strong sense of setting without much dialogue from the characters. I think I did a good job, but there are still some sections of the game with long dialogue sequences. I also wanted to try to capture the bitter-sweet feeling that I get from finishing those games. I don’t really know how to explain it, or whether I was able to achieve it with my game. I don’t know if I did it well, but I would be really happy if people were able to look back years from now and still have memories of my game lingering in the corners of their mind. When I ported the game to the PC, I had trouble implementing controller support because I didn’t know how to do it (remember, when I started this I didn’t know anything about systems and stuff). My solution was just to rely, as much as possible, on the available Unity assets. Making the game compatible with all Android products was even more of a pain than simply porting it to the PC. There are too many different models for one person to handle on their own. Related Contents
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