The other day it became known that the Russian indie-developer Yakov Butuzov will release a psychological trailer Loretta With the support of the publishing house Dangen Entertainment. Earlier, an independent developer gave the world a horror Advintra " The house of mermaids ", Who spoke about the Russian 90s.
The new game will transfer us to America and introduce us to the history of the housewife Loretta, who, with her husband, writer from New York, moved to the dilapidated farm house, where they had to face poverty and failure. But then a bloody plan was born in the woman’s head ..
Yakov Butuzov told " Gambling "On the development, his team and negotiations with the publishing house.
How the idea of a psychological thriller Loretta was born?
In the winter of 2020-2021, he rejected the picture for himself " The world of Christina " Andrew Wayeta – And the thriller imagined in the spirit Alfred Hitchcock or Brian de Palma , in which a slightly neurotic heroine would have killed her husband, and then, trying to hide the evidence, turned from a hammered housewife into a bloodthirsty killer, driving herself deeper and deeper into the abyss of madness.
Idea, script and gameplay immediately formed one picture. And in three months I created a demo based on the "House of Mermaids", the previous game. The first draft wrote in about a week. And immediately knew what endings would be. And this is a rarity. I write ideas, draw on paper. Sometimes I transfer to a computer. For example, I break the scenes in Miro.
Когда один думаешь и над кодом, и над дизайном, и над сюжетом, то в долгом планировании чувствуешь непозволительную роскошь, да и нет в том большой необходимости. Much is born in the process. Although initially I wanted the art to differ: he has become, if possible, stylish, juicy and bright. And so that the player can influence the course of events.
Loretta is a plot-oriented game, in fact, a visual short story, an interactive Point-And-Click quest with a thick atmosphere, but a simple gameplay, which, no matter how stupid it sounded, is in the background-a tool that allows you to load deeperly player in the story that I want to tell.
It was immediately clear that puzzles and puzzles should be easily resolved, but at the same time dilute plot points. Variability, the ability to influence events, to go through each episode in different ways and, as a result, get different endings, it seems to me that they should highlight Loretta against my previous linear work.
How much people are now working on the game? You are alone or there is some kind of team?
I work on the game and I Daria is water , which drew graphics for the game. I work on the rest.
But the credits indicate many names. For example, I wrote original music for the game Efim Mylnikov. I drew portraits Fedor Buldakov. I ordered the cover https://sister-site.org/fat-pirate-casino/ from Katherine Lam , artists from New York, whose paintings I just liked. I ordered some backgrounds from a freelancer-artist. And the French composer wrote a jazz melody for the game. Therefore, loretta, of course, is the fruit of not only my work.
Translated into English The will of Kapitonov , and then native speakers, Carrick Lomas And Dan Luffy , processed the text for the necessary style.
If the "house of the mermaids" showed the mystical reality of the CIS, then Loretta is concentrated on the atmosphere of America of the 40s. In addition, the heroine from the southern states herself, and wanted her to speak like a character " Noise and rage ", With an appropriate accent. And this is only English. But there is, for example, Japanese, for the localization of which people are also worth.
I just want to say that work even on Indie game, in fact, deserves thoroughness, takes a lot of time and effort among a variety of people.
How long does it last on Loretta? What difficulties are you facing?
Almost two years. And every day I deal with the solution of the problem, which for some reason is not solved as it should. But, it seems, there is no difficulty that cannot be overcome over time, experience or resources. I’ll make a reservation, I am not a programmer by education, but a doctor, but I have been developing games since 2016. And I want to believe that my skills still grew up.
The engine changed. I work in Game Maker 2. It is updated almost every month, which allows you to constantly introduce something new in the game and without much difficulty: I added several visual modes, management and tips for two main types of gamepads, changing languages, and indeed I try to optimize the game as much as possible.
In general, all problems somehow fade today. Russian players are now practically impossible to buy a game, and if they succeed, then with some difficulties. I myself came across this. But I am sure that there will be ways to play one way or another.
I am proud of "Loretta" – perhaps the most important work in my life. And I hope that people will like the game the same way as I like to work on it.
How long have you been looking for the publisher? And how it turned out to agree with Dangen Entertainment?
I will not say that for a long time. I think six months, given the time for negotiations. I began to look for the publisher early. Even too much. For a new game, if this is, I will work on the demo longer.
But this is my first experience with the publisher. And only the second serious game, therefore, of course, I was afraid of different myths, which, however, could be true. Having collected all the possible rakes, I created a presentation, transferred to English and sent together with the build to the posts of publishers.
I think many publishers are embarrassed by exclusively plot-oriented games without any exciting, repeating mechanics. But you can see that the genre is in demand. And has a wide audience. Or maybe I just reassure myself with this thought. I guess I was lucky – when I started the development, the games where I had to read were included in the trend.
There was a series of sentences, refusals, and then I met Dangen Entertainment. We began to communicate, I wrote a design document, I designed the already established concept of the game in Google Doc. And that's it.
When expected to exit Loretta?
In fact, I gather a little extra about the release dates. Just all the relics that I have ever called, only approximate. I'm not a company, understand. My audience, it seems to me, knows this and is not offended.
New introductory. Either with translation, then with porting. Demo will probably be available only for time. There is still something to work on. Therefore, if possible, I would still abstain call the official release date. At least now.
- Preview The Pegasus Expedition. Humanity hits aliens
- Played in Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed and share our impressions
- Vampire Review: The Masquarade – Swansong. Fathers and children and vampires