Interview with Georgina Bensley, Creator of Cute Knight
Hanako Games is an indie game studio known for their anime-style, "Girl-Friendly" adventure and RPG titles. The latest game, Cute Knight, is an entertaining blend of a Sim and an RPG, borrowing heavily from the Japanese title, "Princess Maker." Cute Knight features a randomly-generated dungeon, a crafting system, a unique magic system, over fifty different endings (with variations on each!), and scores of special in-game events. It won the GameTunnel.com "indie RPG of the year" award, and just in the last few months has achieved a prominant position on several major portals, possibly ushering in the era of the "Casual RPG."

After a great deal of arm-twisting and negotiation, I managed to secure this interview with the enigmatic Georgina Bensley (well, okay, she's actually pretty accessible, and all I had to do was ask). Georgina is the ow ner of Hanako Games, and the creator (with help) of Cute Knight. She was able to give me a lot of dirt on some of the inner workings of Cute Knight (especially its unusual magic system), with plenty of hints and strategies. We also talk about the state of adventure gaming, her upcoming project (a replayable adventure game!), her game design philosophy, and more fun stuff.

Enjoy!


Getting Started

Rampant Coyote: First off, how about a little about yourself? Who are you, and what made you take the plunge as an indie game developer?

Georgina: My name is Georgina Bensley and I make computer games!

[audience applause]

Thank you, thank you.

As for how I got here - Ever since I was very young, I've been - not an entrepreneur exactly, but open to opportunity. In grade school, I used to make little arts and crafts trinkets to sell for cash and the desserts from other people's lunchboxes. Later it was websites and ebay. It seemed natural to me that if I could make something, I ought to at least see if people were willing to pay for it.

So there wasn't a plunge, exactly. I've always been making/trying to make games. When I made something that I thought was good enough that someone else might be interested, I put it on sale.


Rampant Coyote: I dug around on your "About" page, and found out about the ColecoVision. It sounds like you were a fan of the underdog games or gaming systems from the early days. Do you have any favorite games on that platform?

Georgina: What comes to mind as my personal favorite from that time period would be the ColecoVision port of Mr. Do!. I really loved that game, I can't even explain why.

The other thing that was noteworthy about the ColecoVision was that, at least for my family, it really was a family system. Everybody used it. My mother was really into Lady Bug. As the video game industry developed, it somehow moved more and more away from that. It wasn't until several years ago when I started to find games like Text Twist online that I could once again say "I bet my mother would like this."


Rampant Coyote: Besides the ColecoVision titles, are there any other games out there that are favorites or that you think were influential to you as a game developer?

Georgina: I was a big fan of the 'Quest' games from Sierra - King's Quest, Space Quest, and so on, as well as RPG classics like Fallout and Planescape Torment.


Rampant Coyote: Are there any particular indie games out there right now that you particular enjoy or admire?

Georgina: Aveyond is an obvious choice. I'm also really fond of Eets. I don't usually buy puzzle games because I'm afraid that once I've solved all the levels, there will be nothing left to do and no reason to ever play again. With that game's wacky physics, completing a level doesn't mean that you've found the ONLY solution - you might be able to go back and score trophies by solving it in a completely unexpected and bizarre way. And then there's the level editor and the community-made puzzles... and did I mention the animations are adorable?


Cute Knight

Rampant Coyote: Okay, let's talk about your latest game, Cute Knight, Besides drawing the obvious inspiration to the "Princess Maker" series (which I still haven't played), did you draw inspiration for the game from any other games or other media?

The "stepwise 3D" dungeons of course reminded me of Wizardry, the Bard's Tale, the old "Gold Box" AD&D games, Dungeon Master, and many similar games from the 80's and early 90's.

Georgina: I looked at a lot of those games when I was designing the dungeon section. The game from that genre that I most remember playing during that time period was something called Alternate Reality: The City. The game included a huge list of potions, and while you could guess what a potion was from its color and flavor (sweet, salty, so on) you couldn't be entirely sure whether you'd found fruit juice or deadly poison until you drank it.

This inspired some of Cute Knight's potion choices, especially the visually-identical Rainbow Potions. Most potions, once you've learned what they all look like, you can use safely even if your character doesn't have the brewing skill to identify them. With a Rainbow potion, if your skill isn't high enough to tell, it could do just about anything.


Rampant Coyote: The magic system in Cute Knight is quite unusual and seems fairly subtle. My usual strategy is just to load up on 3-element charms (when I get them) for fighting the monsters in the dungeons and cover as wide a spread of elements as possible. Sort of a shotgun approach to spellcasting. Probably not the most effective. Can you explain the inner workings of the magic system a little?

Georgina: I wanted to make magic a little more involved than just "cast a Generic Spell and do damage based on your magic skill". I remember playing Dragon Warrior on the Nintendo and having spells like HURT and HURTMORE. That definitely wasn't the feeling I wanted - that makes magic seem boring.

A lot of the RPG features in the game are slightly simplified and might not appeal to the sort of player who writes strategy guides about which spells can be cast a fraction of a second faster in order to do more damage in Diablo. I wanted the magic system to be able to be incredibly complicated in order for that sort of player to explore it, but also to work fairly well even for a player who didn't want to think about it. You can just pick three copies of the very first charm unlocked and you'll still be able to fight most monsters with magic. You may not do as much dam age as you would if you had the best charms equipped, but you'll get by.

There are nine elements - Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Light, Dark, Holy, Nature, and Emotion. If you want to blast down a door, the best elements to use are Earth and Fire. If you want to fight a vampire, the best elements to use are Holy and Light. Plant monsters will be weak against Nature. Only creatures with feelings are weak against Emotion, and those are the ones you get Sin for killing. A Fire elemental will be weak to Water but may take no damage at all if you attack with pure Fire. If you have a good Luck score, you can encounter a monster, figure out what it's weak against, then run away and change your charms to be appropriate for that monster before coming back to fight.

For the number-crunchers, here's the details - your base magical damage is about 1/10 of your Magic skill. Half of that is considered 'pure' magic damage, and the other half is 'elemental' damage. The elemental damage is broken up into chunks depending on how many magical elements you're using. If your elements were half Fire, then half the elemental damage will be fire damage. That amount is then compared to the monster's resistance to Fire and raised or lowered accordingly before it's added to the total damage. And so on for the other elements you 're using. If you've got certain magical items equipped you can get bonus elemental damage. If your charm cards are pure Water but you have a Fire magic item equipped, you do all your elemental damage as water damage plus some extra as fire damage. And if you don't have all three card slots filled, your elemental damage is lowered.


Rampant Coyote: How about the Wizard's challenge? It seems to be one of the most detailed of the sub-games in Cute Knight. Sparky and Mortimer are pretty easy to beat, though it seems like Sparky emphasizes fire-based spells and Mortimer emphasizes emotion and dark magics, so I've found a few charms that appear to be relatively 'safe bets' when dueling them. But they are also weak enough to overpower by brute force at later stages of the game.

The higher-level wizards seem to have a much wider selection of charms, and defeating them f eels more random.

Georgina: The Wizard's challenge takes the magic system's complication and goes even further, giving each of the nine elements a rating against the other eight. It's like rock-scissors-paper but with nine symbols and the ability to play up to three of them at a time. This was fun to make, but it came out being TOO complicated. It's not really a fair game, and it may be revamped in a later version...


Rampant Coyote: Since I'm asking you about hints - Cute Knight is full of little special in-game events. Some of these seem very rare, and will rarely be encountered by players. This definitely encourages exploration of the game. Do you care to give any hints about seldom-discovered secrets or easter-eggs in the game?

Georgina: Some things not everyone knows about -

When prompted to name your character, if you just click OK without typing anything, your character ends up being named Michiko. This is the name I use for the character when talking to artists or testers. Saves having to say "the pink-haired PC" all the time!

You get a small Charm bonus on May Day in honor of romance.

If you diligently work as a maid for the first six months or so of the game, you receive the Magic Mop, which can turn a maid into a great hero. People have gone on to defeat the dragon using that mop. :)


Rampant Coyote: I think I found a magic mop for sale during one of the festivals. I wasn't quite sure how it worked. But my cleaning skill wasn't so high. Anyway - the big question: Should we expect a Cute Knight 2 2 ?

Georgina: Yes, but not for a long time. I am currently involved in another project, which is taking quite a while to complete. So look for a sequel in a couple of years...


The Game Biz

Rampant Coyote: The game business is pretty male-dominated, but you come in as a female game developer who is also producing "girl-friendly" games. Has this been advantageous or more challenging to you? Or both? And has the community been supportive?

Georgina: Once we get past the initial "Really? I've never met a female game developer before!" I don't think it really matters that much to anyone in the business. I'm just a person like anyone else. And since the casual/downloadable market has a high percentage of female customers, there isn't the same sort of push to make everything appeal to the mythical 18-year-old male football fan that some advertisers are supposedly so fond of.

It's in freeware game development communities that I'm more likely to have problems, not the indie community. A lot of freeware kids are just that - kids, teenage boys who don't understand why anyone would want to make games that aren't Zombie Splatterfest XX.


Rampant Coyote: A lot of the attitude in the business (particularly mainstream publishers) is that "girl-friendly" games means dress-up, shopping, and ... pink. What do you think it means to make "girl-friendly" games? And should I be embarrassed about liking Cute Knight (who does have pink hair, I note...) myself?

Georgina: One reason that I prefer "girl-friendly" over just "girl games" is that I don't think I know precisely what girls like either. I know what I like. I know some things that supposedly are more popular with female players than other things. But people like different things. Some girls play Quake. Not me, thanks. And I wouldn't be any more interested in Quake if you dyed it pink and made it about roaming the mall attacking passersby with make-up kits. (What a dreadful idea!)

Girl-friendly, to me, means that a female player shouldn't feel excluded by the game. There are lots of subtle ways that mainstream game developers can show that they don't really expect girls to play. Default high-score lists filled with male names. Selection between male-only character options. Claiming to have equal options for male and female characters, but actually having twice as much content available for male PCs as female ones. Always showing female characters within the story as weak and helpless. Things like that. I don't think anyone, male or female, should feel ashamed to play a game that's girl *friendly*. :)

You could say that Cute Knight includes dress-up (choosing what equipment to wear), shopping (buying/selling items) and pink (the hair!). But except for the pink hair, you'd find those things in any RPG.


Rampant Coyote: What tools do you use to make your games? Do you use a particular game engine, toolkit, or SDK (Software Development Kit) for the game itself? How about for the art?

Georgina: I primarily build games with Game Maker. While it bills itself as being able to make simple games without a single line of code, it also has its own scripting language, and that's what I'm using. Once you know the tool, there's a huge amount that can be done with it. Any sort of 2D game is possible.

I'm interested in checking out some other systems like the Torque Game Builder in order to be able to port beyond Windows, but so busy, so much to do...

For art, I have a very old version of Paint Shop Pro and a scanner.


Rampant Coyote: When designing a game, what do you come up with first - the story, or the game mechanics? Do you start with a detailed design document? How do you approach game design?

Georgina: It's hard to say exactly because I usually have a lot of half-baked ideas mulling around in my head. Eventually the pieces fit together and I see an overall gameplay concept that includes both the basic mechanics and at least the seed of a story. After that they tend to develop together. The game's needs can influence the story.

For Cute Knight I did write down a lot of design details early on. I knew it would be difficult to shoehorn a new skill in later, so I wanted to be sure I'd thought out the possibilities as far as skills and jobs before I started putting code together.


Rampant Coyote: I played your free adventure, "Sweet Dreams" (but I never could figure out how to wake the girl up), and you also bill "Summer Schoolgirls" as a sim / adventure. Are you a fan of adventure games / "interactive fiction?" If so, what do you think it might take for this kind of game to make a comeback?

Georgina: I'm a fan of both graphical and text adventures, and the graphical adventure genre really isn't as dead as some reviewers make it out to be. :) It's funny, because I'm constantly reading reviews for adventure games in which the reviewer takes a few paragraphs to expound upon how nobody plays or makes these games anymore. It doesn't seem to occur to them that they're writing those paragraphs pretty often for a genre that's supposedly dead.

It's a niche, that's all.

I wouldn't really want them to "come back" and replace first-person shooters as the big mainstream game genre. Then they'd end up being more expensive and requiring the latest-greatest graphics cards to play!

Both graphical and text adventures also have large fan communities making games, some of which are very good, and some of which go commercial.


Rampant Coyote: If budget wasn't a concern (yeah, right!), what game would you be creating right now?

Georgina: If you gave me a pile of money for development right now, I'd keep working on the same game I'm working on. I'd just hire actors to get the whole thing fully voiced. :) Dreadful voice acting is a common complaint in small-studio games and I would rather have none at all than acting that makes everyone wince. If I could afford a top-rate cast, that'd be different.

But once that's finished, if I had so much budget that I could found a studio to work with me AND not have to worry about sales figures, I have this great idea for a game in the style of Fallout. :)


Various and Sundry

Rampant Coyote: Okay - cage match. Rhen (from Aveyond) versus the Cute Knight. How would it end?

Georgina: Well, the person challenged gets the choice of weapons, right?

Michiko chooses a bake-off.


Rampant Coyote: Any hints as to what might be next from Hanako Games?

Georgina: My current project is an adventure game (see, they're not dead!) called Fatal Hearts. It has a teenage female protagonist and a terrible mystery with hints of murder, occultism, and things that should not be.... Which, for an adventure game, is not that unusual. What is different is that there's not just one ending, or even one best ending. Different characters and factions will be trying to win the player over to their side, and you can get an entirely different story with different puzzles depending on who
you choose to trust.

Most adventure games, once you finally get through them, that's it. You're done, there's no reason to play again. Or if there are multiple endings, you have to start over and play almost exactly the same game again in order to unlock the alternate end. This is different. If you reach one ending, you still have many hours of STORY that you haven't read, and puzzles you've never seen.

Also - gorgeous vampires.

http://hanakogames.com/fatal.shtml

If I'm lucky it'll be done sometime next year...


Rampant Coyote: An adventure game with honest-to-goodness replayability? This I'll have to see! I'm looking forward to checking it out.

Georgina, thank you for taking the time out of your development schedule for this interview! This was delightful!


If you are interested in some of the other games Georgina has worked on, be sure and visit http://www.hanakogames.com



(Vaguely) related Stories:
· Interview with Amanda Fitch, Indie RPG and Casual Game Designer
· Interview with Scorpia
· Interview with Mike Rubin (Vespers 3D, 3D Interactive Fiction)
· Aveyond!
· Tales from the Road: Cute Knight

Labels: Adventure Games, casual games, Interviews, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 2:00 AM (Permalink)