Artificial Romance and a Beating Heart: Interview with Dems, Developer of Synthetic Girlfriend
Androids, robotics, artificial intelligence, what consists of wires, circuits, and gears. One of humanity’s greatest accomplishments, yet to be more advanced than the previous. In this case, falling in love with an android. Dems from Hand Crafted Tales strives to make a visual novel about loving sentient androids, each unique with their own personality and look. Today I have a lovely conversation with my friend, about the “mechanics” of his game dev life and how we see them in present day.
1. What got you into visual novels?
When I was younger, I used to read an old blog about videogames. There was one time where this article about a niche videogame genre really popular in Japan, that I didn't know of yet. It was visual novels. The article also mentioned a couple of examples. At that time I wasn't as big on anime and manga as I am now, so, picking one example I was kind of familiar with, I chose Seasons of Sakura an (and at that time I didn't know) eroge featuring characters that looked like those from Evangelion and Magic Knight Rayearth.
I played through it and it was a blast. I remember me being really invested in the story and such, though, looking back it's your average school life romance eroge novel. However, that put me in touch with the medium and, even if I haven't played that many, let's say, "traditional" visual novels, it made me stay invested in the story part of the games I played and also influenced me in giving games like Ace Attorney and the Persona series a try.
Looks like almost everyone starts out young!
It was pure chance too!
True, especially coming from an old blog! Do you happen to remember the blog by any chance?
Yes! It's Pixfans. It's in Spanish though. I didn't know how to read English at that time. 2. What made you decide to start Hand Crafted Tales in order to make your own visual novels?
Well, to be honest the whole Hand Crafted Tales was an afterthought. It really came late into the development of the demo for Synthetic Girlfriend. When I set to make SynthGF, I was by my own. But when I hired people to code and make the music, I figured I couldn't keep the "A game by Dems" thing in the credits anymore, hahah. That's when I decided I should start calling ourselves a team, and after spending several days thinking of a name for the team, I thought about what's what motivates me to create. In the end, I think it's all about telling a good story, or tale. And the "Hand Crafted" part gives a more, traditional, intrinsically human vibe. Even when our first game is all about robots and AIs! Ironic isn't it?
3.I know you for Synthetic Girlfriend, but have you made some games before?
I've tinkered with game developing here and there, doing mostly prototypes or doing pixel art for other people. But I can't really call all of those previous attempts full "games", and the ones that I worked for aren't completely mine either. So I guess in a sense SynthGF is my first real game. Right now it's just a demo, but I consider it a proper game, you know what I mean? Oh wait, does my programming final for school count as a game? It has a beginning and an end, so I guess it counts!
Speaking of art, you’re also an artist. How long have you been doing art?
I think I've always been drawing. When I was young I used to draw my favorite videogame characters, and when I got into anime I started drawing my own ideas and anime characters as a hobby. However, I started taking it seriously around 2014 or so. I started practicing on paper, and then in 2015 I got my first drawing tablet. I remember my first drawing using that thing, it sucked so much! Eventually I started practicing more and got better. I'm far from a pro, but I'll keep practicing and getting better because I love drawing, and after all, that's what's it's all about!
4. I understand Synthetic Girlfriend is still under development, but is there any challenges you're trying to overcome?
A LOT. There's a few on the coding side of things. Right now I'm working with a programmer to port the whole demo to Unity and it's a big task. A lot of people ask me why Unity and I always give the same answer. The puzzle minigames. I feel like working with Unity would give me more chances to improve and design harder and better puzzles for people to solve. What's in the current demo is just a tiny taste of what I have planned. And the puzzle minigames will be really important and tie in with the story!
On the writing side of things there are also a few challenges to overcome. They mostly have to do with structure and giving all the girls roughly the same amount of content and attention. People will have different favorites and play different routes, so I have to make sure that I can write quality content that all fans of any of the girls will enjoy to the fullest. That always was and will always be my number one goal. That being said, I like a good challenge, so I'll do my best to deliver a good story.
The tutorial minigame in Synthetic Girlfriend.
5. What motivated you to make SynthGF? Why android girls?
I guess I should start answering why android girls first. I've always been a fan of A.I. and robots in science fiction. I don't know why, but the idea of an artificial life form trying to learn about humans and why they behave like they do was always so appealing to me. Throughout the years I've seen movies, read books, read manga and watched anime and even listened to music related to those topics, and I loved almost each of those pieces of media. But I've always wanted to get more of that, to fill in the details and themes that I couldn't find in any of those works. Maybe it was me not watching the right movie or reading the right book, but I've always wanted to them explore more the intricacies of falling in love with a synthetic being. Or the social implications of having a serious relationship with an android. Or what would it be like to do everyday stuff you do with your significant other, like laying down in bed and stuff, but instead of a human, an android. I could never satisfy that need, no matter what I read or watched.
Then one day, after the DDLC (Doki Doki Literature Club) boom, a friend comes at me and jokingly says "Dude, when are you gonna make your own VN with robogirls?" And suddenly, it all clicked. That day I stayed up until 5:00 A.M. doing the first drafts and sketches. I showed it to my friends that evening and they loved it. At that time I've been trying to work on a project consistently, but nothing satisfied me and I ended up dropping every single one of them. But with SynthGF I finally felt like it could become a real thing, and that it was feasible. The drive and motivation I felt that day, now, a year and a half later, is still as strong. I love this project and I won't stop until I put it out there, finished for all people to enjoy the story I want to tell. In retrospect, a friend just telling me "dude you should make this" is like a pretty weak motivator, isn't it? It was just what I needed at that time.
Concept art for Eri from Synthetic Girlfriend.
6. Even before releasing the demo for Synthetic Girlfriend, you did almost everything: the music, programming, script, etc. How did you manage to do all that by yourself for a while?
I don't know, I was insane. Jokes aside though, I love learning new skills and improving ones that I already have. I also get bored easily if I do the same thing for a while, so I guess those two traits combined and gave me the energy I needed to do all that. Because it's not like I wrote the script and then jumped onto the music, but more like, one day I worked on the script, then the next day I drew a bunch of sprites, and the day after maybe I'd sit down and watch a bazillion tutorials on Ren'Py. It was always something new to learn or work on and that kept things fresh and not tiresome at all. Of course to learn to do some things well you have to put months and years of dedication into it, but I still gave my best on every part of the game I could, and when I couldn't do it properly, I just asked someone else, which was the right choice by the way. So, credit where credit is due. Some backgrounds are by UncleMugen. Some songs were written by Mr. Teclas (that's keys as in, piano keys, in Spanish haha), and the minigame was made by Lezalith. Big shoutout to those last two because if it weren't for them, I couldn't possibly have made it to the deadline! I'm really grateful for their help!
7. After releasing the demo for Synthetic Girlfriend, have you learned something new?
Yes! A lot of things! I've learned how streamlining your work can help you A LOT when you're working on a deadline. I've learned to code in Ren'Py, to make music for videogames, writing techniques to make better stories, to draw layered sprites that work on visual novels, some graphic and UI design and how to make their assets, some videogame marketing and last but not least I've learned how tough and hard and time consuming making videogames is. I've also learned that things take a lot more time than you initially planned (I was planning on releasing the demo on April 1st 2018!).
After going through all that, I understand videogame developers a lot more and I respect their craft a lot more now too. Overall, it was a great learning experience, and I'm grateful to all the people cheering me on to keep going through all of it, it was really tough at times.
Eri caught in the rain.
8. When Synthetic Girlfriend is finished, when do you think you would be able to release it, and what price would it be?
Well, it depends on how many roadblocks we hit with Unity and my personal life. Since I'm not working on SynthGF full time, it could take a while. I have to take care of my day job and my career, but right now I'm set on writing the first draft of the final script by the end of the year. Still, no release date as of yet. Sorry. Regarding price, well I've seen most indie paid VNs are between $6 and $15, so I guess I'll set for $12. That seems a reasonable price for what it's going to be.
No worries, as long as your fans know what’s going on, I’m sure they’ll understand!
9. Who’s your best girl of Synthetic Girlfriend?
That's a tricky question. I'm not allowed to "earnestly reply" to it.
10. For your fans and future ones, would you like to say anything to them?
BUY. THE. MERCH. Just kidding just kidding. I sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support. You guys are the real MVPs here. You were the ones that cheered me on the most during the development on the demo, and still do now. Some of you come up with the craziest theories and also make good memes. I love each and one of them and find them really funny. To the peeps who did fanart of the characters, THANK YOU. There's nothing more wholesome as an artist than getting fanart of your characters. Some of you told me I'm an inspiration to you and that makes me wanna cry of joy and believe me, I understand how you feel, because I feel like that too with pro artists I look up to. I can't wait to give you back the all the love you gave me when the game is finished. Thank you! (Sidenote: There's no merch yet, sadly. But dakimakuras of the girls is still possible!)
Some concept art and screenshots:
I enjoyed talking with Dems about his origins and the development of Synthetic Girlfriend! If you are curious about the game I will slide in some links down below! May we live in a more Synthetic future!
Dems' Twitter/X Dems' YouTube Synthetic Girlfriend Store Page
"Artificial Romance and a Beating Heart: Interview with Dems, Developer of Synthetic Girlfriend" Far2close - Visual Novel Playthroughs July 14, 2019
Comments