Exclusive Interview - "Kitaria Fables"

Check out Ben's exclusive interview with the team behind "Kitaria Fables!"

As part of our event this week, Ben sat down with game designer "Yogie" to learn about his role in making the game.

Be sure to enter our prize draw for a chance to win a Kitaria Fables Steam code for yourself!

Ben: Welcome! Can you quickly introduce yourself?

• Yogie: "Hello! We are Twin Hearts from Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Our team consists of three people - I myself Yogie as the lead game designer and programmer, Yossy as the 2D and 3D artist, and RaGal as the game designer and story writer. We have been working together as a team long before Twin Hearts is created at some company in Indonesia. We wanted to make our dream game, so we decided to quit our day job and continue working as a team to create our dream game together."
   

How long have you been working in the games industry?

• "I have been in the game industry for about 11 years."
   

What’s the story behind your game? What inspired it?

• "Games such as Rune Factory and Fantasy Life were some of our main inspirations when creating Kitaria Fables. We wanted to give players a similar experience - but with a simplified farming system and a greater emphasis on combat. We all love playing RPGs, so we always wanted to make an RPG. Releasing Kitaria Fables has made our dream come true."
    

What has the reception of this game been like?

• "We are happy that many players enjoy the game a lot. We have around 77% positive reviews on Steam, which is quite a good number for our first RPG game. We believe we can do better in the next game! *excited*"
   

 
Any important lessons learned in the game since release?

• "Yes, that is for sure! We have learned lots of things from releasing Kitaria Fables, especially on the user experience, quality of life features, and most important thing, game progression."
   

Work life - what’s it like working at the studio? What does your day-to-day look like?

• "We are only three people at our studio and a member is working remotely. We don't have fixed work hours so it's pretty flexible, but we have to maintain our communications and keep track of daily/weekly progress. We often work on weekends and more than 60 hours a week, you know, indie spirit! *evil laugh*."
   

A lot of our members also want to work in games - what advice do you have for those wanting to work in gaming? Especially for your role?

• "If you want to start on your own, pick a simple idea first, new game developers are often inspired by the games they like to play. If you are interested in something like the game you like, you might want to dive into a similar project right from the start. Game development is a difficult skill that grows with practice. Start with simple things and gradually expand into more challenging ones. If you can finish a game no matter how simple it is, then you are in a great place! Also, play more games, inspire each other, and never stop learning!"
   

For people unfamiliar with this genre, what should they know about the game? Is it accessible for new players?

• "We never intended to make Kitaria Fables complicated. It had to be easy to learn but hard to master. We tried to make all features and mechanics easy to understand even for players that are not familiar with this type of genre."
   

 
What’s the best way to learn/master the game? In-game? Community resources?

• "The land is quite big, so I suggest exploring it slowly, from the nearest to the farthest (the further you go, the more ruthless the monsters get!). Don't forget to visit the nearby blacksmiths constantly to upgrade your equipment and craft new spells whenever you're ready."
   

Community reception: any cool community stories to share? How do you balance implementing community suggestions/feedback with following your own design/vision choices?

• "We really love to hear the community feedback, we might not be able to respond to them all, but we always noted their concerns and feedback about the game. We’d also like to thank our publisher, PQube, who also helped us gather feedback. If there is any good and complementing feedback, and we think we can implement it without breaking the game, we will work on it as soon as possible for the next game update. There is also a lot of good feedback that is risky to implement because it would need major care and might break the game, so we keep noting them all and hopefully, we are able to implement it in the next game."
   

Anything you can share about future plans for your studio? Upcoming games, updates, etc.?

• "We are currently working on a new game, and we will announce it to the public hopefully in early 2023 or sooner. Please stay tuned!"
    

Anything you want to plug before we wrap up? Socials, Steam, etc 

• "Thank you so much for your support! That means a lot to us, and If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact me at yogie.aditya@twinhearts.games. We also have a Twitter (@KitariaFables) if you want to see more about Kitaria Fables and its development process, how it began, and so on. Many Thanks!"

Big thanks to Yogie and Kitaria Fables for partnering with us on this interview, and being our featured game this week!
Don't forget to grab a key from our sweepstakes, or during daily discussion threads.