Indieview #6: Dimitri, Director & Writer
Welcome to the sixth week of Indieview! Indieview is an interview series where I speak with a special guest who works on personal or business projects related to games, whether they’re an artist, a composer, a streamer, a writer, or otherwise.
This week, I’m joined by Dimitri. Dimitri is the creator behind the upcoming visual novel LoveSick Darlings, which has a demo out right now on Steam! Set in Australia, you play as Syd, a sixteen-year old boy who is coming to the end of the school year at Foster Hills High. As Syd musters up the courage to confess his crush to a friend, he finds himself learning more about his own friends, and their own issues. It’s up to you how Syd’s and his friend’s journeys will pan out, in a visual novel which is sure to make you relive your own school memories.
Mitch: I haven’t spoken much about you there, Dimitri! Can you introduce yourself, and what inspired you to develop LoveSick Darlings?
Dimitri: Howdy there! I am Dimitri and as people can tell I am the creator/writer/director/does-everything else-that-isn’t-art-and-music for LoveSick Darlings! I am a writer first and foremost, and that is my specialty/skill in life. I graduated from the University of Canberra with a Bachelor of Creative Writing, so yeah it’s my thing. Basically, I’m trying to get my creativity to pay the bills and put food on the table! It’s going… okay! I am not homeless, at least! But yeah, I am screenwriter by “trade” and before LoveSick I was trying to get my own TV pilots and scripts off the ground to very… average success. All I can say is that there are some decent short films in Canberra with scripts written by me! But alas, this was all work for others. I, like many selfish creatives, want to leave my own mark on the world!
Problem is, making a movie or TV show requires a stupid amount of money. I do not have this, sadly. But, after a conversation with a friend that can only be called fateful, I talked to them about how I’d like to write a visual novel and have some ideas I’d like to explore. But I lamented I can’t program to save my life (I still can’t), when they recommended this magical application called “Renpy” to me! A free to use visual novel engine that was really easy to use. I learned the basics in a week — and started writing! Foolishly, my first project of real length released to the public is the really ambitious LoveSick Darlings — but people have been super kind to this game’s debut! I’ve had nothing but incredible support from all corners when it comes to this game.
As for what inspired the game content itself? I probably wouldn’t have admitted this two years ago when I started developing the game, but looking back, I had just come out of a five-year relationship, and I suppose I felt the need to explore the idea of relationships, and how mutual (or non-mutual) feelings can really change people’s lives forever. So, drawing inspiration from the real world, my experiences, my friends relationships, looking back on my own high school experiences, and of course some choice media (Scum’s Wish, Stein’s Gate, Persona) — I started writing this game about the complicated nature of relationships within a group of close friends!
Mitch: Wow, it sounds like you’ve been busy! Being a creative is difficult, but I’m happy to see that you’ve kept at it. I have every faith that LoveSick Darlings will find an audience who’ll fall in love with it and its characters. Can you tell me more about Maisy, Jayda, and Stephanie?
Dimitri: Oh, this is fun. Where do I start? I suppose let’s start with the face of the game, and my first idea for a character: Maisy!
Maisy is a hyper-active, confident, fun-loving, overtly sexual girl who likes to make fun of her dear friend Syd (Syd is the player character!). She calls him her best friend, and they live on the same street. They met when Syd moved to town at the start of the year, and she has basically “claimed” him as her best friend. She practices karate, obsesses over selfies and make-up, and is truly the most spontaneous person ever. She drags Syd around on all kinds of adventures and tasks for her own amusement. Her character arc explores the lies we tell ourselves and how we deal with our feelings when they risk the relationships we already have, and their value to us. She also starts the game with a boyfriend of her very own, who is just this really hateable guy that she acts like she’s madly in love with. This is the main thing that sets her apart from most VN heroines. Not many games start a love interest in a relationship with someone else. There’s more to this, but I won’t spoil her relationship at the start of the game too much!
Jayda is a lovely, creative, kind girl, with a huge “weeb” streak, who has a major crush on Syd. Syd, of course, is completely oblivious to her feelings. Jayda was Maisy’s best friend, but after a falling out, Maisy has hung out with her less and less. However, her bond with Syd has grown recently and they’ve spent a lot more time together playing games and indulging nerdy interests together. Nerd culture comprises a huge chunk of Jayda’s core identity, and she continually manages to “out-nerd” Syd — which only impresses him, really. She has a creative streak expressed through painting, cosplay, and cooking. Jayda loves to create and consume, and it’s the essence of who she is. She is inspired by my own experiences as a creative, as she is someone looking to express herself despite her own doubts about her self-worth (which was teenage Dimitri to a tee!) Her story, however, is about her self-esteem and how she hates herself deep down. She blames herself for everything, and often says things like she doesn’t “deserve” anything good that happens to her. She struggles to appreciate her own hard work. She is so sweet and kind, that the way she treats herself is shockingly awful. You’d really do anything to help her.
Steph is the final main heroine, and she is Syd’s big crush! He’s been crushing on her all year, and his anxiety always gets the better of him when he talks to her. She’s cool, calm, and a bit of a hipster. She plays music, reads books, and just enjoys quiet time with herself. She’s reserved, to the point that no one knows much about her outside of school. She’s shrouded in mystery, and Syd wants to find out more. Despite how distant she can be, she is an inherently kind person. Her distance makes people think she doesn’t like them, even if she has nothing against someone. She struggles to communicate be there for people, and often withdraws when things get hard — but she would never hurt anyone on purpose. She keeps everything bottled up and struggles to rely on anyone who isn’t her sister. Everything she says or does draws Syd closer — completely unbeknownst to her. She enjoys Syd’s company, but she has no real idea how he feels. Her story is about Syd unravelling her past, and helping her reconcile with who she really is. She has a tragic backstory, and is the hardest of the three to get along with. I hope people enjoy getting to know Steph for her true self as she opens up more over the journey!
Mitch: I can really feel your love for these characters — it’s amazing how much of yourself you can put into them! Which character is your Syd asking to the end-of-year dance?
Dimitri: Ohhhhhh, good question! I can’t play favourites…
But, considering she is least popular according to polls (and because I wrote her personal one-on-one events fully in June, so they’re fresh) — I will say Steph. I think her journey is unusual compared to most VN heroines and I think players will be very surprised by how things turn out with Steph. So, my answer is Steph! Wanna know why? Hang out with her a lot in the full game to find out why!
Mitch: Ooh, I will hang out with her a lot in the full game to find out why! I see that you’ve described LoveSick Darlings to have “no set routes”, which is really interesting, and I’m excited to get into it myself. How do players know if they’re on the right “route” for them, considering it has several different endings?
Dimitri: So, yeah, this is the major selling point of the game. Most VNs have a point where the game “splits” and you go down a “route” and players are locked to it ‘til the credits roll. LoveSick Darlings does not follow this system. Routes in VNs often end up cutting the cast completely out, except for “main girl” and end up being this one-on-one affair. I am not a fan of this practice and concept. It works for a lot of VNs, but I think this just limits the storytelling. There are many examples of this producing some amazing connections between players and the route leads, but for me, the quintessential “high school experience” LoveSick Darlings tries to capture is all about a group of friends.
Limiting the story to one heroine completely destroys this. So, I have opted out of this story telling method. Instead, the game follows a schedule much more akin to one from Persona 3/4/5 where Syd has a limited amount of days to spend “free time” with each heroine and build relationships that way. This gives the player ultimate freedom, and these free time segments are broken up by story sections and other interactive events that are often shaped by the “free time” segments of the game.
So, who the player wants to spend time with is always in their hands. The player’s choices and the game’s story have a two-way relationship at all times. There are roughly four different major “endings” to the game, but the journey to these endings is totally decided by the player. And even then, the “endings” have dozens of variables each that are decided by the player’s actions through the game. So, it’s actually pretty complicated. I won’t get too much more in-depth, but, basically… routes limit the story-telling and player decisions, so I decided to come up with my own system based off of the Persona franchise to make the story as immersive as I can!
Mitch: I love the sound of that, especially as a big Persona fan myself. The “Player Review” system also sounds very cool, and I’d love to compare with other players. What sort of details should we expect to see at the end of a playthrough?
Dimitri: So, the main details are:
- How your decisions impacted the lives of the heroines
- What each girl thinks of you at the end (do they like you? Or hate you? Or something else?)
- Secret events you got
- Secret events you missed (with hints!)
Basically, it’s an add-on at the end of the story that gives you a direct idea of how you did. It’s not canon, and is mostly there as a fourth-wall-breaking treat for players and tells them how to do things differently next time (if they so desire!)
Mitch: Well, I hope nobody hates me at the end of my first playthrough, hahaha! Thanks for including voice-acting with LoveSick Darlings! How was the casting process like?
Dimitri: Casting was a lot of fun. I contacted a few VAs I followed, and made a casting call for Australian voice actors for the project. This is because the game is set in Australia, and I wanted the voice acting to accurately reflect the unique setting of the game! I had a lot of help from Aimee Smith, an Australian voice actress, who helped set up so much of the voice acting work. She gave me a whole list of emails of other aussie VAs, and even did up an official casting call to get fellow aussie talent to me. Which was an amazing success, as I had SO MANY auditions for the game! It was such an honour, and choosing the final four voices was so hard. But I’m really happy with the voice cast! They’re all amazing! They just wrapped up doing the voices in early June, and all that’s left is to implement them in-game. I can’t wait!
Here is Aimee’s Twitter in case you need it:
https://twitter.com/AimeeSmithVA
Mitch: Oh wow, that sounds very cool. Definitely a big fan of you sourcing Australian talent for the game, and I for one will be enjoying the voice-work to its fullest. Can you tell me a little more about the rest of the team working on LoveSick Darlings?
Dimitri: There are too many to name! I’ve had help from so many people. But the big three are:
- Ippers: original concept artists, sprite design, sprite artist. The first person I approached, and came up with the visual style for the game (will expand below!)
- Phi: did ALL the CG art for the game and wow, what an amazing job! They’ve pumped out so much art for the game, and the quality has been outstanding every step of the way.
- Tim: Did the entire OST. He’s a living legend as far as I’m concerned. I came to him with a mess of an audio document filled with random sources, and he made a really coherent and amazing OST out of it. Just the best.
They are all amazing. I couldn’t have done it without these guys, and so many others doing misc art for the game.
https://twitter.com/phiphoton
https://twitter.com/fulminisictus
Mitch: Haha, I really wanted to hear it from you, and it sounds like you have an incredible team. I’m going to drop a link to the credits on your website here! How did you and the artists come to settle on the game’s art style? There’s a lot of vibrant colour, and the CGs are beautiful.
Dimitri: So, basically, it all started with Ippers. I had written the first like… “week” of the game, and was like: “alright, I need sprites and character designs.” I reached out to a few artists, and even made a public post about needing sprite art. But then, of all the people I reached out to… Ippers emailed me back! It was like a dream come true. They were my favourite artist! And they were down to do characters designs for my little project! I was truly overjoyed. I sent off some references and character bios, but mostly told them: do it in YOUR style. Don’t change a thing about your style, and just make them look like exactly how you imagine them based off of my character descriptions. The results speak for themselves. The character designs for the whole cast are simply fabulous. I love them.
As for Phi, basically, I told them the same thing. Only clause being, “base if off of Ippers sprites”! And bam, equally amazing CG art too! When it comes to commissioning creatives, I am a huge believer in telling them to do things in their own style and with their own flair. Otherwise you are limiting their strengths. By having the artists do their own thing and keep everything to their own personal style, I think has let the art really stand out. I hope I don’t sound conceited when I say, in terms of sprite art and CG art, I think LoveSick Darlings is one of the best looking indie visual novels out there! Ippers and Phi have done such a good job, I can confidently say that.
So, yeah, to answer your question specifically: the game’s style came about by letting the artists express their own style to the fullest! With little to no meddling from me. I think this always produces the best results.
Mitch: I agree, and I think you and the team has earned every right to be proud of how it has come out. I take the same approach when I commission artists — you want their art, after all! The game has a focus on making the characters feel real. What would you say is key to making a character feel realistic, especially in a game with so many different outcomes and narrative branches?
Dimitri: That is a tough one. I would say what has kept the LoveSick cast real is by giving them lives outside of the player. Quite often, Syd can initiate a hangout and someone can and will tell him “sorry I am busy today.” Not because they hate him or he’s done something wrong (which CAN happen…), but because their worlds don’t revolve around Syd/the player. Which is a trap that VNs often fall into. The way that characters stand around and wait for the player to talk to them always broke my immersion when playing VNs or even RPGs. The girls have lives, schedules, and no matter how much they may like Syd — sometimes they’ve gotta visit a family member or attend afternoon activity practice or something! The girls have lives independent of Syd, and I think that makes them feel real in the context of the game. Things happen to them while he isn’t around, and often Syd can find out some crazy news via text message or while chatting the next day at school. He isn’t always there for them, and he can’t always be.
Other than that, emotionally, I think it’s about grounding them in reality. Making no character just feel like a VN trope. Even Jayda, the nice and nerdy girl who loves the player character, has a lot of complex issues based on her past friendship with Maisy, her self-image and sense of self-worth, alongside bullying while growing up. There’s a reason for everything she says and does, and she isn’t just saying things to be “the nerdy one” or “the nice one.” She has goals, aspirations, and vulnerabilities. Like any real human being. All the characters in the game aim to do this, even the player character Syd (who has arguably the darkest backstory of everyone!). The way he deals with anxiety and trauma is a part of who he is, and we experience it all first-hand as the player. I don’t want him to be just a blank slate for players to project on to. He’s relatable, but he’s human too. They are all just as beautiful and flawed as we real people are in our world too. No one is perfect, and no one is totally evil in LoveSick.
Mitch: I really enjoy your approach to writing characters, and I think it’s going to be really noticeable to players. Talking about endings… are there any particularly “bad” endings plays might stumble upon?
Dimitri: There are bad “elements” players can come across… but there is no such thing as a truly BAD ending. You can quite easily go to formal with no one, but I’ve been careful to make even this result have good elements. No one wants to go through a whole game and right at the end be told “YOU ARE BAD YOU DID WRONG!!” It just feels unsatisfying to experience, or write for that matter. There’s no bad ending in real life (except dying?), especially when you’re only 16 like Syd. I am sure there are “endings” people want to aim for and avoid, respectively. That said, you can do some nasty things that will hopefully really make you feel bad! But nothing that will truly taint the ending. A huge point of the game is that Syd still has his whole life ahead of him, and no matter how bad things get… his journey hasn’t even really started yet. It’s this time in his life where he really can make mistakes. And that’s okay, as long as he learns and does better in the future!
Mitch: You’ve been streaming new content from the game, along with Q&A and commentary. Are there plans for more of these?
Dimitri: There are plans if there is more demand! Currently, I want to focus on making the game but I would love to stream every now and again (probably monthly) if people wanted to tune in and chat! People should let me know on Twitter or via my Discord if they’d like me to do that!
If people want to have a look at what my streams are like, check out the recording of the streams here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PAtTI7054Q
Or follow the official Twitch account here if you wanna know when I go live next!
https://www.twitch.tv/lovesickdarlingsofficial
Mitch: What topics does the game cover that you might not know from a brief look at the website or Steam and Itch.io pages?
Dimitri: I’ve touched on a fair bit of the larger concepts while answering previous questions, but, the game gets really personal with some of the characters. All of the characters are flawed, and make mistakes or knowingly terrible decisions just like we all can. This can and will hurt their friends, and every decision you make has consequences! Spend too much time Jayda? Maisy gets jealous and starts butting in. Spend too much time Steph? Jayda gets sad and discouraged, knowing Syd has always had a crush on Steph. Spend time with Maisy? Steph distances herself, thinking she is doing Syd a favour by not getting between him and Maisy. The characters are all interconnected, and just like how your relationship with each character changes and evolves — so can the relationships between the rest of the cast! LoveSick Darlings wants to capture the unique atmosphere and feel of a group of friends in high school — and how dramatic things can get. That’s the main feature I want to promote!
Mitch: I think this game might give me anxiety. You know, in a good way, hahaha. A six-hour demo is pretty crazy stuff! I’ve downloaded it ahead of this interview, but I haven’t done everything yet. What made you decide to release such a meaty portion of the game?
Dimitri: Basically, I want people to know if the game is for them. I figure, if you’ve played six hours, surely you wanna know how the rest of the game goes! Or at the least, you know you don’t want to buy it. I want all players to feel like they know what they’re in for, and the six hour demo is basically designed to be like “here is what the game will be like. Get lost in it. Explore it. Feel it.” And if they wanna keep going… great! If not, fair enough! I want people to buy the game with complete confidence, and there’s no harm in making so much of the game available for people in my opinion. Frankly, it also means that by ending the demo on an open note — the intrigue and time investment can stimulate purchases from people who might not have bought it if they hadn’t gotten so involved in the demo! The strategy is just something I kind of made up as I went along, and is just the result of me releasing so much of the game for free before deciding to invest more money into the project and make it commercial.
Mitch: I admire that, and I really hope that it works positively for you and the game. If people want to follow you and LoveSick Darlings, where can they find you?
Dimitri: Follow @LoveSickDarling on Twitter for all the latest news! I post news, screenshots, previews, and more every other day or so! Come say hi!
Download the game on Steam/Itch while you’re are it! There’s a free six hour demo, so give it a go at least, I say!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1151410/LoveSick_Darlings/
https://biolizard.itch.io/lovesickdarlings
Also, if for some reason you wanna follow my personal account (all i do is retweet memes and art I like), follow me personal on: @DAdoniou!
Mitch: Is there anyone or anything that you want to give a shout out to? Go ahead!
Dimitri: Oh, gosh. I’ve already shouted myself out and all the main contributors for the game. How about, uh… shoutout to https://twitter.com/NookSite for tagging me in your call for interviews! And also, shout to https://twitter.com/FrankHowley! He’s my favourite streamer, and he does the best streams in the business. He’s the Twitch world champion! Follow him and be a part of the Big Dogs. Lovely dude.
Thanks so much for the interview! I loved answering the questions and always enjoy the opportunity to talk about LoveSick Darlings! Thanks for having me!
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I hope you enjoyed Indieview #6, with Dimitri. I’ll be back with another Indieview soon, so I hope to see you all again then!
