Indieview #8: Grettel — Screenwriter, Artist & Developer
Welcome to the eighth 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.
Have you heard of the recent Otome game on Steam and Itch.io, Love Spell: Written in the Stars? Well, that was developed by Great Gretuski Studios, and today I’m joined by Grettel herself! Maybe you know her best as the Great Gretuski? A triple threat of screenwriting, creating art, and developing games, Grettel keeps herself busy casting love spells on anybody who plays her work!
Mitch: Firstly, congrats on the release of Love Spell! What inspired you to combine Otome with magical elements?
Grettel: Love Spell was originally developed to be a TV series for an upper level screenwriting course I took in college. At the time, I had plans to become a filmmaker and decided to go to film school. It was originally set in high school and aimed to be a romantic animated series of sorts. After graduating though, I lost my passion for filmmaking — but not for storytelling. A few years later, Love Spell went through another writing transition aimed to be the story of a Webtoon for a more mature audience, but eventually ended up as the script for my first visual novel game when I decided to properly pursue game development and settled on making it an Otome.
Mitch: I’m happy that you’ve found a home in creating games, and I’m sure many others are too! Luna feels very like an incredibly well-developed protagonist, especially in the Otome genre, and has a lot of development throughout each arc. How did you want to differentiate her from other Otome protagonists?
Grettel: As someone who’s been a big fan of the Otome genre for quite a number of years now, I always found that one of my biggest complaints when it came to these types of games was just how hard it was to connect with these protagonists, sometimes — on any level at all. Although I understood that for a lot of these games, they follow this style of writing that is supposed to encourage what is known as a “self-insert” premise where a player is encouraged to take on the role of the MC themselves, but I found that many were created in a way where “self-inserting” myself would often times be extremely difficult because… there would be absolutely nothing there to bridge my personality and the MC’s.
So for Love Spell, I decided I wanted to change my approach and really try to create this character, that (although she changes slightly from route to route in terms of quirks, likes, dislikes, etc.) at her root, she holds a sense of relatability that players could really connect with. I wanted to give her problems and feelings that players could relate in having gone through themselves or perhaps even going through right now. Overall, making my protagonist into someone people could relate to and like enough to continue guiding them throughout the entire story was definitely at the forefront of my conceptual goal for Luna.
Mitch: I think you’ve definitely succeeded in bringing Luna to life. I prefer non self-insert characters, myself! Anyway… my favourite boy is Enix. Who’s yours?
Grettel: This is a quote directly from the official artbook where I also did another mini-interview but… that’s a really hard question to answer because it’s kinda like asking a mom who her favorite kid is, haha! I honestly love them all. I have different favorites for different reasons. For example, Enix was the very first character I created for Love Spell so he’s super special to me and yet Florian is the character I enjoyed writing the most. Likewise, Jamie was the funnest to program and yet Marcello is the one I have racked up the most hours on actually playing. Haha, I hope that kinda answers the question!
Mitch: Haha, it’s a rough question, I’m sorry! But you hear that folks? Buy the artbook! What roles did you take on when developing Love Spell?
Grettel: Oh god! So much more than I was qualified or prepared — in all aspects — to take on, haha!
Producer, director, developer, writer, programmer, editor, beta tester, video editor, animator, quality assurance, graphic designer, GUI artist, pixel artist, motion graphics, the whole finance department, social media strategist, marketing… yeah, I could go on, but I’ll stop here. I think you get the point, lol.
As an indie developer you find out that all of these titles are no longer different hats to be worn by different people, they’re just different accessories on one giant hat that you have to wear to reach the finish line. That’s what it means to be indie.
Mitch: That’s a lot, to say the least… I like how you’ve summed it up, but finance? Bleh! No thank you! I have to ask — what’s going on with Aslan? When can I date him? Can I date him by the time this Indieview goes live? Can you at least confirm that he’s okay?
Grettel: Haha, I can definitely confirm he’s okay. Aslan is in the works as we speak! He’s brewing! All in all, I’m actually really excited for Aslan’s story. His route is definitely what I would dub as the “fantasy” route of the game because there is going to be so much more magic and craziness following him just because… well, he’s a wizard! It’s what he does.
In Aslan’s route we also get a way deeper look at Agatha’s character and even Philia too! So trust me, the team and I are just as excited!
Mitch: I am READY for Aslan! I absolutely love Luna’s design. This isn’t a question, but I just wanted to tell you that!
Grettel: Thank you! I worked alongside Arucelli who was the game’s “Lead Concept Artist.” She’s just an amazingly talented artist and working with her was such a pleasure. I will never forget the feeling of seeing that first concept sketch of Luna and just almost crying because it was such an emotional moment of watching something you dreamed of coming to life so beautifully and so perfectly, haha! Arucelli’s work, which features a lot of initial concept sketches for the cast, are all featured in the official artbook and we really broke down the design process from hairstyles to clothing. So, if the art of Love Spell is something that interests you, I’d definitely recommend checking it out!
Mitch: Ahh, I’m really happy to hear that! I can only imagine how emotional it can be. So, uh, who on the team has the cheese obsession? Do you have a favourite cheese?
Grettel: The cheese obsession was a running gag that a friend of mine was known for and I always thought it was such a funny quirk that I wanted to somehow incorporate it. I definitely have a favourite cheese! It’s Muenster.
Mitch: Good choice, good choice. I’m boring, it’s really just mozzarella for me. Maybe smoked monterey jack? I’d have to think on it. What extra content do fans have to look forward to? A few eagle-eyed fans who’ve completed all routes have spotted something!
Grettel: Oh man, I might be shooting myself in the foot here, but honestly we have so much planned for Love Spell! What does become a reality though does really fall to how successful the game is and how much financial support the studio can receive to create and continue to create all of this content, but as far as content itself goes, Aslan’s DLC is barely the start. There’s already even been discussions about potential Season 2 stories, a certain Lion’s route, a Nintendo Switch port… I mean there’s so much we want to do, but again, ultimately it falls down to what we can realistically do and how far the game, and our fans, let us go.
But, my personal agenda is filled with ideas, I assure you, haha!
Mitch: I’d buy it on Switch, just so you know, haha! I definitely look forward to more Love Spell goodness. Having a feature that allows you to play a chapter from each of the suitor’s point of view is such a great idea! What inspired that idea? It’s certainly something I’d love to see featured in more Otome games going forward.
Grettel: So, this one’s kind of a funny story. I had a college writing professor who drilled into me that one of the main giveaways of “amateurish” writing was constantly switching heads/perspectives in a scene. When I first started writing Love Spell, I found that I kept wanting to do that a lot because while I wanted to show how MC felt, I also wanted to get across how it was affecting the love interest. So, what I ended up doing was bargaining with myself and basically saying “Okay, you know what? I’ll dedicate one entire part or episode to just expanding upon experiencing things through the lover’s perspective.”
Mitch: Honestly, that’s advice I’m going to keep in mind, so thank you, haha! Love Spell was funded on Kickstarter, with one of its stretch goals being reached! How was it managing such a large campaign?
Grettel: To be honest, it was really difficult. This was the first campaign I ever managed or created and it was a lot harder than I expected it to be. I mean, it was a huge learning experience, to say the least.
I have to admit I learned a lot and even though I committed several first-timer mistakes in the process, I really believe that now I can and will continue to create better and stronger campaigns all-around.
Mitch: I’m sure the next one will be smoother — I know it can’t be easy, especially the first time around! What software did you use to create Love Spell?
Grettel: Love Spell was created using a ton of different software for a wide variety of the assets involved, but the game itself was made using “Visual Novel Maker” which is a game engine developed and published by Degica, the international publisher of the RPG Maker series.
Mitch: Why a pink penguin? Is it perhaps inspired by a plush? I’d happily buy a plush of Philia, just so you know.
Grettel: Philia’s concept was just one of those things that came about in the process of creating her character. Originally, her design was going to be more leaning towards a realistic baby penguin, but we ended up scrapping it because it looked way too pure and baby-like for Philia, which as you know, she’s not so pure all the time, haha! She was brought to life by the amazingly talented Puruton, who was also responsible for designing a lot of additional assets in the game like the Love Spell book, Miss Moon’s character and Philia herself.
Mitch: Philia is so cute… but yes, pure is not how I would describe her, haha! You can see Philia’s earlier designs in the artbook, by the way, readers!
Do you have any advice for people looking to create their own visual novels?
Grettel: Yes, two words: Do it. This is such an amazing and fulfilling process that I really feel I can’t get across just how incredible of a journey it is. I mean, bringing something to life from conception to completion, is always a process you’ll take so much away from, but creating a visual novel was absolutely amazing. To say it was “hard work” is underselling the workload by a ridiculous amount, but my god was it SO much fun! It was incredible seeing something start off as such a tiny, small idea and grow and flourish into something concrete that we are now watching other people enjoy so much. It’s absolutely an amazing journey; you just end up learning so much, not only about the process, but about yourself. I really whole-heartedly think it’s an experience that should be undertaken if you’re really decided on it. I think everyone has a story worth telling and it’s just an incredibly fun and potentially, even a life-changing experience. I mean, it definitely was for me.
Also, don’t be intimidated by not knowing where to start. We live in a time where just about anything can be learned online with enough dedication and passion to your craft, so whether it’s programming, art, designing, writing or all of the other hats you’re going to wear in the midst of this process, I recommend you start small and start somewhere.
Oh, and in the words of the infamous Professor Atlas (among many others) you must never give up. If it’s something you really believe in, don’t stop. Keep going. That’s the best advice I can give you.
Mitch: That’s such a lovely way to motivate, and I agree with you whole-heatedly.
“So, what are your future plans?” What’s next for Great Gretuski Studios?
Grettel: I can assure you that there is PLENTY of magic brewing in our cauldron, haha! We’re planning to unveil a big announcement when our studio account reaches 600 followers on Twitter, so I’m pretty excited. I hope you’ll be looking forward to it too!
Mitch: I saw! It better get to 600 soon! Where are the best places for people to find you and your work?
Grettel: You can find my personal Instagram and Twitters with @greatgretuski and of course, keep up with the studios by following our Studio Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages (@GretuskiGames) and subscribing to our newsletter on our website: www.gretuskigames.com
Mitch: Anyone or anything you’d like to plug? Go ahead! I know you have a store… with super nice acrylic charms that sorely tempt me…
Grettel: Haha, yes! We’ve also launched our Studio Store and we have some limited stock official Love Spell merch for sale right now! You can visit our website to see what we have available!
All in all, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for your support, not only on Love Spell, but granting me this wonderful opportunity to be on Indieview! I hope you’re excited to see what comes next from us!
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I hope you’ve enjoyed Indieview #8, with Grettel. I’ll be back with another Indieview in the near future, so thanks for reading, and I hope to see you all again soon!
