RPGWatch - Winter Wolves Interview

2014 has ended and it has been over two months since my last interview on the site. So to remedy that I had the chance to interview Celso Riva of Winter Wolves.

Couchpotato: To start the interview can you talk a little bit about your background, Winter Wolves, and how you got started in the games industry?

Celso Riva: I started for a small software house in Italy around 1995, then in 2004 after a long period away from game development I discovered the possibility to sell games over internet and decided to try!


Couchpotato: You have been around for quite a few years, and probably have seen many changes. So what's your opinion on the state of the game industry?

Celso Riva: The game industry is quite healthy in my opinion, but is also getting very tough and competitive. I still think that thanks to the various platforms available (mobile, portals, desktop, direct, consoles, web, etc) there's still the possibility to carve in your niche and be successful. But is much harder, as indie dev, than when I started for sure.

If my interview got you interested in his games here is the link to his website.

More information.

Also I'm taking requests for new interview not. Just make sure the are indie games or crowd-funded games as I do not bother with large publishers/developers.

Now I can't promise to get to them all but I will try.

Awesome thanks! I had a question of my own (that he probably answered already)… why is the version of Loren in Steam censored and will the censorship ever be removed in a patch (and if not, why?)

There is a comment on the steam forum why he did that; it was to avoid having to spend the cost to get the game a rating. He said you can work around the issue by starting the game with the demo and then loading the save with the steam. He also made a comment that suggested the demo will be the full game if you have the steam version so I wonder why you would want to load the save with the steam version but didn't try to deep dive into understanding this comment.

(when you play the game with the demo there is an option as to which version you want; and steam will read that save fine and do the 'right' thing based on your selection).

Originally Posted by wolfing
Awesome thanks! I had a question of my own (that he probably answered already)… why is the version of Loren in Steam censored and will the censorship ever be removed in a patch (and if not, why?)

Nice interview, Couch!

Thanks goto Couch & Celso Riva for the interview. I'm looking forward to all the new games.

I liked both Planet Stronghold and Loren. Solid turn based cRPGs. Story wise they aren't great, but the gameplay is fun, challenging combats, and interesting companions.

Nice interview, thanks!

Thank you for the replies everyone.

I was worried not many members on the site were interested in his games. I liked his responses on another interview he did on TechRaptor this week also.

TechRaptor: How does the development cycle of an RPG like Seasons of the Wolf compare to one of your Visual Novels?

It’s much more difficult as you can imagine. The biggest difference is in coding (obviously) but also design and testing. On a VN, once you have written a good story and have a good artist you’re almost done. In a RPG you need to code, debug, test, tweak/balance, repeat. Of the 10+months I spent on the game, at least 4 or 5 were for balancing! To make a comparison, Roommates (my last dating sim) beta test lasted 2 weeks, SOTW lasted 6 months!

TechRaptor: Do you believe romances are important to developing characters in games?

I think so. It feels weird to me when I play a game without romance. I know that not all the stories can involve romances, but still the characters feels unnatural if they are unable to feel love or attraction to others!

TechRaptor: There’s been some argument that Visual Novels are not ‘games’ at times. What is your thought on this?

Haha, well if they refer to kinetic novels (VN without any choice) then maybe “game” is not the best word, a better one would be story, experience, art, etc. But some VN have a lot of choices, branching, many endings, so I think they can be called games!

Link - http://techraptor.net/content/indie-…s-seasons-wolf

Another fantastic interview, Couch! I really enjoy reading these.

I loved the interview. I guess if I had a question, it'd be about comparing the sales to a quick(er) VN vs a full-fledged RPG. Does Steam really change the equation?

Anyway, I like having a variety of RPGs, and Celso's have a style and personality of their own.

Thanks for another great interview Couch.

As for future interviews, maybe the team from Bound By Flame. It made the list of 2014's most overlooked games.

Yea or nae?

Originally Posted by Dean
Thanks for another great interview Couch.

As for future interviews, maybe the team from Bound By Flame. It made the list of 2014's most overlooked games.

Yea or nae?

Thanks for the compliment Dean. As for a new interview for Bound By Flame I can try if other members out interested, but the game has been out a while already.
I think a general interview with Spider Games would probably be better?

Think that's what he meant.

It would be nice to hear something about Spider's current/next project.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Think that's what he meant.

It would be nice to hear something about Spider's current/next project.

This.

With maybe a few postmortem questions about what they learned from releasing BBF.

Well I'll try but I don't promise anything as I'm more interested in my latest attempt to get an interview with Harebrained Schemes for Shadowrun: Hong Kong.

That would be awesome. Fingers crossed.

Indeed, but I think information about SR:HK will flow in by itself the next weeks.
For Spider's next game we don't have any information at all. Of course it's doubtful if they'll reveal anything in an intervew with the watch, but one can always try.

Yes well both have been contacted it doesn't mean I will get a reply. I have a bad track record when it comes to publishers, and larger developers for interviews.

Well, their loss, if they don't answer you back Couch.

We may not be one of the biggest RPG sites, but we damn sure are one of the best.