There’s something that’s charming about old internet relics, the stuff you’d find on Tumblr or old social media sites, before the rampant rise of AI. You’d find OCs inspired by MMOs such as Wizard101 or WoW, fanart of My Little Pony characters with an edgy twist for some reason, and an assortment of furries. Though, they usually just stay on the old internet, and we don’t see a lot of them nowadays. But they’re still there. Waiting.
Violet, a game dev artist we’ve brought on today, decided to do something with these characters. Now, they’ve taken those same kind of OC’s we’ve discussed and thrown them into a high school RPG. Though, it’s more complicated than that. They worked up a Nintendo DS aesthetic and screen to boot, alongside their own custom fork of Ren’Py. I’ll let Violet take it away on this game they made called Technilogica and what it’s all about!
Hello! Can you tell us a little about yourself and your relationship to the art scene?
“Hi hii! I’m Violet or Tech. I started drawing when I was a few months old on one of those hotel notepads when my family was at an aunt’s wedding, specifically Plankton from SpongeBob. (The drawing, that is, Plankton’s not my aunt.) And after that I just never really wanted to stop. So it’s something I’ve been doing for almost my entire life, but I wasn’t allowed online until I was a teen, so I never started posting anything until 2019, which is why on some platforms there’s a 2019 at the end of my username!
I’d call myself an experimental artist. I tend to jump around and try new things more often than not. In the age of AI, I’m just waiting for it to lead to inevitable cancellation, but honestly, can you call yourself an artfluencer if you haven’t been accused at least once? Doing the same kind of art all the time gets insanely boring for me, and I’d much rather have fun than it feel like a slog just so strangers on the computer say less mean words. Also, because I’m from Virginia, if anyone genuinely thinks I’m going to raise my own tax prices by using these data centers to draw pictures of cartoon cats kissing, there’s zero way I can take you seriously, dude.”
So, what is Technilogica? Can you tell us a little synopsis of your game and what you’re hoping to accomplish with it?
“It’s mostly a love letter to early 2000s-2010s Saturday morning cartoons or webisodes; think of the kind of stuff Hasbro and Mattel were doing around that time with MLP and Monster High. The universe is, in itself, sort of like a hubworld within the internet for different characters from all kinds of games or stories.
The protagonist, Cass, just moved in and got accepted into her dream high school, but day 1 she realizes there’s something way different about her than her peers, almost like she’s not entirely complete. So the main story is going to follow her trying to figure out where she came from and why she’s not the same as anyone else.
For a more technical, nerdy answer, I think most hobbyist programmers have already recognized that I built the demo in RenPy. Python is my main programming language, and I initially liked how RenPy handled translations, but partway through I started having some doubts because it felt like I was rewriting a lot of how the engine worked out of the box. So I messed around with some others, like GameMaker or Godot, but I didn’t want to completely restart everything I’d already done. So moving forward, I’m essentially building my own weird, twisted, screwed-up, evil RenPy fork. And for the first update in the weird new amalgamate engine, I’ve already finished a lot of graphical improvements, mainly the cutscenes and in-game menu. Hopefully it’s a welcome change! I’m super happy with how it looks now. Maybe someday I’ll release RenDS or whatever the name will be as an asset for anyone to use.”
I think it’s such a unique choice of main cast. I have to know how you came to them, especially the pony. It reminds me of 2013 Tumblr, but in a good way!
“Pretty much the vibe I was going for!! In not so many words, since like third grade when I first started thinking about Technilogica (it’s been a wild ride), I dipped in and out of the furry fandom since I had some friends at school who were at the time. That’s where most of the anthros came from. Then in fifth grade I started playing Wizard101, and my player characters from there evolved into almost all of the human cast in Technilogica. When you really look at them, you can also tell which wizard schools they were from. Has no bearing on the plot; it was just cool. And yeah, the pony Zap was a middle school MLP oc that used to be an evil Twilight cus who didn’t have an edgy phase like that lol.”
I see the DS and XP aesthetic in the demo and what you have there. It too is very unique. What brings you to those aesthetics? Any fond memories?
“So funny story, as a kid my family wasn’t the most well off so I never had a DS until I got one for myself along with Pokemon Platinum in 2021 LMAO but after that, the original Tomodachi Life became one of my favorite games of all time (i was on the frontlines, i was there when we never thought it’d get a switch port, you’re welcome) so I wanted to reference that console / handheld / whatever we’re calling the DS. As for the XP, Technilogica was originally intended to be an animated series. The story and world were all the same, but it leaned far more heavily into the old web kind of feel. But after a 3-minute pilot, I realized that without a larger budget to afford more animators, something like a full series was just not realistic in the slightest. For a time it was going to be a novel, but that felt far enough separated from the original vision that I wasn’t willing to make that compromise. Then it was a top-down RPG for a bit, and that did get pretty far along, but it still didn’t feel cartoon enough. But the Windows XP theming stayed through all those changes, and part of me almost worries that it’ll clash too much with the DS-styled GUI for some, but having been on the backend and it being so prominent in every iteration I tried, I don’t have the heart to back down now. So I’m glad it’s been well enjoyed in the demo!”
What’s your favorite character so far to write?
“I don’t actually know if I have a favorite! I’m a huge sucker for character-driven stories, so I just had a lot of fun coming up with different dynamics! But if I had to choose, I’m hesitant to name-drop for story reasons, but I’ve had a phenomenal time writing a very specific pair of characters who are both morally grey for the same reasons, but the smallest details make one look like a villain and the other like a hero. Small details like that are the most fun I’ve been having aside from the music.
But I think my second favorite so far has been Zarlah and Stella. I don’t have any siblings myself, but quite literally every single other member of my family does, so hopefully the back-and-forth “I hate you, but I still love you” doesn’t immediately kill the immersion. Especially since parts of Zarlah are based on my own mother. Hi Mom.”
Do you think this game is going to be linear or are you planning to have branching paths? Regardless, what made you want to go this route? Is it easier or more expansive?
“There are branching paths and some side quests for the lols, but the main story itself is pretty much the same no matter what aside from a few details. That was mostly just a byproduct since the original story was a cartoon which would have been linear, but again, that’s something I didn’t really want to lose, so I was okay with it. But there are still different endings; it just so happens they can all see nearly 100% of the same story. I think Ace Attorney would be a good comparison, if that answer makes sense? The objective ending is the same regardless; it’s immutable facts about the world that the player can’t change, but there are several ways to get there, and they all change how you see that ending.”
You’ve launched your demo. It was a very fun play! Can you tell us about that release process and how it went?
“It was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done LMAO
Initially the demo was meant to be released through Steam, but there were just way too many roadblocks considering I’ve never distributed here before, so just to meet the March deadline, Itch was actually a random backup plan. My work desktop is a Mac and, though a lot of things about Apple have gotten better over time, publishing to Steam is still pretty wonky if it’s not something you’re already familiar with, so there are still some technical problems that Valve has been very patiently teaching me how to fix. Several times over, in fact. But this fall I’m planning to have the updated version of the demo on Steam as planned! I’m halfway sure save data should carry over? If not, you can throw rocks and/or tomatoes at me.”
Favorite aspect from your own game?
“I think my favorite part is how the character sprites were drawn intentionally a bit small so they’d have that slightly crusty look older games have. A lot of modern games draw sprites at the exact proper scale or slightly larger so they won’t look pixellated on different devices, but if you want something that emulates a certain era of gaming, forget rules and do what looks cool. Unfortunately, this means they do look slightly different than the flash rigs used in cutscenes, but it’s not my number 1 priority as long as the characters themselves look the same at their core.”
Any words for potential game makers?
“Ignore 99% of the advice you see online. If you want to learn gamedev because you already have a project you’re eager to make, starting with something small like Pong is going to kill the mood. Look for specific tutorials tailored to the bare-bones you need for your dream game. If you want to make an RPG, look at Gamemaker Undertale tutorials or use RPGmaker as a base if the price point doesn’t land you in hospital. If you want to make a point-and-click story, start with making onscreen buttons that set different variables.
Most importantly, DO NOT spend any money. Any game you want to make can be done for free. Legally, too, if you’re into that. Gamemaker, RenPy, or Godot for the code. Blender or Krita for graphics. Waveform Free for music and sound. If you want to script a game with branching paths, Twine. Better yet, everything I just mentioned works on both Windows and Mac, and I’m fairly sure Linux. If you’ve got a Mac or an iOS device, you already have GarageBand. That’s my DAW of choice, in fact. As long as you know someone with a computer they’ll let you use, you don’t even need that. Toby Fox made Undertale in a friend’s basement. The only money I’ve spent on Technilogica was the Steam license.
All you need is an idea; the rest can be taught. Now go make something cool.”
Connect Today!
I’m really excited to see this game launch on Steam and to try it out when it releases! If you want to play the demo Violet is talking about in the article, check it out here on itch.io! You can also follow the game’s progress on their Instagram.
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