Attention fans of The Witch's House MV! Thank you very much for waiting patiently for Fummy's answers to your questions! Here are the selected questions and answers.
-Thank you very much for agreeing to answer questions from your fans, Fummy. What motivated you to do a remake of The Witch's House?
I knew that if I was going to do a remake, I’d have to do it all myself. Several years ago, a few companies approached me, either asking me to do a remake with them or asking to do the remake themselves. But I knew that even if I decided to serve as the director on the project, I wouldn’t be able to control all of the designs. In most development cycles, the actual production is done by different people, so it would end up as something else. The only person who can ever perfectly maintain the atmosphere of a piece is the original creator. So if I wanted to do a remake that I would be happy with, I knew I had to do it by myself.
-What was your inspiration when you created the game and what message did you want to pass with it?
It all started from a thought I had when I played Ib by kouri: “It’s scary when the main character suddenly speaks.” There isn’t any special message built into the game. I just hope that people will have a fun time playing it.
-Did you originally plan it as a horror game, and what was your thought process throughout the entire development? Did you start out with a cohesive vision or did the story and world come together naturally as the game's development progressed?
When I was developing it, I enjoyed watching horror game LPs, so I wanted to create a horror game that would be fun to LP. I knew what the ending would be from the beginning, so I just built the game up around that. I thought up the world and the story based on the simple ideas of a witch’s house, a witch, and a demon.
-What would you say your biggest influences are?
Hmm, that’s a difficult one. When it comes to game creation, I played a lot of 2D games, so I’m probably more attracted to 2D games with pixel art as opposed to 3D games.
-Do you have a favorite book/tv show/anime/manga?
I like Paulo Coelho’s novels, and own a handful of them. I especially like The Alchemist and The Devil and Miss Prym. I also like Patrick Süskind’s novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
-Where did you learn to implement the kind of "scare tactics" used in the game, did you read up on specific things that humans find instinctively scary?
I’ve never really read up on anything. I’m quite a scaredy-cat myself, so I just thought about what would really scare me and put it into the game. While test playing the game, it took a bit of time for me to get used to everything even though I’d put it in there myself.
-What routine did you follow in creating the game after settling on the idea? (ex. did you work on the visuals first and then the music or did you focus on creating the music and designing the game around it?
First I thought up the ending, then I wrote some notes about the house, its traps, the map, and the characters. Afterwards, I started up RPGMaker and started creating the maps and creating/choosing the music.
-What did you struggle with the most when you created this game?
The dialogue for the true endings. I spent about a month creating what amounts to a 3 minute scene. When I was first formulating it, I’d prepared a lot of dialogue for Viola. But when I actually put it into the game, it felt too much like she was explaining everything...but if it was too short, the players wouldn’t be able to understand it...so it needed a lot of adjustments.
-Which death was your favorite to make?
The hanging death when you read the “Book of Death.” For the MV edition, my favorite is the first death where the walls smush you.
-What was the unused Ending No. 3 music track originally intended for? What would this third ending contain?
The Ending No.3 track was originally created for the ending. But as I completed the game, it started to feel like that music didn’t match, and I ended up without any place to use it. No. 1 is the normal ending. No. 2 is the true ending, and No. 3 was supposed to be for the ending you get if you clear the game without saving. I created Ending No. 3 with the intent that it would play after all the truths have been revealed, so the lyrics are from Ellen’s point of view.
-If there was a chance of an anime being produced of the witch's house, would you accept? How would you feel about that? Also, how do you feel about crossovers with the witch' house in fan works now?
I would accept it if it was something that would meet my standards. But I think it’d be hard to turn the contents of this game into an anime. They wouldn’t be able to make this main character do any exaggerated reactions of horror or surprise, after all... But I’m always very happy to encounter fan art.
-Is there an RPGMaker scene over in Japan? What do people think about making games in this engine? Have you played/seen any other RPG Makers games? If so, what are your favorites?
I’ve created several games that I’ve never released. RPG Maker is an engine that allows people like me – someone who is not a professional game developer – easily create games. So I’d definitely recommend it to other people like me. I’ve played several other games created in RPG Maker, and my favorite would have to be Katatema’s Demon King Chronicle. I played that for over 20 hours, and was amazed that such a fun free game existed.
-What projects are you working on now? Any chance of any new content in the witch's house universe, such as a sequel, another light novel or game?
I’m planning to publish an e-book of The Witch's House: The Diary of Ellen, the novel that acts as a prequel to The Witch’s House, with some art changes and additional stories. Currently, it’s only ever been published in paper form, so I’d like to release an e-book to make it more accessible. I think it would be difficult to create a complete sequel to The Witch’s House, but I’d like to make something else that also deals with witches and demons.
-What is the best advice you can offer to beginning game developers inspired by The Witch's House?
It’s hard for me to give advice because I’m not a professional game developer. As far as creative work goes, I think the best solution is always to just create something that YOU think is fun or interesting.
-Thank you very much for your time, Fummy! We would also like to thank all of Fummy’s fans for submitting so many great questions!