In fact, this is the huge part left in our planning. As you can see below, the art and the script are competely done. Music, sounds and programming are also almost finished. But communication still requires a lot of work!
So far, we contacted many journalists and YouTube channels and we submitted the game to many indie game events. We obtained 2 web articles, 2 YouTube spotlights and were selected by 3 Indie game events.
Since Olivier and I are creating this game in our free time with absolutely no money, we cannot afford to translate the game in many languages. That's a shame, because we'd love to make this story travel around the world and different cultures. But still, we have selected 3 languages (in addidtion to the original script written in French by Olivier) that will be done with a very special care. The Doll Shop is a game based on narration so we focused on the text and want it to be both fun and creepy to read. That's why we decided to work only with friends who have true writing skills. Let us introduce them briefly.
Josh Tierney will be in charge of the English version. He is a Canadian comic book writer (author of Spera and Warm Blood among many other books). We've been friends for almost 20 years now and made our beginnings together, collaborating on several projects (comic books, short movie...). Our writing styles are very close and both are focused on the characters feelings.
Mizuka Yagi will work on the Japanese translation. We met her in Niigata university in 2009 when I was studying in Japan. We discovered we had the same interest in movies, music and subculture. Since then, she was our referent for each of our projects set in Japan, sending us documentation, answering all our questions… She still lives in Niigata, where the game takes place, so she knows very vell about the winter atmosphere we tried to picture in this project.
Jay Wong will take care of the Chinese version. We had the pleasure to meet him in Hong Kong in 2024 during a pop culture event. He is a comic book artist and writer and an animated movie director and storyboarder (Monsoon Blue). He focuses on very touching intimate stories with sensitive characters. This will be our first collaboration together and we feel very excited about it!
One of the great pleasure when working on our own game is to be part of the indie game community! We exchange a lot with other creators to share tips and support each others.
When we're in Bordeaux, we usually like to pay a visit to our good friends Nova Box. They share so many tips for communication with us! They are also working on a visual novel called After the Wane, to be released later this year. We've been friends for around 10 years now and we have always been huge fans of their beautiful touching stories. We encourage you to add After the Wane to your wishlist.
We also like to spend time with Cedric Babouche (creator of the amazing watercolor game Dordogne). Just like us, he also is a comic book artist and we share a same interest in Japan. He recently partnered with Tatsuya Furuhata to create Pépin Kojo studio for their upcoming game PYLA.
Working on our game was also an opportunity to reconnect with old friends like Mathieu Collangette and Trevor Reveur who worked together on Void and Meddler (a fantastic cyberpunk game), and to meet new ones like Ghislain Ernu who is currently working on his first video game, B-Ricky High School, just like us ^^
We're all in the same boat! And it's really cool to exchange!
Before leaving you, we wanted to share a few artworks. These are early sketches we made for the main character.
Thanks for following us! If you want to support our work, you can add The Doll Shop to your wishlist or recommend it to your friends ^^