I know, I know. It’s been almost a month since our last interview (which we did with Voidpoint about their retro action/FPS game “Ion Fury”). Well, worry not! Because the long wait is finally over! (and we got plenty of more interviews coming up very soon)
You see, just recently we reached out to the Spanish indie game designer, programmer, and graphic designer AllFenom for an interview. Why? Because AllFenom just happens to work on this really awesome 2D fantasy Metroidvania game called “Zoria and the Cursed Land“.
Anyway, I think you get the idea. So during our interview with AllFenom we talked about everything from “Zoria and the Cursed Land”, Game development, lewd content, to his plans for the future.
So with that said, please enjoy our interview with AllFenom =)
Robin TGG
First thing first, thank you very much for taking your time doing this interview with us =) And with that said, would you be so kind as introducing yourself to our readers?
AllFenom
Hello there! My name is Alejandro, but everyone online knows me as AllFenom! I’m 29 years old, and I’m from Spain, but I decided to make my game in English to reach more people.
Robin TGG
Right off the bat, you don’t happen to remember how everything started for you in terms of creating video games and game graphics/art? And what was it that made you go down that path? (when, where, why, and how).
AllFenom
I’ve always been a very creative person, at least I like to think that, always imagining my own world and stories, making a game back in the day seemed impossible unless I were working for a big game company or similar, Indie games weren’t a thing back then.
I remember that one day, my cousin came to play games as usual, and he had this Pen drive with him. “You can make your own game with this program!” He said, and I couldn’t believe that.
He showed me Rpg Maker vx (Yes it was pirated.) and I got into it really fast, he got tired of it in a couple of weeks, but I kept playing around with it, I couldn’t make my own art and didn’t know how to code.
So I was just playing around with the program, and always dropped a project after a while and started a new one, that, until one day, I started trying to make my own sprites for a project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOHGFUe2ToQ
That was the start of something, one-year later, with more experience, my brother showed me an offer at Humble Bundle, it was about Game Maker, 1$ to get it, I didn’t know anything about it, and didn’t know how to code, but my brother told me, it’s 1$, take it, and if you don’t like it, it was just 1$. I took it, and got into it, started learning to code simple stuff, and three-years after.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my brother for pushing me into getting Game Maker. Anyway, here’s my game project!
Robin TGG
Could you perhaps tell us a bit about what ” Zoria and the Cursed Land” is all about?
AllFenom
Of course! Zoria and the Cursed Land is a 2D Metroidvania where you play as Zoria, a half-orc girl eager to explore the world and live adventures! Maybe too innocent to see the danger in that. In this adventure, Zoria and her loyal friend, Chocolo, hear about this ‘cursed’ island, no one comes back from it (spoopy).
So Zoria decided to go there and end up being trapped just like as many others before her. Separated from her friend. Now Zoria has to find her friends and find a way out of that island! and meanwhile, find out what is happening on the island.
Robin TGG
How exactly did the ” Zoria and the Cursed Land” project come to be in the first place? And was it something that you always wanted to do, but you haven’t been able to do so until now?
AllFenom
I used to play D&D a lot, and I was almost always the Dungeon Master, so I was always creating worlds, stories, and NPCs for them. Zoria and the Cursed Land is inspired by one of those D&D campaigns I made, and most of the NPCs in the game are NPCs I’ve been creating over the years, even Zoria.
Robin TGG
Was ” Zoria and the Cursed Land” always meant to be a Metroidvania title from the very start? Or was that something which the game evolved into during its development process?
AllFenom
Not really, I just wanted to have a really big area to explore and discover, using objects such as torches, bombs to help you access certain places. And when trying to explain what my game was, I think Metroidvania was the closest to what I was doing.
Robin TGG
What could you tell us about the game’s world and its universe as of now? (where does the game take place? In what setting? And so on)
AllFenom
Sphelia (The world) was once populated by a civilization called The Ancients, living in harmony with Enta, the goddess of energy. They used the energy of the planet as a source of clean and renewable energy.
However, a group of The Ancients began to experiment with the energy, and to corrupt it, this corruption began to create the so-called monsters. And eventually, a great “demon” emerged, too powerful to be stopped, devastating everything in its path.
A group of brave heroes defeated the “demon”. But the damage was already done, and the corrupted energy would not disappear easily.
Hundreds of thousands of years passed, and The Ancients disappeared, leaving behind traces of their strange technology. People living in Sphelia today wonder who built these ruins and what they were used for.
The current civilization lives in tranquility, with trade routes between cities, adventurers, who travel from one place to another constantly.
Some are capable of “magic”, but no one knows where that power comes from. And some decide to resort to dark magic, which corrupts the bodies of those who use it.
Robin TGG
Truth be told, I found out about your game when I spotted your game’s super cute and thick female main character :3 So what could you tell us about Zoria Dunne? And how comes that you decided to make her into a half-orc adventuress? And now that I think about it, what’s her other half by the way? Human?
AllFenom
Zoria is indeed half-orc, and half-human. Zoria was first created as a villain for a D&D campaign I was running at the time, she was supposed to be this Orc chief daughter, seeking revenge for his father defeat, but had to join forces with the main players to defeat a greater enemy. (Funny enough, that greater enemy is also someone in my game).
I really liked Zoria, and took her out, and re-designed her into a village girl.
Zoria was raised by humans, because she was found by them in the forest, she doesn’t know who her real parents are, so she was always different growing up, kids bullied her because of her skin color, but not Chocolo, (Robert).
They became friends really fast, and they would explore around the village and the beach area, playing at being adventurers. As she grew up, she developed a really good physique, so kids stopped bullying her. When Zoria was old enough, she decided to go out and live adventures with Chocolo and Kaito, her childhood crush.
In her first adventure, Zoria meets a dark spirit called Dhorgos, and Dhorgos decides to follow Zoria, since almost no one can see spirits, they became friends and now they travel together alongside with Chocolo.
Zoria is really cheerful and innocent, not that smart but also not dumb. She was originally an archer, and now is learning how to use the Sword that once belonged to Kaito.
Other than that, she has never had any romantic interactions before.
Robin TGG
Just out of pure curiosity, which games would you say that ”Zoria and the Cursed Land” has been inspired by?
AllFenom
I’d say my biggest inspirations for this game are CHASM and Momodora Reverie Under the Moonlight. Both gameplay and art style, even if I can’t get close to CHASM art style.
Robin TGG
I’ve seen you post quite a few sexy pictures and whatnot from the world of ”Zoria and the Cursed Land”, so that begs me to ask you this super important question. Will there be any lewd content at all in the full game?
AllFenom
I knew this was going to be here haha! I do enjoy +18 stuff just like anyone else, and drawing it is fun, even if it means that it’s going to “stain” my developer’s image.
I like to do what I like, I don’t care what people think. The +18 content I make is 100% not part of the game and also not canon for the story. Look at it as just an extra thing I like to make, that happens to be with my own OCs.
Robin TGG
If I’m not wrong, you released the very first demo version of ”Zoria and the Cursed Land” back in April of this year (2020) right? So, what has the feedback and response been like from the players so far?
AllFenom
I do have to make another public Demo soon, but it takes longer than I’d like to get stuff polished enough for a public Demo. The feedback was amazing, it helped me improve a lot of things, and fix A LOT of bugs I couldn’t find myself. Furthermore, I saw people I can’t even understand make videos about it, and I really can’t believe my work can reach this far.
Robin TGG
Is it correct that the whole game is made in Game Maker 1.4? If so, how comes that you decided to create ”Zoria and the Cursed Land” in Game Maker instead of any other game maker software on the market right now?
AllFenom
As someone who was using Rpg Maker for years, getting Game Maker seemed incredible with the possibilities. I mean, It has everything I need to make the game, so no need to bother looking anywhere else.
Robin TGG
From what I understand, ”Zoria and the Cursed Land” is made only for Windows at this time? So there’s no MAC or Linux build available at this time right?
AllFenom
Indeed, I’m not sure I can make ports for different OS. This is my first game after all, so I’ll have to look into that at some point.
Robin TGG
And speaking of which, the ”Zoria” 3.1 public Alpha got released not so long ago. So, do you have any idea when the full version of the game will be released? And do you have a brief idea of how many hours of gameplay that the full release will offer?
AllFenom
Sadly enough, I don’t know when will it be ready…There’s so much stuff to do, and some stuff takes longer than one would think at first. For example, the game already takes me 40 minutes to complete in its current state (which is starting off, then getting to town). And that’s just the start, the real game starts in the town. So I expect it to last a good amount of hours. Hope it doesn’t get too boring!
Robin TGG
Is there any chance at all that we could get to see a mobile and console release of ”Zoria” in the future?
AllFenom
I wish, but as said, I have no idea how to make ports to different devices. Maybe I can get help with that in the future!
Robin TGG
As for my very last question to you, what are your plans, hopes, and expectations for the rest of the year? And is there anything else that you would like to say to our readers?
AllFenom
I really want to get this tutorial area done and keep working in the story of the game. Sometimes I feel I don’t make progress when I get stuck in working on something for too long.
Thanks for the interesting questions! And I’m sorry if the answers were too long at times.
Robin “V-Act” Ek
Editor in chief
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround
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Tags: 2D metroidvania, AllFenom, Indie games, Lewd, Metroidvania, Retro games, RPG, RPG maker, Zoria, Zoria and the Cursed Land