We are pleased to announce a new interview with someone truly special. A lot of you probably know who are we talking about and their work. This time, we had the chance to have an interview with Kira! The solo developer behind astounding works such as Lost in Vivo and Lunacid.
RPG Spain: Hi, Kira. First of all, thank you for granting us this interview. Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
Kira: Hi! I’ve been making games since I was 12, and I’ve mostly wanted to make horror games. I eventually went to college for game design, but since no companies hired me during that time I started developing and releasing my own projects which eventually expanded enough that I stopped looking to get hired at a studio.
JMagna: What was the main motivation that fueled your need to create your own games?
Kira: I think games are really fun, but sometimes I get inspired to make my own because I can’t find exactly what I want in games that are already out there.
RPG Spain: You developed a lot of games so far, with Lunacid being the most successful one. Did you expect its success?
Kira: I expected it would do a little less than Lost in Vivo, but it has exactly done better. I figured Lunacid would be a smaller niche.
JMagna: How has it been your experience so far as a solo developer?
Kira: Working as a solo dev can be both a hindrance and a blessing. I don’t have any logistics work so I can jump right in and start creating and there’s no communication errors between artists and designers since I do both. But sometimes there are things I’d rather work on but can’t to make a functional game like programming. And since I’m my own boss, I end up overworking and never take breaks which has been bad for my physical health at times.
RPG Spain: How did you come up with the idea of creating a game like Lunacid? Were you able to implement everything you wanted?
Kira: While working on Lost in Vivo, I wanted to try a first person dungeon crawler game inspired by Castlevania, while I got some of my ideas done in MIDNIGHT mode for that game, I felt I really could make a full dark fantasy and flesh it out a lot more. Most of what I wanted was implemented, only a few levels were cut and mainly because I lost inspiration on working on them.
JMagna: The music from Lunacid is praised by a lot of people, not only that, you also had the fantastic idea of displaying the name of the songs every time that we visit a new area so players can find the names of the song easily when they listen to the OST. That being said, how did you come up with the music for Lunacid?
Kira: I feel that Dark Fantasy video game music is really unique. And there’s a sub-genre called Dungeon-Synth. Music in this genre all has a very distinct vibe that conveys the fantasy world really well. So I wanted to try my hand at it, and hired great musicians like; Jarren Crist, ThorHighHeels, AsterVrisk, And Jeffrey Nordin.
JMagna: Now that we talk about hiring, I noticed that we have some voice acting in the game. Who voices the narrator at the beginning of the game or Sucsarius?
Kira: For Sucsarius I hired Offer Fiverr, while the narrator is Robert Belgrade, who voices several 90’s video games (I love his role as Alucard, which was one of the reasons I contacted him). I sent him an e-mail.
RPG Spain: Who is your favorite Lunacid character? How did you come up with the design?
Kira: Demi. Originally she was a school project to make characters for a cartoon, and my idea was to inverse fantasy party troupes. So Demi was the demon cleric character, accompanied by an elf tank character, and a dwarf archer. She was later fleshed out when I used her design in a DnD campaign.
RPG Spain: What are your main inspirations when creating the setting and atmosphere of your games?
Kira: Depending on the theme or level I look for different inspirations from paintings/books/movies and games. My main inspirations for Lunacid were of course King’s Field IV and Shadow Tower Abyss.
JMagna: If I am not wrong, there will be DLC in the future. Could you share some details about it?
Kira: The DLC is still in very early pre-production, but it’ll be a continuation of sorts with new levels/enemies/weapons and story.
JMagna: What can we expect from you after Lunacid? We have seen that you have a loyal fanbase who is eagerly waiting for new content coming from you. Could you share with us a glimpse of what’s to come?
Kira: I have a lot of side projects on-going right now, but mainly I am planning a new surreal horror experience inspired by the source engine aesthetic and the scp foundation.
RPG Spain: What would you say to the players that still don’t know your games so they can be curious about playing them?
Kira: I’d say, they can always try my free games on my itch.io, that way they can get a feel for how I make games without a big investment.
JMagna: Do you have plans to release Lunacid on other platforms? If so, could you share which ones?
Kira: I do plan on releasing it on other platforms but I don’t know which one yet.
JMagna: With Lunacid receiving a new patch, more people will be able to enjoy your game in their mother language soon. As your Spanish (EU) translator, I want to personally thank you for choosing me to share your work with the Spanish fanbase. Do you have any message that you would like to share with them?
Kira: Thank you all for your support and I’m glad I was finally able to get a project of mine translated!
RPG Spain 