NOTE: This interview was conducted on July 17th 2023, Originally for SAGE '23.
Hello! And welcome to the first Christmas SAGE Interview (of two.), In this interview I'll (Rummy) be checking up on Molegato, creator of the hit game, Frogun! Without further ado, let’s check up on them.
Molegato: Hi Rummy! I'm fine, I've been working on some models today.
Rummy: (Laughs) That’s great, I can assume it’s for Frogun Encore?
Molegato: Actually it's a different secret thing! Frogun Encore's development is almost ready, so all assets are made. At this point we're only polishing and making sure it launches as smoothly as possible.
Rummy: Oh wow! Already? Well that's exciting, I'm shocked you were willing to speak about already working on another project.
Molegato: As I said, it's still a secret thing, and I'm still focused on Frogun Encore. It's just that at this point, all visuals for the game are done. Right now I'm working on small tweaks, fixes and getting it ready for launch, with the help of Top Hat studios.
Rummy: That checks out honestly, Excited to see what you have in mind. Now let's try to Segway here. So! How did you get yourself into game development?
Molegato: Well, ever since I was a child I liked videogames. They were these mysterious adventure worlds that I often didn't really understand, as they were all in English. So I daydreamed about what else in those worlds I hadn't found yet. And made lots of drawings.
(Here's a normal screenshot of RPGmaker 2k3.)
Molegato: Of course nothing I started making there was ever finished, until much later, already in my twenties, but it was already a hobby of mine.
Rummy: It's interesting how many people from non-English regions have played video games that only included English. Speaking personally. I was born in a French Province and learned English during my early childhood via the media around me, which included Video Games.
Molegato: That's definitely a one-of-a-kind experience I'm sure a lot of people can relate to. I suddenly got a lot better at English when playing the modern Sam & Max games, without even noticing. I'm curious what other games did that to other people.
Rummy: In my case, I never played any word heavy games during that time, except that i read a lot of English Manuals, like one of my favorites was the manual Donkey Kong Country Manual.
Molegato: Game manuals were the best! Here in Spain, most games had one in Spanish, even if the game itself wasn't translated. I had a lot of fun working on Frogun's manual, too. I tried adding lots of little bits of art and some humor in it.
Rummy: There's a manual? Well I better read that after the interview (Laughs).
(Rummy from the future, I really need to read the manual, it looks wonderful.)
Molegato: I had just finished working on Supersonic Tank Cats, and since that game took three years to finish and had me pretty demotivated, I decided to work on a very small game. A platformer with a simplified hook shot mechanic.
(They're Cats, They're Tanks and They are Supersonic!)
Rummy: So Renata was the first thing you designed, neat! I was meaning to ask from my question list. How did you land with Renata's Design?
Molegato: The design was made in almost a single sketch, very little changed as I really liked the first version. Only her hat and some colors changed a couple of times.
(Where it all started.)
Molegato: Not at all. The hats were added as a stretch goal during the Kickstarter campaign. I always love some customization when possible.
Rummy: Right, how could I forget this game was a Kickstarter title! Well I'm glad to hear that it succeeded.
(Frogun was a crowdfunded title, It reached its goal of 5,000 Euro in two hours and reached 31,488 Euros at the end of its campaign.)
Molegato: Well, at first Encore was going to be a small level pack. But what really pushed me to work on Encore was the feedback. There's a lot of divisive opinions on Frogun, and while most of them are due to mismatching expectations (some people expected Frogun to be a very easy, almost childish game, and didn't take well the old-school challenge on the later half of the game), there was a lot of very good feedback about stuff the game lacked or should be more polished on.
(Frogun Encore is here! With a brand spanking new metallic shine.)
Rummy: Ah that's really cool to hear you are tweaking so much of the game design for Encore! It's weird to me hearing people feel divisive about the game's difficulty because, probably due to my prior experiences with the game back in SAGE 2021. I never had a hunch it'd be an easy-going game by design. I guess it speaks to how visual design can push an idea of a game's identity for better or worse.
(A screenshot from the original Frogun!)
Rummy: I think there's a charm in Frogun in how it plays and how it wears it's inspirations on its sleeves really. It's good arcadey fun.
Molegato: Always happy to hear that!
Rummy: Of course! (Laughs) So to wrap it up, based on what you've shared of Frogun Encore, Jake and Hatter will be joining Renata on her new adventure! How do you suppose Jake came to lend his support?
Molegato: In the last levels of Frogun, Jake realizes that Renata wasn't there to steal treasure, and decides to help her. At that point they become friends and she spends each summer with Jake and Hatter vacationing. Jake is still a bit of a brainless kid, but he's got a good heart.
(The trio seems very coordinated!)
Molegato: I'd like to say, and I'm sorry if it sounds a bit repetitive (I always say this every chance I get!), that players should always remember games are made by people just like them.
We developers love videogames and make them with whatever resources and experience we have, embracing our limitations but pushing against them because we genuinely care about the games.
Molegato: So it's a bit disheartening when people assume a game made by one or two passionate developers is the product of a huge corporation, and judge it in that light.
Or when someone dunks on an indie game for fun, not realizing that the devs will read that and feel it in their bones. We all need to learn that devs and players are and should be friends, since we all love videogames.
(Must be fun sliding through sand, except when you get sand in your shoes.)
That was beautiful. This was Molegato. Be sure to check out Frogun, which is available on PC, Switch, Playstation and Xbox. As well as Frogun Encore which it’s demo is currently available here in SFGHQ! Below we’ll have Molegato’s Socials for you to keep up with their endeavors. Thanks for reading!
FROGUN ENCORE DEMO
-DOWNLOAD HERE-
FROGUN
-STEAM - SWITCH - PLAYSTATION - XBOX-
MOLEGATO
-LINKTREE-
INTERVIEW BY: RummySM
