When I started writing the fantasy book a few years ago, that later became the Visual Novel "Bottoms Up!: Part 1" I aimed for it to have some distinct characteristics. I wanted it to be as "different" and "original" as possible, mainly when it comes to the setting and the plot. Also I wanted the story to be small and personal, character driven and to resemble crime/investigation mysteries at lest somewhat. And last but not least, in my mind I didn`t want the overall style to be grandiose or overly dramatic.
This was a period, around the end of Highschool when I had just finished my first fantasy book (called "Whisperwind") and looking at my previous work, I was already thinking that it was looking pretty banal and uninspired. So for the second attempt I tried hard to stay far away from "the epic fantasy". At the time I was reading a lot of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, so I basically tried to imitate his humorous style and unique storytelling (although it is quite impossible I must add).
Of course in addition to pure literature there were a lot of games I took some elements of inspiration from. I will only mention a few of them here.
First of all I want to talk briefly about the classic point-and-click adventure from a German developer called "The Book of Unwritten Tales" (the game) which came out in the now distant 2009. This game brought me a ton of good memories and laughs and I will never forget it. It has amazing art and overall style. It was also very clever in it`s writing and storytelling, building of characters and here and there, making some good natured fun of popular games from that time (like the blizzard games).
Another amazing game that left a pretty big mark in my heart and work was the Trine series (the game). Curiously or maybe not really, it was also released around 2009 and at the time this game blew my mind! This was probably the fist time I saw a platformer, that blends 2-d perspective with the 3-d background, which a lot of people call half 2d or 2.5d nowadays. And yes in the storytelling aspect, the game was really interesting for me with this old school fairytale-like-narration.
The second chapter Trine 2 had this very simple, but pleasant and captivating Trailer, which I always tried to emulate when making some videos like this.
This is the Trailer for my Visual Novel
And finally this is the place I should mention a name, that has become insanely popular in recent times and of course this is The Witcher. Everybody knows what the Witcher is and it doesn`t need an explanation from me, but indeed it was one of my biggest inspirations as well. When I started writing, the first game has just came up I think, but I haven`t played it yet. I had started reading some of the fantasy novels thought. And ye I mainly loved them for the unconventional plot, the focus on complicated story details, characters and investigating different cases involving monsters, politics, crime and drama. Also the series focused on incorporating elements from Slavic folklore and combining them with some of the classic fantasy tropes and as someone form this geographic region I felt this style has a lot of potential I wanted to explore in my stories. But maybe in the end, the only aspect of Slavic lifestyle I really incorporated was having characters with drinking problems :D
Well this is all I wanted to talk with you about today. I have a lot more I would like to share if you are interested.
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