Benjamin’s virtual pet Virtoojin lets you choose your own adventure
The Queer Games Bundle is a collection of nearly 600 items by LGBTQ+ creators and teams, nearly 400 of which are independent video games, all sold for just $60. I’m talking with creators from the bundle about their games and their making habits. Visit the bundle and consider buying it.
In Virtoojin and Epiphlaphobia, Benjamin has created a shared world where you customize and interact with regular objects in interesting ways. Virtoojin is a virtual pet whose body and surroundings you can turn into your own uploaded images. Epiphlaphobia is a clicker endless runner where you’re fleeing a haunted dresser.
How long have you been making games?
I have been working on games since 2014. My first ever public game, or rather, a big pile of seemingly random ideas, Qulqer, can be considered both a spiritual and technical predecessor to Virtoojin, both of the titles being pet simulators featuring similar looking robots (the current design of Virtoojin being created for the original’s spin-off) from space rescued by scientists from destroyed ships. It is also good to point out that the newer title’s first names, used through most of its early stages of development, were Qulqer Jr. and Qulqer 2, later switched to RoboBud / RoboBud Rebooted (due to “Qulqer” being a quite hard to translate pun on the Polish word for a small orb), then eventually replaced by the current one.
What tools do you like to use?
Currently — Clickteam Fusion, HTML5 and Python. When I first started, I also created games with Scratch, RPG Maker and App Inventor (which I still sometimes play around with).
What themes or genres do you like to explore?
I like exploring everything from platformers to puzzle games and have a big love for arcade throwbacks, due to my father specialising in such classic cabinets. I’ve also always been fascinated with virtual pet simulators, playing multiple such titles for many hours (one of my favorites being Nakayoshi Pet Advance Series 3: Kawaii Koneko, known outside of Japan as Ubisoft’s Catz for the GBA) and trying out both new and old releases of Tamagotchi or other similar electronic eggs.
What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of making games?
My favorite aspect is definitely coming up with interesting ideas and realizing them, even if obstacles appear. The least? Most likely realizing after the publication, that the newest update I have uploaded and published on hosting websites, breaks features finalized prior to the changes.
Is there a game that has affected you recently?
I’ve recently been replaying Super Mario Galaxy on my Switch, due to having great childhood memories of being the second player, while supporting my father in his Wii playthrough. It has an amazing, cute and enchanting aesthetic and it definitely was one of the reasons I picked up game design in the first place. Its portrayal of space has possibly inspired the core of Virtoojin’s plot, alongside Disney-Pixar’s WALL-E.
Virtoojin is a virtual pet complete with an entire nested operating system environment. Why did you decide to make it?
Well, most pet simulators only let the user do so much. The idea of opening up the world of the game and expanding the immersion further is one I had for a long, long time (since at least revisiting the first concept in 2016). My goal was to enhance the player’s experience by allowing them to entertain their pet in many different ways, while also having fun themselves.
There’s so much customizability, including of the pet itself. What was it like building that out?
The whole concept is based on cheap Tamagotchi rip-offs commonly available at Polish bazaars and stalls. They commonly feature the option to choose your pet from a vast library of pixel art creatures (a lot of the sprites being made to resemble popular characters). Playing around with these made me realize how cool it would be to have such a simulator with an even bigger selection.
Since preloading a huge number of infringing images into a title is a really bad idea from the legal standpoint, plus I’d almost certainly wouldn’t be able to adhere to everyone’s tastes, my decision was to let the player import their own files instead. (I’ve also later expanded that idea to include both the interior and exterior of the player’s laboratory.) One of the nicest memories related to that aspect was being able to see the streamers, who received the title for testing, have a blast turning the game on its head.
How was it to make the interlinking apps in the game — the music player and so forth?
It was quite interesting and required a decent bit of trial and error. Making them operate via the user’s main browser allowed for really decent compatibility, alongside the playback not requiring any specific, additional codecs.
Epiphlaphobia is an endless runner set in the Virtoojin cinematic universe. Why did you want to make it?
The core idea behind it was mostly the result of a conversation with my best friend, during which she told me about a creepypasta she once read. Its topic was a haunted IKEA with meat-eating chests of drawers, the story probably being inspired by SCP-3008. When it comes to the whole cinematic universe aspect, I like to believe all my games share the same universe. I always loved putting in cameos and trying my best to connect them with each other in other cool ways, whenever that’s possible (like allowing to send over points between titles).
It’s so funny and creepy that it’s a dresser. Why did you do that?
That flashback of hers definitely became a big inspiration. Plus, I believe dressers to be quite interesting pieces of furniture — especially vintage ones, with a little bit of history.
