Laura Lanford’s first game, H2O, is a visual novel made in just 48 hours
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.
Laura Lanford is a game developer in Brazil. Her game H2O dates back to 2015, but she translated it into English for this year’s Queer Games Bundle. It’s a short story with multiple endings based on how you guide the pivotal character, a water mage transported to a world with a water shortage.
How long have you been making games?
H2O is my first completed game. I wrote and programmed the entire thing on my own in under 48 hours during a game jam weekend of 2015. Before this title, I did had some ideas, tried to program in tools like Ren’Py and RPG Maker, but it always felt like experimenting, didn’t really make any full games.
What tools do you like to use?
For H2O I used TyranoBuilder, it was a brand new tool for Visual Novels back then and I had a good time using it. Before, I really enjoyed using romhacking tools to change things up in existing games, things like hexadecimal editors to change up text and other parameters in games. After H2O’s development, I did a new Visual Novel in a Kinetic format using Ren’Py.
What themes or genres do you like to explore?
Horror have been a passion of mine ever since I was a child — I was like 7 years old when I watched movies like Child’s Play, Elm Street, already had full conscience it was all fictional, so I had fun instead of feeling frightened by it.
I like it the best whenever I can make the audience “feel” something, anything really, so in any kind of story I write, adding a touch of the strange and speculative is essential to make people think about it and have a lasting impression.
What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of making games?
Making things happen just the way I wanted them to, the moment when the code is “just right” and no errors are displayed, that must be among the best feelings in the world =)
But making things often feels like a lonely process where I don’t have feedback from others because I feel like I can’t present an unfinished thing, developing in the dark is scary because of the lack of input and the uncertainty of it all.
Is there a game that has affected you recently?
I’m going to consider “recent” as the last one thing which mostly had impact on me: Life is Strange series, most specifically the titles developed by Don’t Nod. I love their stories and characters, the way they bring the twists to the audience like a punch to the guts. As someone working on writing fiction, they served me a great deal of inspiration, in fact I only began writing short stories as a serious work after playing Life is Strange in late 2016, so I’d say they improved me as a person and influenced my life as a creative being.
H2O is a short visual novel about some schoolgirls who find a water mage. How did you come up with the idea?
H2O was created for a 48-hour game jam where the required theme was “water” so I thought of a short mystery, something which should have a simple solution to it because there was a short time to make everything happen. In day one I looked up for music and graphic resources which could be used for free, and that’s how the characters got set, so I began writing the entire text and it all came up naturally.
During day two the text got finished along with the parts where there would be choices, then it was time to put the entire thing together in TyranoBuilder. By the time the game got compiled, it was around hour 46, so there was even enough time to test it before submitting.
You’ve just translated the game from Brazilian Portuguese for the first time, right? What was that like?
Earlier I mentioned I used to play around with games by changing their code through hexadecimal editors, I did enjoy translating games from English to Brazilian Portuguese back then, but now is the first time I’ve seriously worked towards translating something the other way around. While not being a native English speaker, I really hope to have translated it the right way!
Almost 30 years passed from the time I decided to learn English, and it’s been a constant learning to this day since new terms and slangs surfaces all the time.
This worldbuilding feels bigger than just this small game. Is there more from these characters in your catalog?
I did had a bunch of ideas back when it was written, and would’ve surely done more on it if only the game development time allotted was bigger. Nowadays I write about other characters, these I can tell have many stories yet to be told!
From the water shortage to the choices at the end of the game, there is a theme of “unintended consequences” here. What do you hope players take away from the game?
Whenever I watch a movie, play a game, read a story, and can’t predict the ending, I love it. Being able to write a story with multiple endings, I like to flirt with the unpredictable! Whenever the player had fun or felt dumbfounded by it, that’s the intent, so if you reader haven’t played H2O yet, please do experience it by yourself!
Most importantly . . . If you were an elemental mage, what element would you be??
Although my star sign, Leo, is aligned with the fire, I’d like to be able to manipulate air instead. Making things levitate would be useful, maybe I’d even be able to fly by myself!
