Nami’s yuri game Zeitz Machz weaves together a time travel mystery
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 Nami’s game Zeitz Machz, you wake up in a strange hotel room and are trapped with someone you thought had vanished from your childhood. The plot is complicated, but the art and feelings are beautiful, and I enjoyed trying to keep up with Ais and Alice as they discovered more and more revelations.
How long have you been making games?
For as long as I remember, it was 2 years ago. I figured this would be a good opportunity for me to learn English, and I was right. I have the chance to communicate/collaborate with developers from many different parts of the world, and as time goes by, my English keeps on improving.
What tools do you like to use?
I’ve only used TyranoBuilder and Ren’Py so far. I plan on tackling Unity in the future.
What themes or genres do you like to explore?
My forte is yuri (girl love). Overall, my go to themes are tragedy and depressing stories.
What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of making games?
I would say that my favorite aspects are all the activities that I have full control over: programming, asset making, communication between team members, marketing. The aspects of developing games that I hate are debugging and publishing, as these can be out of control. For now, I will try to stick to itch.io as publishing on other platforms such as steam and consoles proves difficult for our development process.
“Making a game, to me, is the same as cooking. More spices make the food tastier, but not every ingredient mixes well together.”
Is there a game that has affected you recently?
I don’t play new released games or triple A titles much these days, so you can say that I’m an old soul who enjoys old games. My cup of tea genres are JRPGs and visual novels. For JRPGs, it’s definitely the Persona series, Persona 4 completely changed my viewpoint in life and blew me away the first time I played it. For me personally, the special thing about the Persona series is that its amazing representation has successfully captured the vivid picture of Japanese culture and high school student mental problems in society. As for me, I even enjoy the dub version more. To this day, I still replay each every year and will happily buy them again when 3 and 5 get on Steam.
On the other hand, some of the visual novels that I often hold in high regard are the Flowers series and Aoishiro. I would recommend these to anyone who enjoys yuri/lesbian content in a heartbeat. Not only is the art great, but the way they handle the story and how they represent it really goes to show how professional they are and how genuinely devoted each staff member is in the making.
I still replay these from time to time. As a queer person, gaming has an enormous impact on my life, physically and mentally. I’m sure that without it, I would have been a completely different person.
Zeitz Machz is an apocalyptic time travel game. What inspired you to make it?
The drafted idea of Zeitz Machz was born a year ago. At first, it was only a romance story about two girls, Ais and Alice. But as I brainstormed further about it, I wanted to turn this into an apocalyptic setting, as this theme wasn’t explored much in the yuri fiction world. Making games about settings that few have explored is my greatest source of inspiration in my development career.
What was it like organizing the story, with all its weaving threads?
This is one of the most time-consuming activities in my development process. I threw away more ideas than I can even remember during the time I made the game outline. The most challenging thing for me is that I don’t know whether or not a specific point in the story is appropriate or that it can contradict what I wrote early on. In the end, all’s well that ends well as I decided to write as I wanted to read it and received good feedback. From there, I learned an invaluable lesson: to write as I pleased, knowing that I can’t please everyone all of the time.
The artwork is beautiful. Did you have a picture of Ais and Alice in mind, or did the artist decide?
For the art, I already imagine it in my mind. For the next step, I try to be as clear as possible and show my artist all the reference materials so that they can finish the job accordingly.
I prefer to let my artist fully decide what may be best in the scene after I have told them my idea, as I think this is the best course of action. Artists do their best when there is no restraint and it does go to show.
“As a queer person, gaming has an enormous impact on my life, physically and mentally. I’m sure that without it, I would have been a completely different person.”
There is one sweet night of romantic feelings, but that’s all. How did you decide what to include and where to stop?
As this is a short game, I think that one heavy romance scene is enough as the whole game revolves around this relationship. As much as I like to dwell more on it, this can make the narrative of the game fall off track and lose focus.
The theme of the game is exploring the mystery of the situation they were forced into. On that note, I try to include evidence or plot points that aid the player in their reading. Once the secret has been unveiled, I think it’s better to stop there. Making a game, to me, is the same as cooking. More spices make the food tastier, but not every ingredient mixes well together. It’s up to you to decide what fits and what doesn’t.
What do you hope players take away from this story?
No one is alone, even if you’ve done things that you can’t forgive yourself. There is no right and wrong, only consequences. Treasure the small things around you. Never judge anyone by their appearance or try to figure out what they think.
