A WINGS Exclusive Interview with Yoyu Li, developer of Whispers in the West
Yoyu Li is a UK-based game developer with over 15 years of experience in the game industry, including the founding of her studio Infinite Whys in 2019. Yoyu’s experience includes narrative design and writing for Reigns: Three Kingdoms, as well as producer and narrative designer on the studio’s latest release: Whispers in the West — an intriguing murder mystery co-op for 1–4 players. WINGS recently spoke to Yoyu about the project and its development, and to learn more about what inspired her career in games.
How did you first come to work in games?
As a fresh graduate, I started my own business in the games industry to be a board game publisher. It was successful, but as I have a background in tech, I left the industry to pursue a career in tech for a few years. I decided to come back to games in 2020 because I missed the creative aspect of game development.
Were there any special experiences, programs or events that drew you to games?
I always liked playing games since I was a child. My father was running a shop selling early game consoles and cartridges. My favourite game was Super Mario. When I was little, one day, I just decided to start writing simple games like Rock Paper Scissors.
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in your game development journey?
Besides some of the obvious challenges, such as funding and discoverability, I think the number one challenge in game development remains “how to make a good game”. A good game starts with a good idea, but doesn’t stop there — a good game is a series of good ideas well-executed. Sometimes, a game is well-made but fails for the ideas; sometimes, there are good ideas, but not executed as well. End of the day, the backbone of keeping good ideas flowing and well-presented is to have a great team.
Your latest game is Whispers in the West. Could you tell us about your inspiration for the game and what makes it unique?
Whispers in the West is a point-and-click murder mystery game for 1–4 players. My inspiration for the game stems from my experience as a board game publisher — I’m a believer in “games are better with friends” — then I realised there are very few narrative adventure games that can be played between friends. So we started brainstorming ideas for a multiplayer murder mystery game, which turned out to be Whispers in the West.
The unique selling point of the game is that you can solve mystery cases with friends. Each player in Whispers in the West plays a role — you can be either a sheriff, a deputy, a cowboy or an outlaw — each role has its unique advantages and disadvantages. So players have to work together to solve the cases in time. There is a lot of debate and fun.
What kinds of challenges exist in making this particular game, and what solutions have you found to overcome them?
Whispers in the West is a narrative adventure game that can be played solo or with friends. We have overwhelmingly positive feedback from players who played the game, in particular, in co-op mode. But not everyone plays co-op games, or they believe they prefer playing solo. At the same time, in an external test, we had a point-and-click gamer who explicitly said he didn’t like multiplayer games. But he walked out of the playtest finding the co-op mode “engaging and fun”. So, our greatest challenge was to get people started playing with friends.
One of the solutions we find is through pricing — Unlike most co-op games on Steam, we allow guest players to join the game using the free demo. So they don’t need to own a copy of the game as long as the host bought one. This message is very well received by gamers.
That is a great way to reach new players! How did you assemble the team required to make Whispers in the West?
The initial team of Whispers in the West was formed through Kickstart Scheme introduced in the UK during the pandemic. The Kickstart Scheme is a programme that encourages employers to create jobs for young people. Alexander Lee, Sebastian Moreno-Arroyave and Stefan Lewis came up with the initial concept of Whispers in the West. William Noble joined soon afterwards. Together, they developed the first playable prototype.
A couple of core members, Rosalyn Meney and Thomas Davies, were hired through the IntoGames community.
So for the majority of the team, this is their first time working on a video game project in a professional setting. I take pride in being able to guide young people through the development journey and give them the opportunity they deserve. I think Whispers in the West proved they are capable of achieving amazing things.
Your game is also funded in part by WINGS — can you tell us how you discovered WINGS and your experience?
I don’t remember when I started following WINGS on Twitter :-)
WINGS has been a supportive and understanding community. It gave us the creative freedom to make a game that we wanted to make. I’m also impressed by the fact that almost everyone at WINGS is running the show only as a second job. I can’t imagine how some of them juggle multiple professional roles and personal life. They deserve our respect.
How has your experience in games impacted your outlook/career as a game developer?
This is the first video game that I delivered from the beginning to the end as a producer; and we also self-published the game. It gives me countless invaluable insights into the PC game market, especially the Steam platform and influencer marketing. The competition in indie games is still fierce, but the experience gives me more confidence to continue developing games as an indie game developer.
Do you feel the games industry is more receptive to women and gender-diverse people now, as compared to when you began in the industry?
Yes, absolutely. When I started in the games industry 15 years ago, I experienced a lot of uncomfortable incidents that can be called “sexism” nowadays — only at that time, no one called them out, even myself, because some behaviour was considered the norm back then.
Now the game industry is more receptive to women and gender-diverse people is also because our players are much more diverse, and they want variety in games. If we have just one type of developers, we are prone to be blindsided to repeat the same formula. We need diverse people to make diverse games.
What is interesting is, through spending over 100 hours observing players solve cases in Whispers in the West, we realised how much diversity matters even in a co-op game. The most meaningful collaboration in Whispers in the West is, in fact, not the complimentary character skills players have, but covering each other’s blind spots! Everyone has their own thinking pattern, which sometimes makes them ignore clues that may be obvious to others.
What are your next plans for Whispers in the West?
As the next step, we are going to work on a story editor to allow players and creators to write their custom stories. We will also release a new case as a DLC before the end of the year.
In the meantime, we continue looking for partners for specific regions. Currently, we only offer the base game in multiple languages, not the DLCs. If any regional distributor is interested, we’d like to translate more content into more languages.
Is there any advice would you give a fellow game developer who aspires to be like you?
Making games is hard; making indie games is even harder. If I was driven by money, I probably couldn’t have completed the project. I believe I’m never 100% in control of the outcome, but I can enjoy the process. Work with nice people, and make something fun.
