Behind the Scenes with Delphinium Interactive
Sam is a visual novel developer who released her first visual novel, Tidal Blossoms, back in 2020. Now, she has released many more projects such as Whispers Through the Wall, Reflection, and Graveyard Girls. For this interview, we sat down with Sam to learn more about her, her journey in game development, and the various games she's made over the last few years!
Hi! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into game development?
Hello and thank you for having me on VN Game Den!
My name is Sam, I’m a visual novel developer and the owner of Delphinium Interactive. I’ve worked as a narrative designer on several indie horror games, but my current work is visual novel development.
Gaming is one of my earliest memories, sitting on the floor playing Ocarina of Time in my grandparents' living room immediately comes to mind. Many nights were spent playing Halo and Smash Bros in my parents’ basement with my friends. I still vividly remember making my 8th birthday party a game tournament (I did not win).
During the summer before my last year of high school, I applied for a job as a freelancer at a gaming news website. It was a year-long contract and it lit a fire inside me; I loved writing about games!
Despite the freelancing, I didn’t see game development as a career option until I started college. Around that time, my dad unexpectedly passed away and my life changed drastically.
His passing led me to write a deeply personal tribute to him online, and it caught the eye of a friend I’d met through gaming conventions. He’d just started his own indie game company and needed an editor. I accepted the offer, and my role grew into a narrative design position a few years later.
That’s how it all began!
One of your early projects was Tidal Blossoms, a BxG romance VN which was later cancelled. Can you talk to us a bit about why you decided to end development on the project?
Tidal Blossoms was the first project I ever created in Ren’Py. It’s the game that led me to become a visual novel developer, but I never created Tidal Blossoms with the intention of it being a public project.
As my confidence grew, I challenged myself to see what others would think of it. I commissioned the necessary artwork and assets, and by the time I published it on itch.io, I felt certain that I wanted to develop visual novels.
I decided to make a small project for NaNoRenO 2020 to challenge myself and continue to learn Ren’Py, which became the demo for Starlight Shores.
I immediately felt a deeper connection to the characters and project because I love writing short stories! I knew that Starlight Shores was right for me, and the game jam experience led me to set Tidal Blossoms aside and create smaller-scale projects.
Tidal Blossoms was an excellent way to learn what kind of stories I want to write and I’m grateful for the lessons it taught me.
In any creative endeavor, many people have a hard time letting a project go even when that’s the best option for the project and the creator. Did you have any hesitation when it came to cancelling the project?
I left the project alone for a while to make sure I was ready to let go. Doing that helped cement that I was ready to move on. I felt a small degree of hesitation because I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, but in the end, I didn’t let that hold me back and I went forward with formally cancelling the project.
Cancelled projects are lessons and we need to make mistakes to learn and grow as developers.
Do you have any advice for those who are hesitant about canceling a project?
It’s a good idea to ask yourself why you’re hesitating to cancel it.
The experience of making games can be fun and rewarding, but it can also be incredibly stressful. It’s important to examine when a project is burning you out or isn’t meant to be finished.
It’s okay to let go and accept that a cancelled project isn’t a personal failure!
Starlight Shores, a BxG romance that takes place in the same town as Tidal Blossoms, was released on October 30, 2020. What about this project worked compared to Tidal Blossoms?
The scale of Starlight Shores was much smaller, but more importantly, I felt a connection to the story and characters. I’d stay up late coding and writing because I loved making the game. The drive to finish Starlight Shores was there from day one. Once the demo launched, I put all my time and energy into finishing it. It captured my attention in ways that Tidal Blossoms never did.
Starlight Shores is also a commercial title. Marketing a commercial project can be harder than a free one because it has a price tag attached to it. So, what were some of your strategies on getting this project out there to the eyes of your target audience?
Having a demo to give players a taste of the game is very important to me! Many reviewers indicated that the Starlight Shores demo was what led them to eventually purchase the game.
A demo gives you a chance to gather player feedback that you might’ve missed during QA testing, and a fresh perspective can help shift development in the right direction. It’s one of the most important steps that I took.
On a side note, I enjoy sharing sneak previews and mini devlogs on Twitter and Itch.io to help demonstrate how development is coming along. It’s nice to remind players that the game is still on track.
Your next release was Graveyard Girls, a yuri Halloween-themed VN where two grieving girls, Elle and Lucia, meet at a cemetery. What was the motivation to create a project like this?
Graveyard Girls is a deeply personal project that I poured years of emotion and experiences into.
Losing my dad suddenly when I was on the fringe of adulthood changed my life, and I wanted to share a story about how impactful grief is, even years after the loss of a loved one.
Lucia was the perspective of fresh grief while Elle demonstrated the complicated and traumatic aftermath.
I wanted to create a game that handled death honestly, not shying away from the darker details that people tend to keep to themselves. I tried to stay away from touching on any religious topics so that it could speak to a more universal experience.
I’ve since learned that the game could be classified as “death-positive” although I was unfamiliar with the term when I started developing Graveyard Girls.
Keeping on the spooky theme, you later released Reflection, a horror game made for O2A2! Horror is a tough genre to pull off, since you need to build up tension in order to scare the viewer. Given the limitations of O2A2, can you give us some insight on how you managed to pull such a wonderful game off?
When I pictured Reflection in my mind, I clearly saw Ivy in that dark room calling out to an evil spirit. Given the limitations of the jam, I understood that the body of the story existed in that pivotal moment.
My goal was to illustrate a fragment of a truly horrifying experience, instead of telling an entire story in such a limited setting. Breaking the concept down into the smallest version of itself was challenging, but I loved it.
Honestly, I can’t wait to participate in 02A2 again in the future!
Many of your titles are romance or have light romantic tones in them. Can you talk to us about what makes for a compelling romantic story?
Although I don't believe that characters need to immediately become attracted to each other, in my own stories, I try to emphasize the novelty of the "first meeting".
It's also one of my favourite scenes to write.
Creating a moment when that first spark is felt by both the characters and the reader is important. I tend to focus on playful dialogue and excited energy.
It doesn't need to be a magical moment, but it should be memorable.
It's the foundation of their future intimacy, so while I try to be realistic with occasional stumbles and awkwardness, the goal is to craft a situation where the characters want to see each other again and explore their feelings.
I want the audience to know that when the characters leave that situation, their potential love interest is already occupying their thoughts because they felt some chemistry, even if they question what it could lead to.
Due to my preference for short stories, these early scenes tend to carry more weight than if I was creating a longer story. A strong opening can be told through a character's desire to see that person again
You’re about to host your first-ever game jam, Blossom VN Jam! Can you tell us what made you decide to create Blossom VN Jam?
Personally, I love seasonal game jams. Having participated in both Spooktober and Winter Jam, I found myself thinking about the thematic possibilities of a “spring” VN jam.
I’ve also wanted to get involved in hosting jams within the VN dev community, so Blossom VN Jam was created! I’m incredibly excited to see what kind of stories are submitted.
What were some unexpected hurdles you encountered when creating the jam? Do you have any advice for future jam hosts who wish to start their own jam?
I’d suggest focusing on creating clear rules as to how you’re running the jam and what the participants should expect.
I wanted to create a “comfort jam” to help participants avoid stressing themselves out, so they’re welcome to start development before the jam, and unfinished works can be submitted and improved upon afterwards.
Developers need to consider scoping their projects to fit development timelines, but this jam isn’t about concrete rules, and I wouldn’t want anyone to hesitate to join because they felt a demo or partial submission wouldn’t be welcome.
Personally, if you were to create a spring-themed visual novel, what would it be about?
100% a cottage-core yuri romance! There’d be lots of picnics, gardening, and cozy afternoons spent bonding… I often start writing stories with those kinds of little scenes in my head, then I try to stitch the story together to reach that point. I’d also love to revisit characters from previous stories and bring them into a wholesome spring setting with themes of personal growth.
What are you currently working on that you would like to tell our readers about?
First, I’d love to share that Graveyard Girls will be coming to consoles with the help of Penguin Pop Games! We don’t have a release date currently, but please keep an eye out for that in the future.
I’m slowly working away at creating a continuation of Reflection which I’ll be sharing more updates about as assets are created and milestones are hit.
I’d love to encourage any devs interested in joining Blossom VN Jam to visit the itchio jam page, we hit 65 participants with a month and a half to go before it begins.
Thank you so much for having me, I loved chatting with you!
If you would like to keep up to date on Sam's games, you can follow her on social media; you can find all the links on her Linktree. Additionally, if you would like to check out the publisher for the console port of Graveyard Girls, Penguin Pop Games, you can check out their website here.