Behind the Scenes with Red Spring Studio
Red Spring Studio is a visual novel team created by veteran game developers from across the industry. Currently, they are working on TOUCHSTARVED, a gothic horror romance visual novel focused on a cursed individual who twists the mind of whoever they touch. Desperate to find a cure, they travel to Eridia, where they meet five monstrous individuals who may lead them to their salvation or their doom. Today, we sat down with some of Red Spring Studio's team members to talk about themselves and the game.
Tell us a bit about your studio, who you are, and how you got into game development!
Dev (she/her): I’m Dev, a co-director on TOUCHSTARVED.
Lulu (they/she): I’m the other co-director. 🙂
Dev: Basically, it all began with a bunch of friends who’d been working in the mobile visual novel space for awhile. We really wanted to make our own game, and that’s how Red Spring Studio came together.
Lynne (they/them, but everything’s cool): I’m Lynne, a writer on TOUCHSTARVED! Creating our own game is a scary, but exciting, challenge. We’re laying the train tracks as we go.
Allie (they/she): I’m Allie, a writer and marketing manager. I got into game development through friends on the team after having been a long-time fan of the genre. After being on the sidelines of Dream Daddy’s development, I was itching to help make a VN myself.
Many of you are veteran developers from companies such as Bungie, Nix Hydra, and Riot. One of you also does video production for Game Grumps! Can you talk to us about how you all manage to balance your day job with working on TOUCHSTARVED and your other responsibilities?
Lulu: TOUCHSTARVED is a labor of love with the team working on it in their free time, all while balancing full time jobs and other projects.
Dev: Getting to make your own thing is incredibly freeing and incredibly terrifying. It’s been a learning experience for all of us learning to put out consistently high quality work while avoiding burnout.
Allie: I think the key to the balance of both a project of this scale and a full time job is true enjoyment of both things. It’s definitely false to say “if you do something you love, you never work a day in your life,” but it is true that it makes the project into, like… a hobby that only coincidentally is work. Since I’m a potato, making TOUCHSTARVED is just what I do instead of other things like going to the gym or going out on Friday nights. And most members of this team have donated two years of their Friday nights to these sexy monsters.
Lynne: It’s a tough juggling act, but in the end, we’re all putting this work in to make something that we’re proud of. That’s what keeps us going.
Lulu: The fanart keeps me going personally.
Lynne: Yeah, the coffee helps too.
What is it like to be an indie game developer working on your own game?
Lynne: The studio and project have come a long way from a couple of us throwing around ideas in an apartment! Since we’re a pretty small team, we’re constantly learning new skills and ways to solve problems.
Dev: It’s all fun and games until you realize that you’ve got to fix your own bugs.
Lulu: Dev makes a lot of memes instead of bug fixing.
Allie: And I make the bugs while they’re not looking
TOUCHSTARVED is a gothic horror romance visual novel where you go to a town to find a cure for your cursed touch: anyone who you touch has their minds horribly twisted. Can you talk to us more about the project and how it was conceptualized?
Dev: When we first started, we’d have these long calls trying to find a common element for the game that got us all excited. For some reason no one would listen whenever I mentioned yanderes.
Allie: Lynne was particularly vocal about sexy monsters. And I encouraged it.
Lynne: Look, the more limbs they have, the more appendages there are to hold! I just want to date the eldritch horrors beyond human imagination, don’t call me out like that.
Lulu: Appendages… 🤔
What is it about horror that you love? Is there a specific piece of media that made you fall in love with horror?
Dev: There’s this theory that the appeal of horror lies in how it allows you to explore your anxieties and fears around death, but like in a safe way. I’ve always loved ghost stories and horror movies. As a kid, I watched a lot of Ghostbusters and way too many low budget old horror movies. I’d say Guillermo del Toro’s films, especially the ones with heavy horror vibes, continue to be a big inspiration for me.
Lynne: I really got hooked on horror short stories first, because it made my imagination go wild. Thinking back on it, I’m really captivated by horror media that makes use of ‘negative space’, leaving room in implication without spelling things out, and letting me draw my own conclusions. Reading The Mist really sticks out in my memory, and I also used to play old Resident Evil games and scare myself so badly I couldn’t finish them!
Allie: Everyone’s answers are very deep and smart, I have to just agree. I was a casual horror movie lover my whole life but only for the cheap thrills, and the unique quality of horror media is that if it fails at thrills, it often transforms into comedy. Emily Carroll’s comics are what truly got me into horror in a way beyond simply being jumpscared or bravely laughing off fear, that it had complexity and nuance
With TOUCHSTARVED being a horror and romance game, how do you manage to balance those two genres together without either one overpowering the other?
Dev: I think it’s about following the horror with catharsis–that rush and emotional release you get after a scare. That’s a good place for intimacy and emotional connection, like the calm following a storm.
Lynne: I personally think romance is a little inherently horrifying. There’s vulnerability in letting someone else come close, lowering your guard, revealing all your flaws and foibles, and trusting them not to hurt you. Emotionally, it parallels the physicality of reaching out to a monster, and it can have just as dire consequences if things go wrong.
Allie: Vulnerability in both genres is definitely a huge part of it. The pursuit of romance as well as running from something you fear, but maybe don’t truly understand are narratively alike, so I think they compliment each other easily.
There are five monstrous, hot love interests in TOUCHSTARVED: Ais, Kuras, Leander, Mhin, and Vere. Do you mind telling us more about them and the team's design process for them?
Vika (they/she, Art Director and Character Designer): Our goal was to make an indulgent, memorable cast with characters strong enough to stand on their own. The difficulty laid in having to create a world from scratch and wanting it to feel fresh. That meant that the designs became the first stage of worldbuilding. It was pretty difficult, because that pre-production work sets the stage for the rest of the game afterwards. I like to think both practically and narratively when designing as there’s a lot of things to consider—how characters talk, how they move, what themes to emphasize. We designed Ais first; then the rest of the cast had to hit the same standard and look like they exist in the same world. Ais took the longest and went through many iterations. His final design ended up changing his route entirely. 👀💦 Overall, it was a collaborative process. For example, tight lacing became a key part of Mhin’s design due to the narrative team’s input and its relevance to their themes.
Lulu: Vika is very smart.
Lynne: Mhin’s theme is repression.
Vika, you talked about the importance of the character designs and how they ultimately shaped the world you all created, with Ais' route changing because of his final design. Can you and the rest of the team talk to us about how important character design is when trying to tell your story?
Vika: Because visual novels are so character focused and art focused, the job of a character designer is to support the storytelling by drawing the eye to specific parts of the character. A good character design defines what's appealing about a character in a very clear way, and lends to what kind of route they'll have. When these charm points are very apparent, it also makes a writer's job easier when trying to bring them to life, because the design already has a lot of depth to it.
And if you can, exactly how many iterations did Ais go through before he ended up with his final design?
Vika: Ais went through at least 4 rounds not including his tattoos or the small details like necklaces, shoes, or jewelry. His hair was particularly difficult to get right–we had to balance length and how disheveled it looked since it kept changing when we drew him early on. Ais has a very specific aesthetic to maintain, so we had to get it right for his sake 🤭 If you want to see exactly how Ais evolved from the beginning, be sure to keep an eye out for a future artbook…
Out of all the love interests, who is everyone's favorite? What about the players' favorite?
Lulu: The good thing is that since this isn’t a live service game, character popularity doesn’t drive our game development. Since we’re making what we want, we get to focus on creating a sexy cast that excites us, and we all get to be individually indulgent with our own contributions.
Dev: I’ve found that in a lot of my favorite games and media, the characters and moments that shine are the ones that clearly came from the creator’s heart. Every single character in TOUCHSTARVED has had so much care poured into them. I think that’s really clear in the design and writing.
Allie: Actually Leander is the best character. Everyone likes him. No one dislikes him. His boobs are too big for hate to have room in his heart :)
Given this is a horror game, how dark should players expect the story to get?
Allie: The game is meant for mature audiences, so there will be a content warning at the beginning.
Lynne: There are plenty of themes in TOUCHSTARVED that are hallmarks of gothic horror: isolation, destruction of self and others, the past haunting the present, the decay of bygone grandeur…
Dev: It’s way darker than any games I’ve worked on before. I finally get to have endings where the main character dies horribly…there’s even one hidden in the demo!
Lulu: That’s my favorite ending!
Your Kickstarter campaign is releasing in the spring. What sort of rewards will you be making available to potential backers? Will there be any stretch goals, and if so, what are they?
Lulu: I wanted to make boobie mouse pads. They didn’t make the cut, but one day…
Dev: One day…
Lulu: Being serious, the team is working really hard to design a ton of physical merch as well as DLC content. Our first stretch goal will be partial voice acting for the full game.
Lynne: I’m really excited for everyone to see the final result of what I’ve been seeing in the merch threads 👀
Dev: I fully plan on burying myself under a mountain of our charms as soon as they’re out.
Allie: At 200% funding the foot reveals are unlocked.
Lulu: (That’s not true.)
Anything else?
Lulu: We’re only a very tiny part of the bigger Red Spring Studio team, and there are many other extremely talented people working on TOUCHSTARVED. Thank you to the team for all your hard work, you’re the most wonderful and badass team I could ever ask for, and of course thank you to everyone who has supported TOUCHSTARVED so far!
Dev: Thank you! Our Kickstarter’ll be coming soonish, so follow us on Twitter or other hellsites for updates!
Allie: Thank you for having us!
Lynne: It’s been really amazing and humbling seeing everyone’s love and support. Thank you!
If you would like to stay up-to-date on all things TOUCHSTARVED, follow Red Spring Studio on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. You can also follow some of the studio's team members on social media to see what they're up to: Allie, Dev, and Lulu.