Recently, Kickstarter Harem Protagonist caught the eye of many oprainfall volunteers. We reached out to Starbeam Studio and they were able to provide some kick ass pictures in our initial write-up of the game. We just couldn’t get enough and so we decided on a group effort email interview. We opened it up to everyone who volunteers here to add questions, and we sent them off (even the goofy questions!).
The following is the result of our group effort interview. Thank you so much to Starbeam Studio for going along with all of our questions and giving us an inside look at the game.
About Harem Protagonist:
You are the Harem Protagonist!
This is an animated Visual Novel/Dating sim game that will play on the tropes of the Harem genre, and YOUR choices will determine where your story leads.
Our story starts out with you being born into a new and fresh Harem Show. You’re the main character, and oddly enough, you’re aware of that. With the help of the Narrator – a semi-omnipresent voice that only you can hear (because protagonist privileges, bruh) you now have the quest of conquering the hearts of several hot anime chicks.
Let’s just hope that you’re good enough for the task. Handling so many sweethearts will be a challenge!
OR: The “Maid Mode” stretch goal only notates an alternate skin. Is there any chance of events being based around the mode appearing? For example, a maid café or having a chosen girl be your personal maid for a day?
SS: Yes, totally!
OR: Harem Protagonist is a very ecchi friendly game. Was this something you wanted to do, or did you see a need for a game like this in the current climate?
SS: It’s something I wanted to do, I friggin love ecchi.
OR: Will the “Yuri Harem” stretch goal have the girls react differently to the protagonist if they are female, or will the story be very much the same as the male route?
SS: Correct, they will react and interact differently.
OR: Who is Starbeam and what would say your overall creative vision is?
SS: Starbeam is a kind of composite entity formed by me and everyone who helps me out. Think of us like a Megazord. The goal is to make impactful, memorable and enjoyable games.
OR: Why did you want to make Harem Protagonist?
SS: I have an immense passion for the Visual Novel format and I love creating interactions between player and game. And if I make some earnings while doing that, then that’s a nice bonus.
OR: So far you’re only a few days in and you’ve almost hit your goal. Are you surprised by how quickly people have jumped on board the project?
SS: No. I’ve always believed in Harem Protagonist. However, those who have backed the project are really the ones who deserve the most praise, because they are the ones who have given us these amazing results. I’m extremely thankful to all of them.
OR: How confident are you in the team you’ve put together to help you with Harem Protagonist?
SS: Very confident. I’ve known several of them for years now, with some of them being my literal adolescence idols. They’re fantastic.
OR: According to the Kickstarter, only 15% of the already pretty low Kickstarter goal will be going towards animation. How are you managing to animate things for so cheap?
SS: Technique. Making more animations for a model that is already rigged (2d image turned into a 3d-like puppet) is trivial, and I already have several rigged models for every character. I do want to improve them though and add more range of motions (different arm positions for example). The textures have already been prepared for that, but the “base” is already there.
OR: Anything you’d like to tell our readers?
SS: Dedication and persistence pays off. It’s never too late to start working on your dreams, readers!
OR: How long did it take you to create the demo?
SS: Eight months, but the demo’s entire written script was done in a month.
OR: Did you run into any particular difficulties while designing demo?
SS: Several technical ones related to Live2D. Live2D’s code has no commenting nor documentation in English, so I had to use a lot of trial and error.
OR: How exactly does the Stat system work and how does it tie into unlocking events?
SS: Currently, in the prototype demo, its just a glorified “Pass the day” button. In the future it will be implemented to influence the success and availability of events (Carrying Izumi’s bags for example), as well as your academic success (for example, if you don’t have X Intellect by the time of a certain exam day, you will fail it, which will influence what events you can access from then on).
OR: Has it been difficult getting the game to run on Windows, Mac, and Linux?
SS: Yes, getting it to run at all has been the main challenge lol.
We talk about the upcoming H-patch and more on the next page!
