Toffer is a promising up-and-coming developer for lewd games. He worked alongside Maranyo Games for My Neighbor is a Yandere, and would later form his own team. For clarification, that team would go on to develop Hikari! Clover Rescue, a short lewd story set in the future. He’s now working on Hikari! Love Potion, another lewd journey this time taking place in a fantasy setting. With a noticeable jump in quality between each title, it’s the perfect time for people to discover this eccentric developer.
1) Let’s introduce you to the readers. Who are you?
Hi, I’m Toffer. I’m 28 years old and I’ve always been a big fan of video games, especially Japanese ones, and anime. I grew up playing visual novels and eroge (yes, I admit I’ve been a perv since a pretty early age). I remember that my first contact with a game of that style was Season of the Sakura, among many others that I managed to get there in the late 90’s. At that time, getting those kind of games wasn’t as simple and accessible as today. So I basically played as much as I could in my old computer that barely ran DOS games.
I studied music since I was a teenager. I learned to program (although it’s not really my forte, I always found it interesting), then I got a game designer degree in 2012 and finished a film related career specializing in classic screenplay. It could be said that my multiple passions for art in the form of music, film and video games have motivated me and led me to do what I do today for a living, which I think is totally incredible.
Since I was a little child I used to draw and write my own stories, characters and comics. I was a pretty creative kid, I think I had it in my blood from the very start. But to be honest, if 15 or 20 years ago someone told me that I would be making erotic anime-style video games for a living, I couldn’t believe it at all. That dream always seemed crazy to me, especially in those times. I think that, around 10 years ago or even less, without the tools and accessibility that we have today thanks to the internet, it was practically impossible to be known outside the local scene. Just to think of making a living out of video games in any form was a completely crazy idea!
2) Tell me more about this latest release you’re working on. What is Hikari! Love Potion?
Hikari! Love Potion is, as I like to call my games, a “lewd adventure”. In this new one, we put ourselves in the role of Yuuta, an average man bored of his past and his routine, which from one moment to another meets Sophia, a beautiful princess elf who tells us that we’re the Messiah of an ancient prophecy of her lands. She then teleports us to a medieval fantasy world where after a fierce and mysterious war, 99% of men have been exterminated and women live mentally dominated and brainwashed by a cruel and ruthless corrupt goddess.
From here on, it’s our duty to travel throughout the region convincing the most important and influential girls of each map to join our party and help us restore peace to the world. How will we make that happen? Well… with the help of the Love Potion! This mysterious blend will help the brainwashing effects go away and return the girls to normal status, but with a lewd side effect that’ll make their deepest and most latent sexual desires come to light in an almost uncontrollable way.
Our mission will be not only to make the beautiful girls join and help us, but also to calm those desires by having sex with them, until we can form our elf harem and face the final boss of the game. We’re working really hard to make this game happen and release it as soon as possible, I can’t wait for you to play it!
3) Talk to us about the cast and setting. What were your inspirations?
The game takes place in a medieval fantasy setting, a continent where 99% of men have been exterminated during a fierce and mysterious war, and all women are being mentally dominated by a corrupt goddess. The game has five main heroines, each one of them with their own story, personality and goal, with whom we’ll be able to romance and make several dialog and action decisions that will define how we advance in the game, get them to join our party and of course, have several lewd scenes with multiple options. The cast consists of Sophia, the cute and lovable elf princess that will help us from the very start; Agnes, a fierce and serious elite knight; Iris, a shy elf/neko maid; Rinu, a powerful and sexy succubus, and Beatrice, the corrupt goddess and main antagonist of the adventure.
As I mentioned before, I was always a big fan of Japanese games, including of course Medieval JRPGs. I have really fond memories of one especially that I loved when I started playing hentai games. That one was Knights of Xentar, a very spicy RPG adventure where we could explore and interact intimately with several girls in a fantasy world, it had it all! The game looks old now of course, but I think since then, I’ve dreamed of making a game with this theme, and if it’s a hentai one, even better! Elf girls were definitely always one of my weaknesses.
4) It’s a common thing for developers to not go with the first draft for a game. How many alternatives did you think about before you settled on the current version of Hikari! Love Potion? What was different?
To be honest, I haven’t had many drafts for this project. Unlike Clover Rescue, where some characters and scenes of the story underwent several changes until they reached their final version, the creative process of Love Potion characters and world in general was quite straightforward, as I had them in mind for quite some time. I’ve changed several aspects of the script and added more interaction and branching options to both the main adventure and hentai scenes than what I did in my previous titles, so it can be said that it’s a natural evolution of them. I always like to add new elements, experiment with various options and take into mind the opinion of the fans to know what to improve in my next title. I think that’s something very important and vital in the development process.
5) Your previous release was Hikari! Clover Rescue. Can you tell us about the Hikari portion of your titles?
This is a great question since it is something that I haven’t yet talked about openly. While the two games of the Hikari! series don’t have any significant relationship with each other, that is, they can be played separately and in any order without having played the previous one. What I want to create is a series that makes players know that every time they play a Hikari! title, they’ll experience a harem style lewd adventure, where they will have to progress through different settings, meeting beautiful waifus and be intimate with them to achieve our final goal, having a nice lewd time while building our harem. I plan to start new series in the future focusing on different styles of storytelling and gameplay, but I can’t reveal much of it yet since it’s all in a really early stage.
6) There are so many aspects to take into consideration with a visual novel. Who is helping you make the Hikari! series a reality?
Making a video game is a long and often complicated process. As you mentioned, there are many aspects to consider, and most of the time things do not go as expected on the first attempt. Fortunately, I currently have a wonderful team of artists, musicians, editors, programmers and voice actresses that help me translate my ideas and make them come true. We are currently a team of around 15 people per project, and I’m very proud of everything that we’ve been working on and achieving. Fans are also part of it, since their support is vital to motivate me to do what I do, and keep going. The love from the people is something simply amazing.
7) You told us you also worked on My Neighbor is a Yandere, a more suspenseful entry in comparison. Can you tell us what working on that adventure has been like? What did you learn from it on route to making Hikari! Love Potion?
The two My Neighbor is a Yandere titles have been my first projects to officially come out, and I really have a very special place in my heart for them. We started planning the first one exactly two years ago. At that time, It had been several years since I wanted to start a hentai game project so I met with a programmer friend, Pichinep, who was also eager to make video games and I basically said something like “let’s do a hentai game”. He wasn’t that aware of visual novels but as a good fan of anime and man of culture he replied with a “alright, let’s do it” and that’s how it all started.
We launched the first title in July 2017 with almost no budget at all, with very little experience in releasing and selling video games but with a great passion. The game actually became a much bigger success than we expected and was very well received by the people. It was a very fun trip and it helped me learn a lot of the process of creating a video game, it made me meet wonderful people and get into this fantastic world which is my life today, and helped me form Toffer Team in parallel a year later and start the Hikari! series. With Maranyo Games we’re currently working on a new hentai visual novel called Aisu Paradise, which takes place in the same universe as the Yandere games, and is already in its final stage of development. So please look forward to it!
8) So far, you have unique stories and casts in very lewd situations. Personally, what drives you to make these sorts of games?
Well, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been a little pervert for most of my life. There was always something that captivated me in hentai in general. Eroticism, sensuality and adult content in general were always a factor that caught my attention when they were present in video games, even when this was not the most important or main factor of it. That’s why I suffer every time I see that some game is censored, or has cut-off content, to not offend some minority that probably does not even play video games. I think that by now, adult content should stop being so taboo and frowned upon. But hey, I don’t want to beat around the bush. Basically, I have grown up consuming hentai of all kinds, and every time I have a new idea and project in mind, I try to capture in it what I’d like to see or play. Making these lewd adventures is really my passion, I put a lot love and enthusiasm into each one, and try to make them better and better every time to provide the best possible experience to the fans.
9) Usually developers aren’t very vocal with fans outside of game updates (even starting out). However, it seems to be the opposite with you on Twitter alone. Does that active communication bring you joy as a developer and do you encourage more people to do it?
Of course! I really love being in constant contact with the fans, I feel very lucky to be able to do it, knowing that there are people all around the world who enjoy what I do and take the time to get in touch within social networks, leaving their comments and interacting on daily basis. It’s totally amazing fun and one of my favorite parts of the job. I love to know what people think of everything I do, I love to share details, jokes, memes, and opinions of my games with them and of course, get to know the fans better and better. Receiving their love and knowing that with my games I can make a person happy at least for a moment, THAT is the most gratifying thing ever, there is nothing more beautiful than that. But words would never be enough to thank you, so my form of returning my gratitude is by trying to bring to life the most beautiful and sexy waifus that can ever come out of my mind for you to enjoy them in all their splendor!
10) Is there anything you’d like to say to fans, both potentially new and old? Anything you’d like to reveal?
Thank you very much, thank you for accompanying me on a daily basis, thank you for giving me strength and motivation every day to do a better job. I really feel very lucky to be able to do it and share my passion with you. I hope you enjoy Hikari! Love Potion a lot when it comes out and… I can’t say or give many details at the moment, but I have a couple of new plans and projects for the next months of the year, this is far from over! So please stay tuned!
