Articy: Please shortly introduce yourself and the team at Studio Hip Sword.
Saylor: Hi! I’m Saylor O’Malley, a developer, writer and co-founder of Studio Hip Sword. We’re a small, fledgling team from New Zealand. Brett, RJ & Jen helm our art. Rhys is our sole programmer and Yogev is our amazing composer. Honestly, we’re really just making it all up as we go!
Articy: HipWitch is a heart-warming puzzle exploration game that blends modern day witch culture and 90’s nostalgia with its quirky personalities and light humor. Where did the idea for the story originate from?
Saylor: The idea has shifted throughout development, but it first spawned from Woonyoung Jung’s ‘Witch road trip’ piece. Witches with cool sneakers and access to the internet seemed fun, so we went with it!
Articy: The game went through a full rewrite for demo 2, can you tell us what improvements you made to the story?
Saylor: HipWitch’s early writing lacked any oomph. Our characters were fun but nothing more. During the rewrite we focused on defining our key characters. We made sure they’d remain fun to interact with, but developed more personal themes and emotional weight.
Articy: At which point in development did you decide you need to use a professional game writing tool and what made you opt for articy:draft?
Saylor: We’d actually been using articy:draft for about a year prior to starting development on HipWitch. We opted to put our previous project on hold, but we knew going into the next game that articy could help streamline the writing process. So we’ve been using it from the very inception!
Articy: Can you share how you used articy:draft for your game and what kind of impact it had on your development process?
Saylor: I’d have to say the biggest impact articy has made on development didn’t stem from a particular feature or functionality, it came from its sheer ease of use. As a first-time developer myself, writing within the game engine or code itself was so daunting! Other solutions like notepad or spreadsheet software turned out to be unwieldy. Seriously, articy:draft breaks down many of the barriers found in video-game writing and lets me focus on the writing.
Articy: Which features of articy:draft did you find the most useful?
Saylor: When it comes to developing with a team, articy’s export feature was very important. Being able to upload new versions of the script for someone to import into the game helped streamline our workflow. There is a whole list of features I’m excited to dive into on our next project.
Articy: If you were to give a small piece of wisdom to a new studio starting their very first game, what would that be?
Saylor: Whether it be game dev or other interests, make a start. Ignore the odds that others might say are stacked against you. Be patient and humble as you learn and build on your limitations. Our entire team works around part-time jobs and other obligations, don’t feel like you need to wait for the perfect opportunity to get started. Game development is a rewarding experience and if you have an interest in it, make a start.
HipWitch is available:
On Steam On itch.io
