Lilith's Child Game Studios
Yassou! Today we have another developer interview for you, this time with Lilith’s Child Game Studios, the creators of indie survival-horror games Bring Her Back and The Light will lead you HOME. These hidden gems use unique graphic styles to create an atmospheric experience that you won’t want to miss. Better still both games are available to download on their website right now.
The small, 2 woman studio has shown a real flair for tone and art direction, and we’re really excited to see what they come up with in the future. As we’ve detailed in previous interviews, we’re big fans of the low-poly resurgence taking place in the indie world and this does not disappoint. Read on to find out more!
Firstly, tell us a little bit about yourselves and how you got into game development. How was Lilith's Child Games formed?
We are Vicky and Elena from the lovely island of Cyprus!
Since we were young, we have loved playing video games. Growing up we studied Computer Science (in different universities) and for a master's degree we decided to combine our love for video games and programming. So in 2016, we enrolled in the same master’s degree for video games design and development. After working together on a project, we became fast friends. Later on, when we finished our master’s degree, we decided to continue making our own video games so we formed a team together and called ourselves “Lilith’s Child Games Studio”. Our name "Lilith’s Child" derives from Lilith’s myth (the first woman in Jewish mythology) that says that Lilith was cursed by God to not give birth to children. So we decided to name our studio “Lilith’s Child” in order to represent something “miraculous” for us, because there are so many talented people and great games out there that it would take a miracle for us to stand out.
Currently we work full time jobs as Software Engineers and in our free time we follow our passion: making video games!
Could you please give a little detail on the kinds of games you like to make?
We love to create 3D, single player, story driven, horror, adventure and puzzle video games for PC. We are planning to create video games for mobile as well.
Both Bring Her Back and The Light will lead you HOME seem to have quite distinct styles. How do you design these games?
First of all, every one of our games starts as a small idea and we build on it. Most of the time we make a simple draft of the game’s script and then while developing the game, we make adjustments and changes depending on the resources we have. We have very little resources for humanoid characters and animations or 3D assets in general, so we always look for help, if anyone is interested.
What is your creative process like?
We are mostly working separately at our own time but we arrange meetings so we can give feedback to each other or brainstorm about new ideas and plans.
Speaking of which, we notice you have a Patreon where you allow your community to have an impact on your creative decisions, how does that work? Do you find the process useful when designing and refining your games?
It’s very important to receive our fans' opinions and feedback. It has helped quite a lot until now. When we are stuck with a creative decision like which font to choose or when we are not sure what option is better, then we always ask our fans. Also, we always test our games before releasing and during testing, we receive a lot of helpful feedback and we always take it into account.
The footage for both games look really fantastic. We're big fans of low poly stuff here! There seems to be a resurgence in games using similar graphics/mechanics as those from the PS1/PS2 era, why do you think that is?
It must be because people tend to feel nostalgia for their childhood. You can revisit your past and memories by playing these games. I think retro graphics with horror elements look really cool and sometimes even more scary than modern graphics. It gives a tone of mystery and not being able to make out a distant image, your mind runs wild with the scary possibilities!
What else do you have in development, and do you have anything interesting that you can share with us?
We currently have another horror game with psx graphics in development. We can show you some unreleased screenshots. In addition, we are making changes to our first game, The Light will lead you HOME, in order to upload it on steam. Also, two of our games, Magverese: The Riddle House and My Faceless Crew, that have been in development since we formed our team, are currently being redesigned with the new knowledge and resources that we acquired.
What current and past games do you enjoy playing and what kind of games inspire you?
Vicky: I play FPS and RPG games that focus on the storyline. Among my favourite series of games are Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Bioshock and Borderlands but Oblivion is my favourite game ever. Currently, I am playing The Operative: No One Lives Forever, which is a retro fps game, and Stray. I am inspired by horror games and horror stories. I really love indie horror games, there are so many gems!
Elena: I enjoy playing all kinds of games depending on the mood and time available of course. When I was a kid, I played games like the Street Fighter, Sonic the Hedgehog and RollerCoaster Tycoon. Recently I mostly enjoy playing single player puzzle and mystery games like L.A. Noir, Little Nightmares, and Sherlock Holmes. All those games and many indie games inspired me but for a game to inspire me in general it must keep my interest and curiosity of what is coming next and/or having innovative mechanics and/or an intriguing scenario.