作为我的访问系列的一部分，我在我们的RPG Maker Web社区与一些著名的开发者/贡献者进行了交谈，从而了解他们对自己工作的看法。今天我将与Ronove展开交流，他是活跃二人组Star Cadets中的一人，创造了传奇的《偷星王子》，充满前途的《Homework Salesman》的第一部分，以及大受欢迎的《偷星王子》续集《Ephemeral Prince: Fleeting》。

Ronove，真心感谢你能接受我们的这次访问。首先，能否跟那些还不了解你的用户介绍下自己。

你们可以叫我Ronove，我今年25岁，同时涉猎了写作，艺术和电子游戏制作等领域。我毕业于2011年，从那时以来我便一直在各种不同的创造性项目中穿梭着。

你拥有非常独特且华丽的艺术风格。你是如何做到这点的？

我不知道自己是怎么做到的。从二年级开始我就一直坚持画画，并最终发展到现在的样子。有些人告诉我，就像在几年前看到的那样，他们仍然能在现在看到同样的风格（而我则希望自己有所成长，我也的确成长了），但从根本上看来这只是关于始终如一地坚持做某事，并总是尝试着比之前做得更好。

我的意思是，你可能看到我为《偷星王子》所创造的画像和图像，并将其与我为《Gorlami》，《Volrath》和《Artbane》创造的相比较，甚至与我现在所做的相比较（即我上传到tumblr或博客上的作品）。你可以看到自从2011年，也就是当我开始创造《偷星王子》时，很多内容发生了改变。

这就像是你通过不断地实践而进行完善，对吗？所以你是从很小的时候便开始画画了？

是的。我记得在二年级的时候，我很羡慕一个画画很厉害并得到许多关注的女生，所以我便决定像她那样开始画画。也许现在回想起来好像有点糟糕。好像我通过画画想得到的只是关注！但似乎一切也因此而展开。

你获得13个misaos（游戏邦注：是针对RM社区的独立游戏所颁发的年度奖项）奖项中的9个。而其中只有11个是符合你们条件的。你是如何看待《偷星王子》所取得的成绩？

我真的不知道《偷星王子》能够取得这样的成绩（说实话，如果只有少数人在玩它的话我也会很开心），但当计算《偷星王子》在Misaos中所获得的奖项以及其续集《Ephemeral Prince》所吸引的粉丝数，你真的会觉得不可思议。我所做的只是利用成长过程中所玩过的游戏（如《Chrono Trigger》，《Lufia》，《Earthbound》）的机制而创造一款自己想要玩的游戏。

然后我便创造了一个围绕着注意力的故事（我的意思是允许你无需了解背景故事而玩游戏），并不会给予玩家任何繁琐的主题之类的内容。我只是想要讲述一个故事，而我想要创造它的方法便是在RPG Maker中。显然这引起了一些人的共鸣！我也因此收到了许多表示对游戏的喜爱的电子邮件，在tumblr上的帖子也得到人们的疯狂讨论。这真的让我获得了满满的成就感并充分感到了玩家们的热情。

Star Stealing Prince（from rpgmaker）

这真的是个有趣的故事。加之你还有所谓的“糟糕结局的续集”《Ephemeral Prince：Fleeting》。你是如何享受于编写这些内容？

关于《Ephemeral Prince：Fleeting》的结局还有两章节。我是否喜欢编写这些内容？说实话，这真的很让人沮丧（因为就像你所知道的，这是一个带有糟糕结局的续集），但幸好我喜欢读者所呈现出的反应。昨晚我公开了其中的一个章节，并得到了许多人的喜欢。所以我想自己应该是喜欢编写这些内容的，因为有着来自用户的支持作为动力（看到人们喜欢我所创造的角色真的很高兴，因为这意味着我所做的一切都是对的）。如果我缺少了编写的对象，我想我也不可能坚持到现在。

有趣的是，《Fleeting》的故事超过6万字了，而基于完美结局的《Permanence》则带有10万多个字，所以说实话，我真的非常乐于编写这些内容。

所以按照你的说法，你已经完成了《Permanence》的编写？如果是这样，这真的太让人惊讶了。

我还没完成啦！关于10多个字的目标，我还有11个章节要写。自从5月以来我一直都在编写《Fleeting》。现在几乎快完成了。当没有其它事情并且故事能与我产生共鸣时，我便会是一个高效率的作者，并且到目前为止读者们一直带给我很大的帮助。不过说真的，单单着眼于我在这个夏天所编写的内容真的还蛮惊人的。

但这可能是因为在完成《偷星王子》后我就想要创造这些续集。所以当现在开始编写时，我便能够很顺畅地写出这些内容，并因为能够将整个故事写在纸上/屏幕上而兴奋不已。这真的是很棒的感受！

《Homework Salesman》是你所创造的一个非常棒的项目。这是一个强调地牢探险，完成任务，制作装备/道具并帮助别人的生化模拟游戏。到目前为止，即从第一部分开始，它便展现出巨大的上瘾性。

能否跟我们手下你们两（即Star Cadet的另一位成员Diedrupo）是如何想出这个理念，像《Rune Factory》以及《Atelier》是如何帮助你们创造出这款游戏。

我想应该由Diedrupo来回答这个问题，因为他才是《Homework Salesman》的主要策划者。

Diedrupo说道：这是在我玩了《Rune Factory Tides of Destiny》和《Atelier Totori》的游戏过程后，VX Ace也同时出现了。所以我决定基于这两款游戏的启发创造一款自己的游戏。我一直都很喜欢这类型游戏，因为它们真的很让人上瘾，而且创造者类型游戏也很有趣，因为你知道人们将花时间在这上面。我想要创造一款玩家具有完整的目标并且可以通过做工艺，收集物品，捕猎以及探索等任务而在游戏中“过着”每天的生活的生活模拟类RPG。Reniat会帮助城镇里的人，更好地了解他们，揭开秘密并花钱扩展城镇。工艺元素主要是受到《Rune Factory》的启发，而RPG元素是源自《Atelier Totori》。我们最初是想像《Rune Factory》/《Harvest Moon》那样进行每天/每晚循环，但后来决定基于AP系统，因为基于每天/每晚系统来说，NPC时间安排将需要大量的工作。

《Homework Salesman》的有趣事实是什么？这是RPG Maker VXAce预告片上的一款游戏。在我们真正将游戏推向玩家前能够获得这样的推荐真的很棒。

真的很棒！此外，能否说说你是怎么遇到Diedrupo？你在现实生活中就认识他吗？你们是何时开始合作的？

我是在RMXP.org遇到他的，他很喜欢我努力在获取演示版本的一款游戏，我不记得我们到底是如何认识的了，但当VX出现时我们便开始进行合作，因为他可以负责编程工作，而我对此则一窍不通。我为他的一款VX游戏《Razkertim》绘图，然后他为《偷星王子》创造许多脚本语言，如此我们意识到彼此可以有效地共事，所以我们便开始忠于对方。我们总是能够填补对方的弱势，并很清楚自己在做些什么。我不是很认可游戏的VX版本，尽管这是他的游戏，但我也为游戏的XP版本奋斗过。

Homework Salesman（from rpgmaker）

酷。你已经致力于许多创造性项目中。我是指文字方面。

是的，但很遗憾的是许多项目都未曾问世。我是个完美主义者，所以我有三本因为未获得有效编辑的小说被搁置在满满的灰尘堆中。我并未曾计算过自己曾经参与的RM游戏，因为我总是在看到其发光点后很快转向其它全新的项目中。

我将列出你所参与的几款游戏：《偷星王子》，《Ephemeral Prince》，《Maladaptive Daydream》，《Yac and Vel》，《Rainbow Circuits》，《Strings》，《Homework Salesman》，《Sunrise God》，《Nepenthe Heart》和《The Ash Curse》等等。

你竟然能说出这些名字！《Yac and Vel》实际上是Diedupo的小说。最起码，我想完成《Maladative Daydream》，《Rainbow Circuits》以及《The Ash Curse》。《Ash Curse》是推动我走向《Maladative Daydream》的踏板（因为我为这款游戏创造了图像）。

所以你关于未来的计划是怎样的？你已经提过想要成为一名出版作家。

是的！我现在仍朝着这一目标前进！为此我必须改掉完美主义的毛病。但关于未来我还有另一个计划，就是通过我的创造性项目而被人们所认识。这不一定是关于小说，显然我喜欢创造游戏。但不管做什么，我只是想确保自己在做些具有创造性的事，因为如果我不这么做，我会觉得自己的生活没有一点意义。

有时候我也会有这种感觉。我忘记提到你地其它游戏所作出的贡献了，如画像之类的内容。我知道你曾与Gorlami共同致力于Oneirophrenia。这真的很棒。

我为《X-Noir》创造了画像。我喜欢尽可能地帮助朋友，因为我很欣赏具有创造性且坚持于某一项目的人。我同样也喜欢给予别人关于其游戏的一些独特建议，因为这能够帮助它们在长远角度上做出更好的表现。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

INTERVIEW: RONOVE TALKS ART & CREATIVITY, THE MISAOS, AND “EPHEMERAL PRINCE: FLEETING”

By thatbennyguy

As part of my interview series, I’m speaking to prominent developers/contributors in our RPG Maker Web community to gain insight on their inner workings. Today we speak to Ronove, one half of the dynamic duo Star Cadets, that created the legendary Star Stealing Prince, the hugely promising first part of Homework Salesman, and the widely read webnovel and sequel to Star Stealing Prince, Ephemeral Prince: Fleeting.

Thanks for agreeing to have this interview with us, Ronove. First off, tell our audience exactly who you are, for those who may not know.

Obviously you can call me Ronove and I’m just a 25 year old who dabbles in writing, art, and making video games. I graduated college in 2011 and since then I’ve just been working and doing various creative projects.

You have a very unique and beautiful art style. How did you get so good at it?

I don’t know how I got so good at it. I’ve just been drawing since second grade and it just sort of blossomed into what it is now. Some people tell me like from years ago they can still see a similar style then to now (I hope I’ve improved, I really do), but it’s basically just all about doing it consistently and always trying to do better than what you did last.

I mean you can probably see the portraits and images I did for Star Stealing Prince and compare them to what I’ve been doing for Gorlami, Volrath and Artbane, and even in what I’m doing now if you found my tumblr or my wordpress site. You can tell there has been a lot of change since 2011 when I did SSP.

It’s like anything, you improve by doing it, right? So you’ve been drawing from a young age?

Yeah I have been. I remember in second grade I was so jealous this one girl was so good at drawing and got all sorts of attention, I just decided to start doing it too. Which sounds bad right now, haha. All I wanted was attention! And it just blossomed from there.

You won 9 misaos out of 13. And only 11 of them you were eligible for. What do you think went so right about Star Stealing Prince?

I really don’t know what went so right about Star Stealing Prince. I didn’t really think it would get as big as it did (honestly, if only a handful of people played it, I would have been happy), but if you count the Misaos SSP won and then count the fans I have following the sequel, Ephemeral Prince, it’s mind boggling. All I did was create a game I wanted to play and I used mechanics and the like from the games I grew up with (Chrono Trigger, Lufia, Earthbound), and made that work all together.

Then I created a story that hinged on paying attention (I mean granted you could play the game without delving into the backstory) and never tried to give something to players that was too heavy handed on themes or whatnot. I just had a story to tell and a way I wanted to say it and smooshed that all together in RPG Maker. Clearly it struck some right chords with more than a few people! It still makes me incredibly happy to get e-mails of people telling me they loved it, posts on tumblr of people raving about it, comments on either RMW or RMN. It just makes me feel accomplished and warm and fuzzy inside.

And it was such a good story. Plus, you have something you call the “sequel to the bad ending”, Ephemeral Prince: Fleeting. How are you enjoying writing that?

I’m actually two chapters away from the end of Ephemeral Prince: Fleeting! Do I enjoy writing it? Well, it’s depressing (since you know, it’s the bad ending sequel, how can it not be depressing?), but sad to say, I love the reactions my readers have given me. I just posted a chapter last night that had a bunch of people like devastated–like really. So yes, I enjoy writing it because I enjoy the reactions people have (I know, that makes me sound horrible, hahaha, but it’s so fun to see people so attached to the characters I made and all that because it means clearly I did SOMETHING right). If I didn’t have people to write for, I don’t think I would have gotten so far.

Fun fact: Fleeting is over 60k words and the good ending sequel, Permanence, is a staggering 100k+ words, so yes, I enjoy writing this thing immensely.

So you’re saying you’ve already finished writing Permanence? If so, that is a staggering thought.

I haven’t even finished it yet! At over 100k words, I have 11 chapters left to write. But I’ve been writing Fleeting since about May I think? And I’m just now almost done posting it up. I’m a very quick writer when I have nothing to do and clearly the story resonated with me and the beta-readers who have helped me work out the kinks so far. But yes, it’s a bit staggering looking at how much writing I have done this summer alone.

But that’s probably because I’ve been wanting to do these sequels since I finished Star Stealing Prince. So since I’m able to do it now, the pen flows with ease and I just feel exhilarated finally getting the full story down on paper/screen. It’s a really nice feeling!

Homework Salesman is a very cool project of yours. It’s a life simulation with emphasis dungeon exploration, completing quests, crafting equipment/items, and befriending people. So far, from the first part, it proves wholly addictive.

Explain how the two of you (you and your fellow Star Cadet, Diedrupo) came up with this idea, and how influences like Rune Factory and Atelier helped you form the game.

I should probably get my fellow Star Cadet to give me his answer and I can add one of my own. Let me go poke him really quick for that cause he was the main brain behind Homework Salesman.

<a little later>

What Diedrupo says: It came about after I had a back-to-back gaming session of Rune Factory Tides of Destiny and Atelier Totori, and VX Ace came out around the same time. So I decided to make a game inspired by both. And I’ve always been interested in that kind of game because you’re right, it is really addictive and making that kind of game is fun because you know people will get their time well spent out of it. I wanted to make a life simulation style RPG where the player had an overall goal but could “live” out their daily life in the game via tasks like crafting, gathering, hunting, and questing. Reniat can befriend the people in town and get to know them better and also unlock secrets and pay for extensions to the town. The crafting element is heavily inspired by Rune Factory and the RPG elements came from Atelier Totori. We originally thought about a regular day/night cycle like in Rune Factory/Harvest Moon but decided on the AP system since accounting for NPC schedules in a day/night system is a massive amount of work.

Oh and fun fact about Homework Salesman? It was one of the games in the RPG Maker VXAce trailer. So it was just cool enough to be featured in there before we even had it out for people.

Oh wow that’s fantastic! By the way, while we are on this topic, how did you meet Diedrupo? Do you know him in real life? Where did your collaborations begin?

I met him back on RMXP.org (am I old? I think I am), and he was a fan of a game I had out for demo then (Memento Vivere) and I can’t remember exactly how but we started working together when VX came out since he can do programming and I so totally c33annot. I did a lot of mapping for one of his VX games, Razkertim, and then he did a lot of scripting for Star Stealing Prince and we realized we worked really well together so we kinda stuck by each other. We fill in what the other isn’t the best at and clearly we’re still doing good. I don’t think the VX version was ever released though of his game, but I had done battlers for the XP version of that game as well.

That’s cool. You’ve worked on a ton of creative projects it seems. I mean, a literal metric ton.

Yeah I have, but it’s sad to say not many see the light of day! I’m too much of a perfectionist so I have like three novels sitting collecting dust because I can never edit them enough. Not counting all the RM games I’ve dropped working on because I go “oh shiny” and start working on a new one, haha.

I’m just going to list a few of the many games you’ve collaborated on: Star Stealing Prince, Ephemeral Prince, Maladaptive Daydream, Yac and Vel, Rainbow Circuits, Strings, Homework Salesman, Sunrise God, Nepenthe Heart, The Ash Curse…

You have all the names! You were just waiting to show me that list weren’t you. Yac and Vel is actually Diedupo’s novel though! So at the very least, I want to finish Maladative Daydream, Rainbow Circuits, and The Ash Curse. Ash Curse is merely getting me ready for Maladative Daydream (because oh my gosh, the art I have to do for that game).

Fantastic. So what are your plans for the future? You’ve mentioned you want to be a published author.

I do! And I’m still working on that! I just have to throw out my perfectionist nature. But my other plans for the future is just become known through my creative projects. It doesn’t just have to be novels, I’ve clearly made a liking of making games. But whatever I do, I just want to make sure I’m doing something creative because if I don’t, it just doesn’t feel like my life has much meaning.

I feel the same sometimes. I mean, I forgot to mention contributions you’ve made to other games, like portraits and stuff. I know that you’re working with Gorlami on Oneirophrenia. That’s some good stuff.

And I made good portraits in X-Noir. I love helping out my friends though in any way I can because I love it when people are creative and when they stick to a project. I also love giving people some kind of unique touch on their games if I can because it just makes it all the more better in the long run.

Last question: 5 favorites.

Favorite food?

Fruit Gummies which are probably so bad for me.

Favorite actor/actress?

Can I do a voice actor or actress? B: Sure, why not Okay so my favorite voice actor is Troy Baker (he has a very nice voice no one can convince me otherwise) and my favorite voice actress is Mary Elizabeth Mcglynn (she has a very nice voice too). I’m not good with regular actor or actresses names so I hope that’s a good answer, haha.

Favorite ice-cream flavour?

Black cherry ice cream!

Favorite musical artist/style?

I like almost anything but the ones that I listen to the most is punk rock. I really like Bad Religion and I think this is more the rock side but Rise Against too. Those two have been really inspirational for me since I was a kid. I bet real punk fans are giving me a look now. I can almost feel it.

Favorite day of the week?

I like Wednesday because by then I’ve probably been productive on first days of the week and if I haven’t, I know I can plan to be productive the next part of the week so it doesn’t feel like I wasted my week.

Thanks Ronove for your very very valuable time. You are awesome.

This was fun! Thank you for interviewing me.(source:rpgmaker)