The beautiful, emotional music score from Micamic emphasizes this feeling.

How did you two meet, and what was your working process?

Did you have prerequisites, or was he free to compose?

I’ve found him on the Adventure Creator forums (an excellent asset that I’ve used), asking if anyone was looking for music for their games. I got in touch with him, and after I shared the concept for the game with him, he was in!

For each track, I would send him a mail describing the situation and emotion of the scene I needed music for, and some links to references of the kind of music I was looking for. He would then work on it for a few days, and send me the file. We would then discuss back and forth about possible changes to the track, what could be added or changed, and what experiments could be pulled off, until we were both happy with it!

India’s indie game scene has seen quite a few projects coming out these past years, and I feel it’s just the beginning.

As an insider, do you feel the scene changing and growing?

Definitely, especially when held in contrast to about a decade ago, when I’d first given up on my dream to become a game developer due to the absolute lack of industry presence in the country. Now, the effect of the indie game industry’s explosion over the past 6–7 years can be seen slowly bleeding into the country. We’re still quite mobile focused here, but there are a bunch of console/ PC games in the works as well, which is really cool to see. Attending the NGDC conference held in Hyderabad in 2017 was a really interesting experience, as I’d never before seen so many fans of video games at the same time in this country! It’s just the beginning, and there’s a lot of talent here for every game development related field. It’s gonna be cool to see what the future holds.

We hear a lot of criticism — and rightly so — about the state of the indie games’ market, but it’s also nice to remember what’s positive about it.

Upon reading your personal story, I understand indie games can also be a place for people to reinvent themselves.

Obviously gamedev, especially in solo, can’t be all rainbows and unicorns, but which were the happy sides for you? Do they make up for the difficult parts?

Honestly, 90% of the time working on this game has been a pleasure. In fact, that’s an understatement — it’s been pure bliss. Waking up every day, and being privileged enough to be able to work on something I love and something that holds meaning is something I’ve felt grateful for almost every day. For perspective, I would wait for the clock to hit 6 when I was working my previous job. I’d wake up feeling fear and despair as I’d head to a job that I had no feelings for. Friday evenings were heaven, Sunday evenings would make my heart sink. I couldn’t enjoy the last few hours of my weekend because Monday was almost here.

Now, I work when I want (which turns out to be most of the day, but by choice!) I reluctantly go to sleep at night because I’m enjoying my work so much, and I jump out of bed because thank god it’s a new day and I can continue where I left off last night.

But it’s not just gratitude for getting away from a job I disliked that’s made the process of making this game feel so good. The process of creating this game has been more creatively satisfying than any other project I’d worked on before this. There have been days where I couldn’t help but smile because I was having so much fun!

There have definitely been tough times — the good times would mean little without them. During the time I was working in the nights after my day job, I overworked and burned myself out. Along with some personal stuff I was going through, it caused me to crash and I was unable to do anything for a couple of days. Not just work, but I couldn’t get off the couch to even go buy groceries. I was stretching myself too thin. But thankfully, life has been a lot more balanced since I went full time indie. During this time, I’d take Sundays off, and I’d often take a break in the afternoon to go to gym, have a little nap or just chill with a video game or a movie.

Now your very first game is ready to be shipped, what’s yet to come for Frostwood Int.?

Any ideas yet you can share, or for now you’re 100% focused on post-release work?

Right after release, I’m going to focus on supporting the game and responding to any issues that the players might run into. Then after a bit of (much needed) break, I’ll begin work on localizing the game, and start looking for ways to bring it to consoles (“Switch port when?” 😉) This might take me most, if not all, of 2019.

But I also have very exciting, half-baked ideas for a possible sequel already — and it’s been very hard to not think about that while working on this game! That, of course, wholly depends on how Rainswept is received, and if there’s any interest at all from the players in seeing more of this game and its story.

If not Rainswept, I have a ton of other themes and locations I’ve wanted to write stories about that I could start with. Frostwood Interactive will always remain a story-first studio, but I do plan to evolve the gameplay aspects in the coming games for sure. So, this might mean expanding the studio from a one-man show to something that hopefully involves more programmers and artists.

As for a long term, far off mountain peak that I’m aiming for, I hope to one day create a fantasy RPG in the vein of Fable or Dragon Age. That would be a huge task, which means I need a lot of time to build towards it. But that is the ultimate dream for this studio!

I wish you all the best for Rainswept’s release!

But before freeing you, here’s our usual Bonus Question:

Coffee, Tea, or Beer? ☕🍵🍺?

Tea. Always. It’s hard to explain how much I love that beverage — it’s a way of life! In fact, if you really want to know how I feel about tea, play Rainswept! You’ll know it when you see it. 😉