Initial Daydream: An Interview with Viktor Krause and Julia Barnacle

During my time at Portland Retro Gaming Expo, I came across a uniquely inspired RPG. Finding its home on the Playdate, a small handheld console featuring a crank on its side, Initial Daydream is inspired by the NES era of games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. I sat down with the game’s developer Viktor Krause, and his partner and full screen artist/boss designer Julia Barnacle and asked them about their experience putting together such an interesting game for an very unique hardware platform.

SUPERJUMP

First, can you give me a little background to who you are and your background in game development?

Viktor Krause

Yeah. I've tried and failed many times to make games on a lot of different platforms, like GameMaker and things on that level. Unity, a lot of the classics, and just couldn't quite get my head around it. Every time I'd get a little further into making something that was a game and then just lose steam or lose interest. Then when Playdate was announced, specifically when they announced Pulp, I was like, now that looks like the ticket! It looks very much like it's kind of dipping down to my level, but it's still a little bit functional. So that was the first time I ever really felt like I was actually a game dev once that got into my hands and I was playing around with that. But I actually got into making games because I wanted to be a music composer for games, and the only way that you can guarantee that there's a game that needs music is if you make the game. That was the big thing, I was like, I've always wanted to write music for RPGs.

SUPERJUMP

But that's cool. You wanted to be a composer, and then you made your own game. On the webpage for Initial Daydream you have five people credited. What's the dynamic for your group? What's it like working together on that team?

Viktor Krause

Yeah, I was going to say team is a very loose term. I did the bulk of the game myself. My partner Julia did a lot of the Full Screen art, so the art that comes up when you die, or when you go to bed at the inn, and all the stuff in the intro, that was all her, but most of the other art was me. I was trying to figure out when you said five-person team, I was like, five people? That seems like a lot. But yeah, a friend of mine cut together a trailer for me and did that title font. So it's like, did he help with the game? Yes. Was he part of the team? Not really. He did that in a day. So, it's like, the team never really interacted. It was more like I was the central part of an octopus very slowly, getting one little thing from a couple of different people. So, my friend Greg actually wrote a lot of the dialog and helped me break the story, he was probably the next biggest contributor. But even then, it was like I had to rewrite a lot of stuff just because the game would change and not make sense.

But having him put together that full doc, it was like, okay, here's a couple of things that four characters in town can say. Here's an idea for a side quest and what the reward might be, and a lot of stuff like that. The personality of the kings in the game, that was him, filtered through what I asked. Then I asked if on the Playdate Discord, the Playdate Squad Discord, to be specific, if anybody had any good fonts, and somebody was like, Yeah, here's one. And I just used that. I made sure to credit them. But yeah, team is a very loose word. I was doing a lot of it.

"But I actually got into making games because I wanted to be a music composer for games, and the only way that you can guarantee that there's a game that needs music is if you make the game."

Viktor Krause

SUPERJUMP

What was it like doing the full screen art for the game? Do you have a favorite image in mind? 

Julia Barnacle

Making art for a game in Pulp in particular is a fun challenge because you're really limited, not just with the color palette but also the resolution. For me, that meant just leaning into a simple, goofy yet relaxed style (kind of like ignorant style tattooing) to make sure you can still see what's going on instead of overcomplicating things too much. My favorite image is for sure the death screen--it's really funny to do dramatic lighting with 1 bit art.

SUPERJUMP

Did you have any experience in game development/art prior to Initial Daydream? 

Julia Barnacle

I've been doing art since I was a child, mostly working in traditional media and then in 2020 I started messing around with digital stuff as well. The first time I ever attempted art for a video game was the Global Game Jam in 2022. So, I'm still really new to this whole thing! 

SUPERJUMP

So, speaking of the Playdate, PRGE was my first time seeing the Playdate. Was Pulp the big reason that you started developing games for the play date, or was it something about the actual device that enticed you?

Viktor Krause

Well, because before they even announced Pulp, they said they were going to make the development tools free. I was like, oh, that's really cool. Then they showed what those tools actually were. One of them is the SDK, which uses Lua and C, which are far above what I ever... I guess whatever the Unity one uses, C# or C++or something. I guess I have some familiarity, but not that I could just sit down and start going. Then when they showed Pulp, it takes care of a lot of the nitty-gritty things. Once you make a character, it can automatically move, and it can automatically collect items, and it can automatically bump into stuff and say stuff. It's like not having to set all of that up makes the game making process a lot easier, especially if you're just doing your first one, it needs to be a point and click, collect items, unlock doors, etc. When I saw that, and that was how they were marketing it, it was very easy, very intuitive, and they actually nailed that more than anybody I've ever seen do that. But I was already interested in the play date before they announced.

"It's like not having to set all of that up makes the game making process a lot easier, especially if you're just doing your first one, it needs to be a point and click, collect items, unlock doors, etc. When I saw that, and that was how they were marketing it, it was very easy, very intuitive, and they actually nailed that more than anybody I've ever seen do that."

Viktor Krause

SUPERJUMP

I remember at the table you talked about, and that on the table and on the trailer for the game, you talked about the NES era of RPGs that inspired how you designed the initial daydream. What is it about that era, specifically, that made you want to start developing the game?

Viktor Krause

Well, one thing about it is it's like, specifically, the two big drawing points are the first Dragon Quest and the first Final Fantasy, which are, as far as JRPGs go, pretty basic choices, I guess. But I think the big things I took from those, the first Dragon Quest, and all of them, really, but that first one may be more surprising than later instalments. It has a lot of personality. It's really weird. It's very goofy, I guess, is a big thing. It's all the people trying something like that for maybe not literally the first time, but on that big of a stage the first time. Technologically, it makes sense to me to be like, Okay, if all the fights are one-on-one, I think I can figure out how to make that work. The first Final Fantasy as well, I don't draw as much from it, but that's a game that I play at least once a year just because I can knock it out in two evenings and get a little bit of randomness from the class system. I would say the main thing I'm drawing from is the first Dragon Quest. Specifically about the NES era, I think it really is the simplicity, not that those games are simple. The first Dragon Quest, you can fumble your way through because you basically just have to go to every area, and eventually that area will become relevant. But the first Final Fantasy can get a little confusing. But I like the idea that it's like, well if you talk to everybody and suss out what they're saying, you could probably figure out everything that you need to do.

SUPERJUMP

Do you have a similar relationship with that era of gaming, or is there a different time period that you're drawn to?

Julia Barnacle

I think for the Playdate specifically the SNES is a great era of games to look at--also Atari and Game Boy stuff. Looking at games that are able to do a lot with a little, and in particular looking at the different types of textures they create and how. I made a handful of enemy sprites for this game and those were the sorts of things I was looking at for sure.

SUPERJUMP

Okay. I understand because I played the first Dragon Quest. I played that for the first time a couple of years ago, and I played Final Fantasy I. That was my favorite Final Fantasy for a while. I wanted to know, were there any mechanics in the current version of Initial Daydream from that era, whether it is the class system or magic or something? Were there any things that you wanted to add to Initial Daydream or that you wanted to add that you didn't just because you wanted to keep it more in that Dragon Quest lane?

Viktor Krause

I think it really is like; I wanted to make a game that's like Dragon Quest 1. I would say it's slightly more replayable than the first Dragon Quest, and that's another game that I've played two or three times since picking it up the first time. But because you could say, oh, I want to do a run where I only upgrade my health or I only do this, because there's a little bit of customization in the stats. In the first Dragon Quest, it's like, if you don't have the armor available from this town, you can't get to the next one. It's like that. So this one, it's slightly more customizable. And as far as features I wanted to add, it pretty much ended up being exactly at the scope that I wanted. I think once I started adding the post-game content, there's a couple of bosses after you beat it the first time that you can go back in and beat those, and then you get a slightly different ending. For those, I started experimenting with different types of attacks and a little bit more elaborate animations. I think maybe if I was going back, I would say, Okay, maybe all the enemies can be a little bigger, a little more intricate, or maybe they could have a couple of different attacks that they could do. But there's always another game. I'm pretty much done with Initial Daydream, to be honest. I did one post-launch update. I think I'm good.

SUPERJUMP

Congratulations on releasing a full-fledged game! Not a lot of people can say that.

Viktor Krause

Thank you. I don't know how into the Playdate lore you got, but another thing that they launched, around a year and a half ago, they have the on-device store called Catalog, and Initial Daydream got accepted onto that in June. It does feel like a real released game now.

SUPERJUMP

Something that impressed me with the game, was how readable everything is on the Playdate. The enemies, the actions, all of the set pieces in the environment, everything is very I can look at that and be like, Oh, that's a wall, or that's an enemy, or that's a plant. What was the thought process behind the art design and the sprite work for Initial Daydream?

Viktor Krause

I think a lot of it is readability, honestly. The thing that's really nice is because you make the game in the little browser dev environment, and when you test it in there, it's a tannish white and a flat grayish black is your contrast. Then when you load it on the device, it is a really stark white and black, and it just looks so good. No matter how good you actually are at making pixel art, the Playdate will make you look very good at it. It's a leg up, an automatic cheat code, but a lot of it was trying to make sure that most rooms have something either happen in it or something you can do in it. I don't think I quite nailed that, but most rooms have something. Just to differentiate them a little bit, because I could have just made a dungeon tile set and just made every dungeon out of that. But I wanted to make sure every room had at least something in it like, a fossil in the wall or something that would make you go like, oh, I have been in here already because I remember that fossil in the wall, or I remember that an enemy in the middle, or whatever, the diving helmet. I'm just thinking of the second dungeon right now for some reason. 

As far as the enemy designs, they're very Dragon Quest-inspired. They're very goofy. A lot of puns, a lot of just silly things. I think just trying to not over-clutter. It's easy to over-clutter, but also when you have so few pixels, if you do find a room to be cluttered, it's extremely easy to clean it up because Pulp actually works in a smaller aspect ratio than the playdate can provide. The playdate is 400 by 240 pixels, and pulp works in 200 by 120, so the sprites are bigger and bolder.

SUPERJUMP

What inspired the design of the main character? 

Viktor Krause

Inspired? Another loose term. I think the real thing was I didn't feel like I had the programming gumption to make an actual walk animation, which I've seen people do in pulp games where the character is still or doing a classic bounce and then it's only walking while you're holding one of the directional buttons. Very impressive stuff. I was not up to the task. Playing the game, you notice it, it just jumps from spot to spot as you press the button. That's just how Pulp is designed by default. But I was like, well, it'll be like the Dragon Quest walk animation. The character is always walking, just facing whichever direction you last hit, but even if you’re not moving, he’s still walking. 

Then the default pulp tile size, player size, all that stuff is eight by eight, which is quite small. The player character ends up taking up, I want to say four tiles, but isn't like... He's not 16 pixels tall. He's more like 10, and then the sword sticks up a little above that. He mostly just needed to... I went with just the all white filled character so that if you were standing in front of something like grass or something, it's pretty obvious where he is. Not a lot of actual thought was put into the design. He turned out to be cute. And then when Julia made the drawing render of it, which we had on the little sign and you have on the sticker, he turned out to be very funny. She tattooed it on me as well.

SUPERJUMP

You have a tattoo?

Viktor Krause

Yeah. I got it as a celebration for when it released. But retroactively, actually, I figured out an explanation behind his design. It came from me, so it's not total fan fiction, but it was completely after the fact. It's not mentioned anywhere in the game, and it hasn't been really released. I haven't talked about it really with anybody. It was just something that I came up with and bounced ideas off Julia with, and that was pretty much it. The idea I had is pretty much everyone you meet in the game is pretty obviously from one of the four towns. The goo people are all goos to various sizes, like slimes from Dragon Quest. All the people from Altantis are fish or sea creatures. The second town is not called Atlantis. It is called Altantis. Not one single person has ever gotten that right. But I don't know why you would. It's a really stupid. But the Choosed One is not obviously from any town because he doesn't look like... He's not a goo, he's not from the third area, he's not from the first area. But I was like, well, he starts in the first area. So, it would make sense if he was called from the king of Ghoulliard and he's from the marsh. So because he's big and he's puffy, and he's white, he is a Marshmallow. That is his official origin not stated anywhere except for in this interview.

SUPERJUMP

I got an exclusive thing! That’s awesome!

Viktor Krause

Yeah, an exclusive! There you go.

SUPERJUMP

How has being a part of PIGSquad impacted the development process for your games? What's it like just working with everybody in that community?

Viktor Krause

PIGSquad is very unique because I've talked to people in other cities of comparable or significantly larger size, and they say they don't have anything like it, which I think is pretty remarkable. I think it speaks to the general creativity of Portland, and also speaks very highly to the tireless efforts of the organizers. You were at the booth, so you probably saw Christie, and Davis, and Dylan, and a lot of people volunteering and helping out. And of course, Will, who was the one who invited me to do it in the first place, invited me to show at a couple of events, which was extremely thoughtful. PIGSquad, I think the most remarkable thing about it is the people who put it on do not care at all if you're good at making games or not. What they would rather you do is be excited about it. I talked earlier on, I failed a lot of times making games. Then in the past two or three years, I've gone from basically making four or five barely prototype-type games to a few games that are legitimately done, a lot of prototypes that were a lot more successful, a lot more readable, a lot more fun. I think one of the biggest benefits that Pig Squad allows is if you do one of the game jams, which I highly recommend, they will play your game and they will stream it, and they will talk about it, and they will be excited. Will and Marlo are excellent stream hosts. It's always like a ton of people in the chat getting really excited. They always have everybody clap after game, lots of bits that go on throughout the evening, lots of recurring characters, lots of recurring devs coming back to show their next thing. Yeah, The Summer Slow Jams in particular are just so much fun.

SUPERJUMP

What was the first video game that you remember playing that really impacted you and made you want to start making music for video games?

Viktor Krause

This is one of those classics, like what's your favorite Final Fantasy? The first one you played. But for me, my neighbor, whatever year it was, got a PlayStation 2, and his mom said, okay, Dustin, you have a PlayStation 2. You have to give Viktor your Super Nintendo. In the year of Our Lord 2000, I played Final Fantasy VI for the first time, and that game absolutely blew my mind. The music is so good. I still listen to it all the time. That's the peak for me. I don't know if it's still my favorite Final Fantasy. It's not the one I play the most often for sure, but it certainly holds a special place in my heart just because everything about it is so good.

SUPERJUMP

What was the first game that you remember playing that really impacted you?

Julia Barnacle

It's so hard to choose only one! There are so many I could talk about, but I think the original Animal Crossing really changed my relationship with games. I was so addicted to it. I had to play it every day and catch every fish and bug, talk to everyone in town, send letters... at that point, I couldn't imagine wanting for anything else in a game haha. I would also let it run just to listen to the music sometimes... I still have my original copy and return to it often because it's such a cozy environment.

SUPERJUMP

I think it's funny you said that just because with Final Fantasy, I'm still relatively new. I played I, a little bit of III, and then I finished XVI, and XVI is my favorite, but that wasn't the first one that I played. But it's also very different from I. 

Viktor Krause

When you say three, do you mean American three or actual three?

SUPERJUMP

Whichever one was on the DS. 

Viktor Krause

That would be actual three. That one is maybe my least favorite. The thing that's confusing is in Japan, all the first six Final Fantasies came out, no problem, but they only imported one, four, and six to the United States, or exported, I guess it would be. Final Fantasy I is Final Fantasy I in America. But then on the Super Nintendo, Final Fantasy II in America is Final Fantasy IV in Japan, and Final Fantasy III in America is Final Fantasy VI in Japan. But now that we're past that era, all of them are here now, but that's how it was in the '90s.

SUPERJUMP

If you could pick, and this is just for fun, but if you could pick one JRPG character to be your college roommate, who would you pick and why?

Viktor Krause

I actually, I bounced this idea or this question off Julia yesterday, and she had a really good pick, which was Aerith, from Final Fantasy VII, primarily because she's tidy and is a good decorator of spaces because she does a lot of work with flowers in the church in that first area of Final Fantasy VII. If you play the remake, her house is ridiculously pretty, which is all well and good. I think, honestly, most JRPG characters are uniquely bad college roommates. But the two, they all have to be a little wacky and a little bit annoying as people. But the two I narrowed it down to, depending on which college experience I'm drawing on. But I think Titus from Final Fantasy 10. He would be good for getting me out of the room, either because he’s annoying or because he’s like, hey, I want to go do something. I'm going to be playing in this sports game. I want to go watch something. That feels like a good type of influence to have around. That would have been useful for me, I think, during some darker months. But the person I actually landed on, the ideal college roommate, is another Final Fantasy VII pick who is Vincent. Vincent, when you meet him, he is sleeping in a coffin, and you have to talk to him three or four times to get him to join your party. But otherwise, he will just stay in there. He is a completely optional character, which means I basically have a room to myself.

Julia Barnacle

I'm gonna go with Julia from FFVIII, firstly because we share a name and that would be fun. But also, as far as college roommates go, she seems nice, and we could jam out some tunes together. Good vibes all around.

Thank you to Viktor and Julia for sitting down to chat with me. Initial Daydream can be checked out online here on the official Playdate catalog. More information about the Playdate can be found here on the official website.