Behind the Games - Interview with Jaime Scribbles

Hey Hey Heroes, Travelers, and Wandering NPCs, I’m back with another Behind the Games post!

For those of you just joining the party, Behind the Games is a segment where I interview the folks ‘behind the games’ I review. The series is meant to act as a complement to the reviews, giving you guys a chance to get to know the developers that spend so much time carefully crafting the games you enjoy. For each interview I send the Devs five questions (and one random bonus question), to kind of flesh out who they are, while also getting a bit of insight into their inspirations for their games. It’s completely voluntary and meant to be a fun way to get you guys acquainted with content creators.

Last time around I spoke with Dovah and Gamma from Argent Games, the dynamic twosome behind Argent Games, so if you missed that, I definitely recommend checking that post out too! This time around, I had the chance to chat with Jaime Scribbles of Jaime Scribbles Games!

Jaime is the brains behind the indie game studio, Jaime Scribbles Games! She’s a single mom who made her debut in 2017 with a horror romance visual novel, Pinewood Island. Two years later, she’s showing no signs off slowing down, with two games under her belt and one in development Jaime is a force to be reckoned with in the indie scene. But, what really sets her games apart from the rest is her dedication to creating titles with diverse love interests and deep narrative heavy stories. But, without further ado, let’s turn things over to Jaime…

Could you tell me a bit about yourself? What do you do when you aren’t making games? (Interests, hobbies, etc)

I play video games, D&D, drink coffee, and watch a lot of horror movies. I’m a single parent so a lot of my time is taken up making french fries and cleaning up toys.

What sparked your interest in developing visual novels? Is this something you’d like to do for a living or is it mostly a hobby?

When I discovered visual novels I was struggling to find -something- to do with my life that made me feel fulfilled. I’ve always been a writer but writing novels just wasn’t doing it for me anymore. I tried to write a graphic novel script but that wasn’t satisfying for me either. When I started playing visual novels something just *clicked*. Interactive fiction with awesome artwork and music. It combined my love of writing, romance, and video games so well I started to make them and never looked back! Ideally I would like to make visual novels full time, and I am working to reach that goal.

Your games have always included a diverse blend of characters both in terms of race/ethnicity and in terms of the types of love interests players can pursue. How important is diversity when it comes to developing new games and what steps do you take to ensure that your characters don’t adhere to negative stereotypes or tropes?

Diverse representation is important to me. I always try to question my design choices and discuss them with friends to get more opinions about them. This helps me avoid accidentally writing anything harmful. I try to treat the characters as ‘people’ instead of ‘diversity slots’. So when I start to design a character I challenge my perception that they should be the default ‘white-guy’ while being thoughtful about what types of character traits that character could have that might be stereotypical. It takes a lot of work, and having friends and people you can bounce ideas off of really helps!

When working on a new project, what is one thing you always strive to include in your games?

Sharks! Just kidding (mostly). My main objective is to make players fall in love with my characters. I really value allowing the player to create their own narrative without too much push from me. I want to give people a fantasy they can get lost in for a few hours. So, the major thing I ask myself as I write and plan a game is how can I make that happen?

You now have quite a few games under your belt. What are some tips that you’d give to newer developers looking to pursue game development?

To keep working at it. Not be afraid to share your work and get feedback. It takes a lot of work and time to be successful.

Bonus: If you had the chance to live in any fantasy world, where would it be and why?

Pokemon! I’m not a super fan but I would love to own a house full of cute eevees and pikachus! and a ponyta! and a psyduck!

I can’t thank Jaime enough for agreeing to do this short Q&A with me, she is super awesome and I appreciated getting the chance to pick her brain a bit. If you haven’t had the chance to check out any of her games I highly recommend giving them a try, because you’re missing out on some truly unique games.

Below are some links to the Jaime Scribbles Games’s social media and game related pages/sites. I strongly suggest subscribing to their pages and checking out their content!