Last week we reviewed Actual Sunlight and were drawn in by its intense narrative. Developer Will O’Neill was gracious enough to let us have an interview with him discussing the game’s creation and a little bit more. Today Pixel Pacas is proud to present this great interview!

Pixel Pacas: How did you get started developing games? Were there any independent developers you looked up to at the time?

Will: Actual Sunlight is my first game, but I have a much longer history as a creative writer. Eventually, I had the thought that maybe I should try to merge my writing into the world of the games that I also loved and had spent so many of my years living. I was definitely inspired to believe that it was possible through other very story-heavy games such as Christine Love’s Digital: A Love Story, as well as Kan Gao’s To The Moon. Atmospherically, I love a lot of survival horror games – Silent Hill 2 especially. The best written game of all time in my opinion, however, is Star Control II…!

PP: Were there any points during the development of Actual Sunlight that you feared it would not be completed? How long did it take to finish the project?

Will: I wrote it in the second half of 2012, and at that time was sort of restarting an earlier version of it that doesn’t really resemble what it eventually became. I was worried all the time. You worry all the time. I was so relieved when a lot of things started to click, and the pace of my writing on it really picked up towards the end of 2012, ultimately enabling me to release the very first version of it in 2013.

PP: What led to design decisions such as the RPG-esque visual style?

Will: I liked the idea of doing it in RPG Maker VX ACE because I felt it would be a way of commenting on the way Evan saw the world: Through the eyes of a person extremely trapped in himself and his own addictions, especially games. Of all the tools that somebody with my lack of experience and expertise could have used to make a project like this, I think I chose the right one.

PP: Did you have any expectations to how the gaming community would respond to your game? Have you been surprised at the response since its initial launch? Have things changed due to the Steam release?

Will: When I was finished, I knew that I had done something that was really quite good – definitely better than anything I had done in the past. Still, I was very surprised to see just how many people were really moved by the game, and how deeply. I have more than one letter that starts with ‘I never write to game developers’ and which then proceeds on for hundreds or even thousands of words. I’m very honoured by the things that people have shared with me in return for what I’ve shared about myself through the game.

It’s too early in the Steam release to know if anything will really change, but I doubt it – hopefully it will just be the same thing on a much larger scale. I’m really proud of Actual Sunlight and want it to be played by as many people as possible.

PP: Will you continue to pursue making serious, narrative-focused games in the future? What do these types of games offer players that is unique to the medium?

Will: These are definitely the kinds of games I will continue to make – before anything and everything, I’m a writer. The further I move away from that, the less I think I’ll be interested and the worse I know I will do. That being said, I would like to grow, and so I see myself moving towards some kind of greater interactivity. One of the things I’m working on now is in a more traditional adventure game format, so we’ll see how that goes!

I don’t know if they offer anything unique, but I think everybody ought to be up for a good bit of reading now and then. 🙂

PP: What made you decide to recreate Actual Sunlight in 3D and what is the current status of that project?

Will: My initial interest was in wanting to create a version of the game that would be playable on a Mac. As I started to mess around with lights and shapes in Unity, however, I quickly started to take it a lot more seriously. Ultimately, people didn’t seem to connect with it the way that they did with the original, but I’d like to continue development on it if the current version does really well on Steam. It’s very much an issue of not knowing whether or not I should dedicate the necessary resources to get it done the way it ought to be.

PP: What were some of the first video games you ever played? What do you play today?

Will: Oh man. I’m 33, so I grew up in an Atari 400 world – the first games I played were old-school Electronic Arts games like M.U.L.E, Mail Order Monsters, Archon, and titles similar to that. Later on I went through early consoles and early PC gaming especially, loving all of the classic Sierra and LucasArts adventures and a lot of other things as well. Right now, I’m into a lot of other indie games, both big and small. Been playing a lot of Nuclear Throne, but I also feel like games such as Horse Master and Save the Date are quietly the most awesome things out there. Papers, Please was also out of this world incredible, and deserved everything it won.

PP: For all those who have yet to experience Actual Sunlight, why should they give it a try?

Will: You won’t necessarily relate personally to Evan Winter if you play Actual Sunlight, but I tried to write him in such a way that even someone who is not like him could understand why he feels the way that he does. If you slow down and invest yourself in it, and don’t try to project your own judgments, I think you’ll find yourself in the middle of a really unforgettable experience.

A big thanks goes out to Will O’Neill for taking the time to participate in our interview! If you’re interested in playing Actual Sunlight, you can grab it on Steam.