current interests: tomodachi life, 911 (abc show), nightwing, remember you will die if, when twilight strikes if, love after death if, apt 502, touchstarved, infamous if, keyframes vn, smosh, fields of mistria, our life, stardew valley, ff7, resident evil
titkok: moosesmaster + dontwinmarioparty | youtube: iyaiyayo | art tag: #art tag smth smth
It was wonderful to interview @vapolis for Remember, You Will Die -- a nail-biting sci-fi that will keep you wanting more! If you want to play a mercenary about to lose their head because of one mistake and one very pissed off boss, this is the IF for you!
We hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as we did!
You can find the list of sci-fi winners here.
About the author
I’m currently at the end of my degree so making time for writing has been a nice reprieve. Writing has always been an outlet for me and I’ve actually (like many I assume) started writing fanfic in my native language before switching completely to English. At some point during the pandemic I was craving something different and started with some original work before finally landing on RYWD.
The game in one sentence
Everything that can go wrong, usually goes wrong.
Tell us about your current focus in IF and more about your journey into interactive fiction.
I’m working on the third chapter to my secondary WIP right now but outside of that I’ve begun plotting chapter 008 of RYWD. The plot is picking up speed right now and I’m really excited to continue with the stakes as high as they are.
I’ve been in the IF community for over a decade by now! Most of that time I’ve spent being an avid reader of IFs and during the pandemic I took the plunge and started to write my first IF and a little over two years ago, I started a second one going into an entirely different direction which has been exciting to explore.
What was the inspiration for RYWD and what made you want to write a story in the sci-fi genre?
I cite altered carbon and games like cyberpunk2077 or nobody wants to die as inspiration when asked. I’ve always been interested in the cyberpunk aesthetic and more gritty works where you can explore darker themes and a city as vibrant as Vapolis turned out to be. Funnily enough, sci-fi has never been a genre I gravitated towards when reading books except for a couple outliers but when I first got the idea for this IF it only made sense to me to go a sci-fi track with it due to it playing in future times and the tech aspect being a major theme.
What does your writing process look like?
I have a classic case of one vague scene, a setting and vibe whenever I start a new work and then I agonize about how to reach that specific scene and build an entire outline around it. Probably not the best process but characters come quickly to me then and a new routine that has allowed me to write a lot very quickly lately is to write in 20 minute sprints! I’ve been doing it for about a month and write more in a day now than I did some weeks. I’d really recommend the app Ellipsus for that since you can enable a focus mode that eliminates distractions in the interface and it has helped me massively.
What's one thing you're really proud of that you have written so far? Do you have a favourite character or scene you've written?
My favorite character to write is the MC of RYWD. I am personally a big fan of mc’s with semi-set or set backstories because i feel like you can dive deeper into the psyche of them that way and mc is a trauma riddled individual that has always been one move away from snapping entirely and I always enjoy any scene where mc is in total focus. In my most recent chapter that is the case and it has really allowed me to go into their fears and thoughts and to double down on things I only mentioned in passing before.
For folks who enjoyed your IF, what other book/music/movie should they check out with the same 'vibe'?
Definitely altered carbon! It’s a book series and incredibly exciting. For people that don’t have the patience to dive deep with the books, there’s also a netflix adaptation and I really enjoy that as well for the action and the vibe of the city depicted in season 1.
What're you excited to work on next?
A romance route soft lock. I’ve always been a big fan of more established dynamics in relationships, especially romances, and this will allow me to go a lot deeper and focus more on the dynamic between mc and their chosen RO.
Fun with the sci-fi genre
Personal fave sci-fi profession/race: Mercenary!
Personal fave sci-fi setting: Cities isolated from the rest of the world.
If you were transported into the setting above, as the profession/race you selected, what would your life look like: I don’t think I’d last long as a merc in a ruthless city but I think it would be incredibly exciting to take on so many different jobs and navigate the underbelly of a city.
The Sheep Detectives is fun because it's a mystery about sheep trying to solve the murder of their beloved shepherd while also learning about the concept of death and there is a lot of heavy discussion about death and what happens to us (both humans and animals) when we die and we see examples of both of these types of death and it rips your heart out and then puts it back together in the end and also one of the sheep is voiced by Patrick Stewart and he makes funny sounds when he sticks his tongue out