Behind the Pixels: Quantum Witch interview
Quantum Witch is a new retro pixel art game coming soon which takes inspiration from classics like Metroid, Castlevania, and Link To The Past, with a focus on queer story and characters.
You can check out our preview of this cool new indie game here, but I wanted to dig more into the games development and talk to Nikki Jay about her journey with the game and the choices she made.
So let’s go ‘Behind the Pixels’ and find out more about Quantum Witch.
Robin: What inspired you to make Quantum Witch?
Nikki: Gah, that’s a difficult one!! I’ve been writing small games on and off for me and my friends since I was about 10, but a few years ago I had an idea for a story that had many threads that were metaphors for my upbringing. I was an obviously queer kid in a very conservative homophobic religious group who were obsessed with the coming-very-soon end of the world. When I eventually got out of it, I lost everything, and had to basically learn how to be a full person and think for myself. So the characters and plot really came from wanting to turn that experience into something that would resonate with folk.
And as I was writing that something, I was replaying Chrono Trigger. It was inevitable after that!
You originally started developing this as a visual novel, when did you decide to switch to playable and why did you decide that?
A big part of the story is about responsibility, choice, and patterns of control. The more I wrote, the more I wanted to turn it into one of those choose-your-own-adventure books because that played so much better with those themes. So after about 6 months of writing and designing, I figured, let’s make it that, with the player actually leading the story instead of being told it! From there it was either going to be a point-n-click, which I liked but I wanted something more action based. So it’s a platform-n-interact instead, if that’s a genre. If not, it’s got a name now!
For me, pixel art is all about the restrictions and making the right choices to get the detail you want without actually being able to draw it.
The game has a gorgeous pixel art style, what do you love the most about the art form?
Thank you for saying so! For me, pixel art is all about the restrictions and making the right choices to get the detail you want without actually being able to draw it. The limitations of the old 8-bit systems I used to play on gave them a certain charm that I love. They haven’t got the resolution to actually draw the details, so they have to hint at it and let your imagination fill in the rest. Also I love writing CRT effects and spent far too long making a CRT effect that enhanced the pixels instead of making them blurry fuzzy messes!
How tricky is it to portray characters and scenery in block form?
This tricky: very. For me, anyway! I’m in awe of pixel artists who do livestreams and have this wonderful flow to their craft. Me? I can stare at a single pixel for 30 minutes moving it up and down to try and get a foot looking just right! Also, Ren, Tyra, Lev, and all the rest have strong personalities that I wanted to convey in their look and animations. One pixel out of place can change the feel of everything. But now I think I have a pretty good handle on things and I feel lucky that I’ve somehow been able to convey their different personalities. Also, Tyra’s haircut is excellent and I want it, she’s the tall one with the shaved side and the purpleness.
Tell me more about the story of the game.
Hus is a lovely little idyllic lesbian commune made of pixels. While they used to worship a plethora of gods, these now mostly exist as memories in books in the village library, and maybe a statue here and there around certain places.
One day while on a fetch quest to retrieve her lost flock, Ren makes a discovery that the powers behind her world are not what they seem. Her worldview is shattered and she finds herself caught up in a battle for power over the pixel multiverse, with a witch who sees beyond the pixels into the very fabric of their reality. She’ll team up with her wife Tyra and her strange scientist friend Lev to save Hus from the evil that awakens and wants to control them all.
Along the way she’ll meet others and have the choice to help them in a variety of ways, each of which determine the characters fate, so there’s not a single good ending and a bad ending, sometimes the outcome might be… somewhere in between! You don’t even have to pet the cat if you don’t want to. But what monster would not do that!?
You brought in BAFTA nominated Paul Rose to help out. What was it like working with him and how did he add to the storytelling?
Paul is absolutely amazing. He used to write a Teletext video game magazine in the 90s called Digitiser, which was full of very weird quirky humour and I loved it. We met on twitter years ago and have become friends.
I brought to him the high level view of the story, the beats that have to happen, the lines that must be said, and he put them into a detailed scene by scene structure with supporting characters and dialog. Without him I probably would have a load of different scenes done but with nothing to connect them! Working with him has improved my writing significantly. Except for the characters who are purposefully badly written as satire. Yup, that’s definitely why they’re like that, don’t investigate any further. Satire. It’s a meta commentary on video game tropes! Or something. Next!
You’ve got an amazing amount of humour and meta references in the game, why is humour important in game making and storytelling?
I mean when you’re writing a story which is basically an outlet for queer childhood trauma, you need some comic relief! I always loved how stories like Hitchhiker’s Guide convey the meaningless empty absurdity of existence and leave you laughing rather than spiralling into doom.
What’s your favorite joke or line so far?
The religious group you encounter early on who tell you how they’re always in awe of how wonderful creation is and how their belief system has enlightened them before yelling out “IT’S NOT A CULT”.
The music is gorgeous and really is a glorious retro hat tip to the likes of Castlevania. How did you capture that retro musical spirit?
I have to give a lot of credit for the feel of the music to my friend Christopher Jerden-Cooke on this one. Although I did force him to listen to every track from the Steven Universe soundtrack before we started. Those fast arpeggio 8 bit sounds – love them!
We work together, usually from a track I’ve recorded on guitar or ukulele, and decide what each part should feel like. He’s amazing to work with and if I’d had to do the music by myself it would have added at least a year to the development time. I’m grateful for talented friends!
The Chrono Trigger soundtrack is another big inspiration for us of course, with a hint of Final Fantasy too.
As a solo developer, game development can be a tricky thing as you have to be a master of all trades. How have you found the process?
I’ve had to learn an incredible amount, especially when it came to the art. Perhaps as an easter egg I should include the original art I did at the very start of coming up with the ideas… but that might be too embarrassing!
I won’t lie though, it’s been tough. More than a few times I’ve stared at my laptop and been ready to stop it all. It just seemed beyond me. But as I tell my daughter, that frustration you feel is because you’re pushing against your limits and you’re about to grow. Keep going.
You might be a solo dev, but you’re not alone. Ask for help, get help, learn from it and grow… it’s ok, it doesn’t make your game less “pure”.
What advice would you have to other solo devs?
You might be a solo dev, but you’re not alone. Ask for help, get help, learn from it and grow. There will be things you can bring people in to help with. It’s ok, it doesn’t make your game less “pure”.
Start marketing EARLY. It’s difficult, perhaps the most difficult part of being solo. Find people who are open to giving advice, make as many friends as you can, see where you can help them too. We’re not alone.
What are the top five things people should look forward to with Quantum Witch?
Here’s what I think folk will enjoy the most!
- A story where your choices really matter.
- A cast of characters from all over the LGBTQIA spectrum.
- Discovering the lore and theorising with the community.
- The references to other games that pop up as jokes.
- Seeing how your choices and story differ from other players!
Bonus: It not being a cult.
When’s the game coming out and how can people keep up with the development?
Quantum Witch will be out in June 2025, to coincide with pride month!
You can keep up with things on “X” at x.com/TheQuantumWitch although that’s only really for announcements.
Or if you’re a big nerd like me and/or you want to share in my Cate Blanchett obsession, you can follow on Mastodon at mastodon.gamedev.place/@QuantumWitch and I believe you can use Threads to follow that too! Do a search and follow!
But if you really want to see every update, every in progress screenshot, and join the community in guessing what the big secrets are, then get on over to Discord: discord.gg/Su7Gfrmhng
Wishlist Quantum Witch on Steam now and don’t miss out on this awesome game.
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