A med student spent 8 months learning game design to make a Pokemon-inspired Hololive vtuber JRPG
An impressive number of remarkably good fan games have come from the vtuber enthusiasts in the Hololive community, with an unbelievably sharp fighting game cropping up just this month. We can now add the free JRPG Hololive CouncilRys RPG to the list. Since its release on Itch.io, it's been picked up by several of the vtubers it's about, who've already racked up hundreds of thousands of views (opens in new tab) streaming it to their fans.
If you're wondering – as I was at one point – the name refers to the Council generation of Hololive streamers who star in the game: Fauna, Bae, Kronii, and Mumei. There's also Irys, a standalone talent who focuses on music. All five characters have cute little sprites and portraits for combat, exploration, and cutscenes. This is a full-fat JRPG, and a mercifully short one at roughly three hours.
As is often the case with these fan games, I was immediately struck by the level of care that clearly went into this. But it wasn't until I learned more about its creator, Kebbie (opens in new tab), that my gob was well and truly smacked. Not only were they not a game dev before this – which is why this RPG was made with the beginner-friendly RPG Maker toolset – they were already waist-deep in another life-consuming trade: studying medicine. How does a med student find time to not only learn game development, but get proficient enough to release a proper, polished JRPG? I had to find out.
GamesRadar+: How long have you been working on this game?
Kebbie: I’ve been working on this game in my free time for about 7-8 months. Though it was inspiring to see the quality of fan games like Holocure, I didn’t really develop any desire to make anything until around fall of 2022. There was no catalyst
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