Interview with the Developer of When Wolf Fades

Some time ago, When Wolf Fades was announced - a game in the genre of economic crime strategy that transforms the tale of Little Red Riding Hood into a noir story, where the Big Bad Wolf finds himself in Grandma's skin. In fact, she was never the sweet old lady she seemed, but the head of one of the gangs in a city mired in corruption and cynicism. So, taking her place, the Wolf will have to sort through criminal affairs and solve issues while keeping the entire fairy tale gang under control.

Here, dwarves do the dirty work, a Mermaid smuggles goods through the port, the Tooth Fairy runs nightclubs, and Father Frost knows how to keep a body fresh. Especially if that body knew too much. The problem is that orders are expected not only from their own. The Wolf has two gangs in his arsenal: the loyal Red Riding Hood team and the wolves from the dark alleys. Of course, they don't know about each other. Exposure could cost the Grey his life.

So he'll have to twist and turn: run Grandma's criminal empire, command the dwarves, keep the wolf pack under control, deal with competitors, avoid the police, and make sure neither side discovers the truth. And he must hold on for 30 days until the full moon, when the main secret will be revealed...

All of the above can be gleaned from the game's description and promotional materials on social media. However, I had the chance to speak personally with a representative of the Hoolignomes team, Ekaterina Chirikova, and thus inquire about the game in a bit more detail. Naturally, I started with questions about the team itself.

Tell us about yourself and the team. How many of you are there? How did you get into the industry? Where did you start? What inspired you?

Hello!
We are the Hoolignomes team; there are three of us in the base, which is the optimal number for producing small games. I am responsible for art and overall vision, the second person handles game design and also wears many hats to organize everything together, and the third is a coder. We can connect with outsourcing when necessary, of course.

We have been in game dev since the times when people in Russia were just starting to “rob convoys.” Back then, there were no schools, accelerators, or courses. You just create something for games: one draws, another codes, and a third finds someone to sell the game to. That's how you start releasing games.

Father Frost knows how to keep a body fresh, especially if that body knew too much

Judging by Union of Gnomes and When Wolf Fades, you have an interest in fairy tales and their unusual interpretations. Can you tell us more? Why is your new game based on “Little Red Riding Hood”?

Fairy tales are a convenient field for work in many senses. Let's take the style: I am making a 2D modern comic style. It fits well with fairy tales; the drawing looks appropriate.
Secondly, quick immersion into the lore for the player. The fairy tale approach facilitates a fast understanding of the plot for most people around the world. Unless, of course, you overload it with rare folkloric characters.
Fairy tales are quite universal in images and stories as a basic genre. Everyone already knows the story; your task is to repackage it: take Little Red Riding Hood and tell it a million different ways. From children's classics to creepy cyber-horror, for example. It's fun: what will the familiar heroes turn into? Who will be the villain? And what was left off-screen?

Are Union of Gnomes and When Wolf Fades connected? Do they share a common universe? Will there be references?

The main feature of us as the Hoolignomes team is the Dwarves. The Dwarves connect the stories of different games into one world that we present. It is a cynical, adult, yet fairy-tale world.
When your audience (reader/player) has grown up and sees these fairy-tale heroes from a different angle, with their work, worries, and situations.
Why did the Three Little Pigs build houses? Because they are developers.
The Little Mermaid isn't sitting on a rock by the beach; she runs the city's port. And what is the port? All the smuggling and shady deals go through her. Of course, she'll have to grow shark teeth; she's no longer the delicate maiden.
And so, amidst this harsh world, the dwarves are the only ones who preserve the excitement and fairy-tale recklessness.

Why did you decide to develop a management game rather than something with a greater emphasis on narrative?

It's intuitive. We choose to make games that we ourselves can feel. And while we have a lot of narrative and story, we create something that can be actively played, not just interacted with. Without understanding our target audience, you can't make a game, and narrative designers are not clear to me; they have their niche and their requirements for a script that will be interesting to an audience.
My favorite genre is co-ops and PvP. We've done that; it's expensive to produce and support. I hope we can return to it in the future as soon as our capacity and capabilities allow :)

Why did you change publishers?

I consider it normal to want to work with different teams and their approaches, methods. This is an open market; we try, see how different people work. It's interesting to know what conditions and strategies they have. If you buy good coffee in one café today, it doesn't mean you have to buy coffee there every day?
We are working with an excellent publisher, Hirocraft, with whom we released Union of Gnomes on different platforms.
For another game, it seems logical to try to launch with different partners, like Watt Studio. I don't think anyone is better or worse; it's just interesting to work with different approaches. I see no reason for jealousy.

You have also stated your position on AI. Can you elaborate? By the way, what tools do your artists use? What engine is WWF developed on, and what software do you use for development?

You need to know how to work with neural networks and understand what can and can't be done with them.
Our artists are me. And I draw by hand in Photoshop. Twenty years ago, people rolled their eyes disdainfully: it's Photoshop; everything draws itself; you're not drawing! Photoshop was a household name, even derogatory.
Over time, it became clear that Photoshop is a tool, and everything is still done by hand. The same situation exists with neural networks now. It's a hot topic; many don't understand how those who create digital products work with them and what percentage of human labor is involved.

For example, setting up a geometrically complex scene can be streamlined by initially sketching the composition using a neural network.
Finding a color composition can also be accelerated with AI. You take all that, build on it, and then go draw in your own style.
Need to adjust an image in a marketing banner? A couple of hours of work and your art is already waving its paws. But it’s your art; those are paws drawn by these very hands.

Lumping together neural sludge and working with neural networks is a demagogical trick to elicit an emotional response. But AI is varied, as are the ways to apply it.
No sensible person will build a business on a game written by a neural network: unpredictable in testing, unscalable, and unmanageable.
Neural networks won't create juicy text or generate interesting ideas for you.
AI isn't going to produce text with intonations, clearly and neatly, in various languages.
Neural networks won't draw anything that differs from everything else by at least a millimeter.
You cannot trust any analytics produced by neural networks.

However, neural networks can assist beginners and those who lack a team or experience. Or those lacking a development strategy who just want to create a game. There’s an idea, there’s enthusiasm, but, for example, there’s no artist. And voila, you’ve already made a game!

As for what software we use: all standard stuff: Unity, Photoshop, Spine.

Thank you for the answers. I wish you good luck with the upcoming project.