Q&A with Johan Scherft - the creator of Milo and the Magpies š»
Hi everyone!
We hope you are as excited as we are for Milo and the Magpies with less than one week left! For a contest we received a lot of questions from the community for Johan Scherft, the creator of the game, and we made the following selection for a small interview with him! Hope you will enjoy it while waiting for September 7 :)
[h2]About Johan Scherft[/h2]
Johan Scherft was born in 1970 in Leiden, the Netherlands. At an early age he exposed a talent for drawing, and also an interest in animals and nature. The birds he observed inspired him at a young age to make birds out of paper, hand-coloured with colour-pencil. After his study free in painting and drawing, which he graduated in 1993, Johan has been working as a free artist, working in various disciplines such as painting, etching, drawing, illustrating and now... even making games.
After playing Rusty Lake Hotel Johan saw Rusty Lake's request for a background artist. He offered his services and created the amazing background painting for Roots. A fruitful collaboration started with many beautiful paintings for Rusty Lake and one day Johan decided to create his own game: Milo and the Magpies! Read more about Johan on his personal website.
[h2]A community interview:[/h2]
1 (@bloodflow.art) - Is there a real cat Milo got inspired by? Maybe your own pet? šŗ
Around the time I started with the game I was already painting portraits of cats on commission, and I was also working on a goose game with cats. I think when I was working on that āgoose gameā I got the idea of making a point and click game in which a cat played the main role. In the first stages of the game the cat was designed with the help of the artist Barthel Brussee. He also came up with the random shape of the cat, and grey colour of the cat, which was a good choice because a simple shape and colour makes it more easy to animate. The character of Milo shows a whole scale of typical cat behaviour. But I think his strongpoint is that he is very trustworthy to people. He is a little dumb and reckless sometimes, but also brave and surpisingly patient. Overall Milo is a relaxed cat who makes friends easily.
2 (@eggflowersoup_) - I see you do papercraft birds, since when do you love birds, and why do you choose magpie for the game?
I like all animals and especially birds. I am a birdwatcher, this interest goes a long way back.
When I was a child I went bird watching with my father, and I learned from him to recognize the
different species. The magpie is a typical āenemyā of the cat. I can sometimes hear the magpies calling their distress calls in my backyard when there is a cat around. They can harass the cats also, but always remain cautious. They are smart birds, like all members of the crow family. Further, their interest in shiny objects and the fact they make huge nests were good elements to use in the game also.
3 (@eroziq) - Who is your favourite painter you took inspiration from for the game?
I like Escher and there is even a small reference to his work. And further I like the artwork of the Samorost games. There are many other artists and illustrators I like. But overall I didnāt have so much inspiration from visual artists. I think certain music inspired me more like jazz and classical pieces - which I also hoped to use. When Victor Butzelaar came onboard we had to change this direction and I also had to get used to the new music, but now I am really happy with the soundtrack. Itās romantic and melodic and his music makes it a unity in total.
4 (@lago_enferrujado) - Is there any real story behind the game?
I made up the story myself, and I used elements from my direct surroundings and my neighborhood. The community where I live has a lot of different cats and people, and that gave me the inspiration for the game and the story (on my instagram I also shared a photo of the roofs I can see from my window in Leiden, The Netherlands). You donāt get to know much about the family or the inhabitants of the houses, but you do feel each has its own story. You get just a glimpse of their personality by looking through the windows or how they arranged their gardens. All the people are very different.
5 - (ukofnessa ) How many paintings were used in the game development?
(How many paintings were used in the game development? I very much enjoyed the demo and I'm excited to play the full game š)
All the backgrounds (the nine levels) and also most of the popups are painted with watercolour or drawn with pencil. The characters are also hand drawn but later I used a drawing tablet to make the animations, which works faster.
6 (@shadouette) - How was the experience of programming and compiling the game together from the art? As an artist myself Iāve entertained the idea of making a game a few times, but I canāt imagine the actual execution! Your art style is amazing, and seeing it come to life will be otherworldly.
Thank you! I also have been wanting to make my own little game in which I combine art and interactivity for a long time but I always thought it was hard to do, and I needed an entrance. I didnāt even know which software to use. But somehow, I donāt even remember exactly how and when I just started. I remember, after I had more or less figured out the story, the first thing I did was paint a background, the garden for which is now level 3. In that garden I placed the animated cat. With my limited skills in programming at that time I succeeded in making an invisible button, and if the button was pressed, the cat walked to the other side. This was so basic, but I was enthusiastic I could make this happen! And this proved to be the trigger point for making the whole game. I looked on Youtube for help in programming. Later the game became more complicated and other people also got involved like programmer Jeroen Wimmers who pushed the code of the whole game to a higher level.
7 (@gutz.galante) - Can we expect a game cross-over on Rusty Lake and Miloās and the Magpies? Can we find any easter eggs in the game?
The game is not related to Rusty Lake. There is only one small element which shows a small reference, but it is small and I doubt few will notice it. But there will be hidden secrets in each garden to find, Iām sure some of the Rusty Lake achievement hunters will enjoy this!
8 (@dee_Jeh_) - Does your experience working with Rusty Lake/Second Maze inspire and help you in creating this game?
Yes, definitely! This is not something I could have done all by myself. I am grateful for their guidance, and also their motivation in cases where I got stuck, I especially got help from Maarten and Robin from Second Maze in the final stages of the game.
9 (@jamscampos) - The game seems to have a really cute vibe. Will it have bizarre elements as well?
In general the game is friendly and doesnāt have that many bizarre elements.
I wanted to create the feeling of an interactive picture book, in which you can enjoy the atmosphere of the different gardens and the colours of the paintings in combination with a simple story. The gameplay itself is tranquil, modest and not that hard. Donāt expect flashing actions. I think it is suitable / right for almost all ages.
10 (@rustylakecom) - What games do you play yourself?
I like all kinds of games. In the past I played big games like GTA, Unreal, Wolfenstein and Doom, but that was a long time ago. Nowadays I play smaller games, and puzzle games. The Rusty Lake games are among my favourites. I also enjoy platform games in which you have to run and jump, like Ori and the blind forest or Limbo and Inside from Playdead. I always look for some form of artistic quality. Or a special atmosphere, a game in which another world is created. For this Milo and the Magpies I got inspiration from Rusty Lake, Samorost and an old small flash game with hand painted backgrounds: Anika's Odyssey.
11 (@sndrsco) - Do cats rule and dogs drool?
I canāt choose since cats and dogs each have their own qualities. There is also a dog in the game who is actually quite smart.. But it is not too happy about Milo! And now Iām thinkingā¦ I can imagine a game in which they perhaps become friends and work together. Each one using their specific skills :)
Thank you all for reading! And a special thank you to our community on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook who contributed to our Q&A with questions and of course Johan for answering!
Johan Scherft's Milo and the Magpies is coming to Steam on September 7th! Wishlist now šā
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1407420/Milo_and_the_Magpies/