If you’re a fan of great indie adventures, you won’t want to miss out on Ary and the Secret of Seasons from Maximum Games. In this magical journey, you portray the young Ary as she manipulates seasons, in an effort to rescue the land of Valdi from an evil mage.
The team brought in Genese Davis to write the story for the game, bringing her expertise from The Holder’s Dominion and the previously released Omensight. Her talent definitely lands something great to the game, as players discover new events throughout.
To get a better perspective of how she came on board – and what she lent to the project – we sat down with Davis for an interview. There’s some great insight, especially for those interested in video game writing!
The Game Butler: First off, congratulations on the release of Ary and the Secret of Seasons! How excited are you to see the finished game on the market for all to enjoy?
Genese: Thank you for having me! It’s been a whirlwind summer and the release of Ary and the Secret of Seasons is a highlight for sure. Working with Exiin, Modus Games, and Maximum Games has been an awesome experience.
Like every labour of love, when something I work on goes out into the world, it takes on a whole new form, and it’s always exciting to see how others receive it. This game was a similar feeling to when Omensight, another game I wrote for, by Spearhead Games, released. It’s interesting to watch what story moments enrapture players, what emotions they go through, and when, and then what I can take away from their experience to improve as a writer. I love learning new things and believe we’re always evolving in life. I love pushing myself as a writer and every time I get to experience someone enjoying my work it’s an opportunity to learn and grow.
The Game Butler: How did you get involved with Ary? Did you make a pitch to the development team, or was it the other way around?
Genese: It was the latter, and I’m so thankful to the team for reaching out. In fact, when one of the producers on Ary described the scope of the project, and what exactly they were looking for writing-wise, I was instantly intrigued, and it felt like the collaboration was meant to be. Especially after meeting the game’s creator, Sebastien Le Touze, who is also the CEO and founder of Exiin Games. Seb is a fantastic collaborator. We discussed the story-goals and challenges, and as soon as I began sending him samples for character backstories on Ary, Brynn, Kalena, and Prince Crocus, we were on a roll.
From there, Seb and I worked closely to interweave how the characters’ evolving storylines could connect with the quests and overarching plot that were already established. From the very beginning, I was so impressed with how much quantity the small development team for Ary was able to create.
They produced such eye-catching art, animations, cutscenes, and more. I really enjoyed working with the team. Sebastien Le Touze, Alix Hottelet, Marcus Jonsson, Catilin Capes, Bruce Hayles, Jorrit, and Camille, (to name a few) were great collaborators and always put forward outstanding effort day in and day out.
It was an exciting challenge coming up with the details and backstories not only for the characters in Ary, but for the world of Valdi as well. Since the regions’ seasons and the seasons-crystals were foundational in Sebastien Le Touze’s vision, I started there and tried to imagine various fantastical ways that those stones could have manifested, and, therefore, why the regions were then locked into one perpetual season.
After that, I worked out deeper details that transformed into a whole ancient history for the world of Valdi. That gave me a springboard to develop Ary, her family, and the guardians of the seasons.
For anyone playing Ary who is interested in story, make sure to chase down the banned-journal-entries, penned by the investigator, “Equinox,” and you’ll discover snippets of all that ancient lore and character details.
The Game Butler: Is writing a video game script much different from the process you used for The Holder’s Dominion, you think? What changes did you have to make to your approach, if any?
Genese: Similar tips and tricks can be used when writing games and when writing novels. For example, I start with the creator’s vision. Whether that means the game director, or the IP owner of the novel—or even myself if it’s my own book idea—whomever is the stakeholder of the project will have a
fundamental theme he or she wants to bring to fruition. My job is to help bring that vision to life while staying true to the story’s foundation. Writing novels is a challenging marathon where I can use lots of pages (literally hundreds, haha) to establish and evolve characters from start to finish; where with games, I have work within much smaller parameters and rely on the visuals to stimulate the same feeling. I love being inspired by those details and seeing that connection influence my writing whether that be in the dialogue or in the lore. At the same time, it’s really special to hear that an artist or engineer was also inspired by an idea from the writing team and then they work to invest those details into the game!
The Game Butler: Tell us about the lead character, and how Ary utilizes the various seasons to her advantage.
Genese: Ary is a young girl who lives in Yule, a region perpetually in winter.
Her father, Gwenn, is the guardian of winter and his son and apprentice, Flynn, is gone and the family is in mourning. The absence of his son has pushed Gwenn into such a deep state of grief that he has become confined to a wheelchair. When the regions’ seasons begin reversing, the guardians of the seasons call an emergency meeting but Gwenn cannot attend. Against tradition, Ary decides to borrow her father’s winter crystal and head for the Dome of Seasons in his stead.
Ary finds the guardians of seasons in peril, and by joining forces with them, she discovers not only the power of the other seasons, but also (if the gamer chooses to talk to each guardian) intriguing breadcrumbs that eventually reveal some pretty cool character details and lore! She uses all of these seasons to solve puzzles, reach places once thought impossible to traverse, and complete dungeons and beat bosses.
Controlling every season in the palm of your hand is such a rewarding feeling. The way Ary utilizes the seasons creates such an eye-catching dynamic on screen. My favorite moment when playing the build was (and still is) wielding the winter crystal near an amplifying stone and all the ice platforms blast into formation. It feels so validating! I also love the climbing vines; they are wicked-cool!
The Game Butler: How closely did you work with the developers to keep the ebb and flow of the game going? Were there any changes that you made where you wish you kept something intact, or did it end up going about as you expected?
Genese: Working so closely with the team on a day-to-day-basis helped tremendously. Seb and I synced up constantly to go over details for the main quest storyline, the cutscenes, as well as the dialogue and dynamic personalities between characters, and how Valdi citizens in general might view ancient history compared to the current times; and, even things that might seem trivial but are actually a tremendous amount of work, I took meticulous time on, like coming up with names for Ary’s costumes, names and descriptions for achievements and quests, tool tips, and all the UI in game. But even those seemingly small details were a lot of fun to write and edit. Of course, if I could have snapped my fingers and magically added more time and resources for additional quests and more region-lore, I definitely would have, but I think we did a great job within the limitations we had.
The Game Butler: Have you played the game yet? Or have you talked to people who have to get their feedback, see what they think?
Genese: Now that the game has debuted, it’s been really fun watching streamers play Ary. I have played the game myself, too, not only now that Ary is out, but also back during development. I played the build as soon as I joined the project and continued to do so throughout the process. This really helped when writing or rewriting content.
I really enjoyed this point in the game’s development. It’s particularly fascinating because the game is still evolving and working out its own kinks, and every decision you make is helping it transform into the final version. Of course, playing the game after release is super special, too, because now as the player, we can reexperience beloved scenes with the voice over and the music and game mechanics, all combined with the quests or character moments—it’s so cool.
And like I mentioned above, I’ve been really enjoying watching streamers play the game, seeing their reactions to different moments and mechanics, solving puzzles and learning more about the story, the characters, and the lore. It’s so incredibly heartwarming. In fact, one night last week, I ended up befriending a player who was exploring Valdi and discussing her favorite characters and lines of dialogue. I ended up revealing that I was the Lead Writer on the game and we bonded over story chat from there.
The Game Butler: Would you like to see the Ary storyline expand into further adventures? Would you come back to write a sequel if you were asked?
Genese: In a heartbeat. Ary and the world of Valdi is awesome and I had a blast working with Seb and the team. There are still so many untold stories from the main characters: Ary, Flynn, Kalena, and Gwenn, and even side characters like Ronin the Messenger. We already have so much carved out for Valdi and its ancient lore that we couldn’t fit into the game that this lends itself to all kinds of mediums like sequels, or TV shows, or movies. I would definitely work with Exiin, Modus, and Maximum again to bring more story goals to life.
The Game Butler: What advice do you have for someone that wants to write the story for a video game such as Ary and the Secret of Seasons?
Genese: Focus on being a great storyteller. Focus on creativity. Consume as much as you can, and write, write, write. The more you write, the more you create, the better your craft will become. And after you’ve written, make sure to go back and edit, edit and edit some more! I get some of my best work during the editing process.
I think creating your own stories versus working to create story for a company or a stakeholder each have their own unique learning opportunities.
It’s fun to be the master of your domain and create whatever comes to mind, but it is also such a thrill working hard to help bring someone else’s vision to life. I love puzzle-piecing the answers within a game’s parameters and finding every possible way to bring a rich story experience to the player. Also, things that really helped springboard my writing career was changing my major to English while attending the University of Texas at Austin, continuing to take writing courses after the fact, hiring and working with professional editors, and writing The Holder’s Dominion. From there, working tirelessly on my craft landed me on stage speaking on panels, plus writing for game sites, and writing novels for film companies and for icons like Stan Lee.
Lastly, every writer needs to love writing. They need to love creativity. And they need to love working hard. Writing isn’t easy and it demands everything—all your energy, all your focus. Setting aside extra time is essential. Carving out brainstorming time is just as essential as the time you need to get it down on paper and then edit to boot!
The Game Butler: Finally, what’s next? Are you hoping to work on another video game script, or are you taking it easy for a while? Maybe playing some games?
Genese: Well, I always hope to play games and read novels as often as possible, and squeeze in some movie-time, too. But, of course, this has been tough lately with life’s juggling act, haha. Beyond that, I’m writing for more games at the moment, plus writing a three book series called Project Nitron for Benaroya Pictures and the late Stan Lee simultaneously! Just recently, a special edition podcast on The Storyteller Chatcast debuted where Sebastien Le Touze and I divulged how the story development of Ary progressed, and there was so much more we wanted to divulge but couldn’t say because of spoilers, therefore, another 2.0 edition is in the works with no-holds-barred.
All spoilers and twists and turns will be discussed! So, if you can, have a listen to the first edition (it’s on all podcast platforms and on my website www.genesedavis.com) and keep a lookout for that second edition, coming October.
Ary and the Secret of Seasons is available now. Thanks to Genese for sharing so much with us!
