I'm Lulullia (Luli for short), 19yo, INTJ worldbuilder, storyteller, gamedev and pixel artist!

Yeah, that's a lot of arts; I love trying out creative things, and after years of experimentation I nailed down what I wanted to do – bring my world and stories to life, in the form of immersive, interactive narrative games.

That's a mouthful, but let's take it step by step… Summary for this very lengthy post, skip to whatever is the most interesting to you!

• Worldbuilding – I create a world

• Storytelling – tragic and mature stories happen in this world

• Narrative games – immersive, animated representation of these stories

• Pixel art / Illustration – um, just a consequence of me deciding to make an animated game really

Worldbuilding

I think worldbuilding is an art in its own right, and can be pursued as something other than just a tool to write a story. Plus, my neurodivergent brain craves constant stimulation, and there's nothing more apt for it than designing complex, interconnected systems (a world in a nutshell)!

The base concept of my world is that of a habitable double-planet system that got disrupted by a rogue object… which moved them farther away from their star, resulting in an almost completely dark world. Light and spatial objects are thus a central element for both the life of the flora and fauna, and the aesthetics of the world! Fluorescent plants and constellation charts, anyone!? :D

There's a couple more concepts I'm building on top of, but it would make this too long so I'll save it for later! An important principle for my worldbuilding is to always stay internally consistent. Everything impacts everything in this huge system and I make it a point to go all the way through when I make a change or set an in-world rule. Plus, I want the world to feel like it could be real, given the right circumstances; I try my hardest to never use any handwavium, and to explain everything in accordance to real-world and in-world laws. It's still far from SF though; I like to think my world is a mix of SF and fantasy, taking principles from both genres. The second gif above is of the star system's gas giant and its moons and rings!

Storytelling

Of course, what is a world without conflict, without its people? Most of these stories emerged during worldbuilding, but it all started with Lyphuriaa (project name), a story whose origins go way back to my childhood, when I took characters of media I liked and basically put them together in one giant fanfic.

It's been 10+ years and suffice it to say the current version bears no resemblance at all to that stupidly massive mess – but from the moment the story's world became its own separate project, I started thinking more about the kind of emotions and experience I wanted to give my readers/players. It was kinda easy, since I myself know what I want from the media I consume: negative or bittesweet emotions, even better when I cry! These are what makes the most impact on me, the most memorables experiences.

So, it was obvious to me that I should set the overall tone, mood and atmosphere of my world and stories to something nostalgic, sad, heavy, with mature (don't confuse with adult) themes and characters, but still with a touch of wonder, magic, and hope.

However, I still prioritize a satisfying experience over cheap tragedy. I prefer making my characters go through hell and back and get well-earned respite in the end, rather than having them suffer "for the rest of their lives". Well, I realize I haven't actually talked about the plots and characters, but if you're, like me, also searching for tight, heart-wrenching stories that give you an unforgettable experience, then hop on!

Some themes I explore: family in its broader sense (finding people by whose side you can call home; sense of belonging), love also in a broad sense (kinds of love, what it means to truly love someone, pure love), society norms (why should "selfish" be a negative trait? what does being an adult mean? among other things). Also I'm sick of immature teenagers stories, let's create more smart, adult characters! More wholesome mature slowburns! Less freaking out at the simple mention of a kiss!

Narrative games

Gosh I spent so much time revising the last section but I just can't get all the important stuff in under five paragraphs bruh

A-anyway, hoping the wall of text hasn't scared you away, let's talk games! I fiddled around a lot before deciding to make games, and not novels or comics. Only text will not be able to be as immersive as visuals, but comics, while a big step-up, is still too static to my taste. But, more importantly – in both of these (legit and very respectable arts, I should add!) formats, the reader is just a spectator.

As I later discovered while trying to understand what is immersion and what contributes to it (a key thing I want to really nail down to bring the best experience), interactivity plays a big part in it. I realized this while binge-playing the whole Ace Attorney franchise – one of my favorite games of all time, truly an inspiration, especially the latest TGAAC, a true masterpiece of the visual novel/interactive fiction genre, play it now – that while the story was completely linear, I still felt like I was the one advancing the story, that if I weren't here the story wouldn't have happened.

That felt strange though, because as I said the story is 100% linear, there are no branching dialogues or choices to make or endings to get (with the exception of one game but it was still very superficial and at the very end, a wrong choice/right choice type of ending). Ace Attorney is the kind of game that, given the choice, I'd rather play myself than watch a let's play of. Because even though there's little room for personalized playthroughs, the game still gives agency to the players to decide, for example, which place to go to first, the order in which you talk to the characters, if you want to examine the evidence now or later… It's not much but it's surprisingly effective. And so, I want to give this kind of experience to my players. This is what makes it more than a simple visual novel or pixel-art animation; it's an interactive narrative game. And, after all, it'd be quite a waste to use a medium as powerful as games and only provide a comic- or movie-like experience!

That said, I stand by the fact that it will always be, at its core, a story. I will not add any kind of gameplay that will go in the way of the story and immersion. Instead, all gameplay will strenghten the core and add to the story. Just like Ace Attorney, it will be, say, 90% dialogues and cutscenes, and 10% being in control and playing (aka running around talking to people). It's not a game for those who come for the gameplay and skip all story, so here's that.

This design decision comes from my own frustration in not being able to experience the story of a game I'm really interested in, because you need to grind to have enough power to complete the next story stage, or you need to have more skill, and I don't wanna grind or be more powerful, I just want to read what comes next! Not to mention, stories in games usually are just another feature; but nothing is made to make experiencing the story enjoyable. A common example is having to shove gameplay (usually combat) into the story forcibly, so monsters appear just because it's been too long since the last encounter, not because the story needs it. Let's not even talk about the presentation… another point where Ace Attorney shines. But let's stop here, it's getting ranty and I still have one more section! The first gif above is a prototype I made to test out the gameplay (all placeholder art of course)!

Pixel Art / Illustration

So! Not much of a story here, thankfully. I just mildly like drawing and it only became a true interest when I wanted to put my ideas of my world and stories into images. I'm that artist who never doodled in the margins of her books at school, never copied pictures she liked, or never drew at all in her childhood really.

And despite that, I was still decent at it, so my skill only improved when I started studying art for real when I was around 15. I can count my finished pieces on my fingers (wait no I think that's a french-only expression?) but I still rapidly improved thanks to constant observation of other's drawings and life around me.

In short, I want to draw more and practice and improve more on my fundamentals so that I can make 1) amazing concepts and designs for both characters and environments, 2) stunning art. So I try to! And I'll be posting what little drawings I make, mostly be about my world and characters, so yeah!

Also why don't my characters have heads? They do, I just don't draw them for religious reasons! You'll get used to it. Trust me.

Finally, it's ending

If you're still here – wow, thanks! This post is more of an overview I can link to when needed, so I don't expect much feedback at first. But still, I hope I could convey my vision and motivations clearly and if it's something you're interested in, then please follow either here or on Tumblr (content will be the same on both platforms from now on)!

I really like discussing any of the above topics so if you're a fellow worldbuilder/storyteller/gamedev/artist then I'd love to chat :D

Anyway, it's about time I ended this, until next poooost