Hey there! This is Els, head writer, developer and all-around dude for Retrace! The game has been in development for almost six months, but it’s now in a place where I’m ready to start showing it off. But first: where did it come from?

From The Beginning

Retrace started, really, as a concept: I wanted to make a game in the style of Corpse Party, Ib or Yume Nikki. There’s something about the more simplistic graphics of those games that’s always grabbed me, moreso than 3D horror offerings. It would be a homage to all the games I loved.

The timeline mechanic came pretty soon after, inspired by the Zero Escape series. I wanted to approach it from a fantasy perspective, rather than the sci-fi of ZE.

Fun fact: originally the game was going to be set in Japan! However, I realised pretty quickly that if my audience was primarily going to be English-speaking, having mainly Japanese names was just going to be confusing.

Next time: a non-programmer learns to program. Slowly.