Creator Spotlight: Lilith Dot Zip (b0tster), Creator of BloodbornePSX

So sometimes, you shoot your shot and get surprised. I reached out to Lilith, creator of  the Bloodborne PSX de-make and was overjoyed they were willing to answer some questions. With June right around the corner, it’s my hope to kick off our interview series again with prominent members of the queer creative community.

Without further delay…

Q: A pleasure to have you here Lilith! If you don’t mind, could you do a brief introduction for the folks at home?

A: Sure! I’m Lilith Walther, an indie game developer whose little side project PSX demake of Bloodborne exploded one day. I’m a programmer by day, but I also dabble in all aspects of game development, from character design to animation.

Q: Playing through your titles (Bloodborne PSX and others) very quickly invoked memories of summers in front of my PS1 as a kid. There’s several other developers right now making use of the “retro revival” we’ve seen for years beginning to use similar aesthetics. What about the PSX/N64 era do you personally feel appeals to people?

A: I honestly just think it’s just the natural evolution of old visuals aging into nostalgia. It happened with pixel art, and now it’s happening with first gen ps1/n64 games. Give it a decade or so and it’ll happen to ps2 / xbox / gamecube as well!

To get a little deeper into it, however, it’s what originally made old graphics ‘ugly’ that’s seen as charming now. The low texture resolution and warping, the compressed audio, the vertex jitter, the archaic design. All of these were limitations of the hardware, meaning that these things were never seen before or after this generation of video games. This is what makes it unique, and what makes it nostalgic.

Q: More commonly, we see PSX/N64 aesthetics used closely alongside the horror community instead of de-makes and other works. Do you think there’s something about the aesthetic that lends itself to a “spooky nostalgia” viewpoint? BBPSX most certainly felt more horrific with the visuals turned down, IMHO. Yarnham felt more desolate? Or perhaps that’s just me.

A: It’s a very frequently observed take, but it’s a very true one: The lower the fidelity, the more spooky something is due to a lack of details being filled in by the player’s brain. Taking away Yharnam’s vast PS4 powered draw distances and replacing it with a thick veil of PS1 friendly darkness will definitely make it feel more scary as the player can’t tell what’s more than a few yards in front of them.

Q: Alright, our last questions are some tough ones: June is around the corner, and with it comes Pride. I’m gonna be honest and say corporate and “rainbow capitalism” makes my stomach curdle as a queer content creator. The marketing and boxing of our identities is much more prevalent than before with social media. How can we, as both the queer community and queer creatives, pull away from this death-grip corporations have every year on us? Is there perhaps a way to do so?

A: It won’t be easy, but it’s up to us to platform queer creatives and encourage others to do so to lessen the reliance on big publishers that would ask us to modify our content to be ‘more marketable’ or ‘family friendly’. Bloodborne PSX is of course based off of an existing IP, but I am confident that my future original (super queer) projects will be able to survive in this market without a traditional publisher or marketing strategy. If we can do this, then the reliance will lessen. The only way to win is to not play, so to speak.

Q: There are likely many, many queer creatives that are looking up to you for inspiration. If I can be totally honest, you are the direct reason I picked up RPG Maker MV and have been burning hours on learning the engine. Independent queer media, such as ours, is increasingly becoming important. What, if anything, would you like to say to the queer creative hopefuls at home who are maybe eying starting a new project, but are afraid to do so?

A: Don’t overthink it! And don’t expect your first game to be your AAA inspired magnum opus! Jump in, learn what you can, make mistakes, learn, and grow! Your first game may only be an hour long, and it may not be ‘good’ by contemporary standards, but it’s yours. A shipped 7/10 is infinitely better than a theoretical 10/10 that you never finish due to the impossibly high standards you give yourself. It’s important to view your journey as a linear line of multiple released games, each one better than the last than one super mega magnum opus game that has to be perfect!

You can follow Lilith on her twitter, download BloodbornePSX here for free, but what’s more support Lilith directly over on Kofi. Likewise, be sure to check out their other project “Witch”-a JRPG style game-here.