While Small Loan Studio is hard at work patching The Ouroboros Express, we wanted to highlight some of their stories from the development of the original game. Our small team created OrEx over the course of a month for NaNoRenO 2024; originally meant to be a small project, we soon fell in love with the world and characters we created. We hope you enjoy a few words from our devs Gideon Devendra Zachary Roush and Salvador Bas-Folch !

Check the game out here: https://smallloanstudio.itch.io/the-ouroboros-express

Gideon: The process for writing Vivi for me was a lot of fun. I was in charge of writing a lot of the connective tissue for the game. Most of my scenes were Vivi's quiet moments away from everyone else where she could reflect on the absurdity of her situation. It was cool because I got to give the player more agency in how they wanted to go about the day. I also got to have fun writing how she interacted with Urshu. Sometimes she would lash out at him, sometimes she would break down and be vulnerable with him. These moments were my favorite. A lot of people got to write the mysterious sexy conductor, but I was excited to show his softer and more thoughtful side. Urshu could be there to comfort Vivi and through this, we can see how much Vivi has grown since the start. I also had the pleasure of writing the entries that would appear in Vivi’s personal journal. This was a fun challenge because of the strict character limit. I loved writing these because we can easily show her progression (or lack thereof) as she spends time on the train. I loved writing the entries about how she has fallen for the other passengers on the train. I got to briefly summarize the characteristics the other writers cultivated to really show why they’ve affected Vivi in such a profound way. The whole process of developing Vivi was really fun and I’m glad I got to write on this project.

Zach: I loved writing Vivi. She is, in many ways, someone I aspire to be: quick-witted, in touch with her emotions, and very socially capable. My team made it easy to get in to her mind and character, with so much detail and a strong backstory, so all I had to do was sit and put myself into her shoes. And that's the beauty of writing! When all the right elements are in place, and all blockers are removed from your path, you can become anyone and anything. I loved, as much as I could, being Vivi and living on the Ouroboros Express with her. I'm jealous, too, for all the time she got to spend with the other amazing characters. That might be what I love most: The Ouroboros Express is a lived-in supernatural train that feels totally real, not only because of the attention to detail, but also because the characters feel so alive.

Sal: Despite having one month to develop the game, I took the challenge of making our protagonist a complex character, both in her background and how she speaks. Thus, Vivienne Sanssouci was born (by the way, the surname Sanssouci, "without a care" comes from a palace in Berlin). I wanted to have a protagonist that features a radically different voice when she talks in society versus when she talks to herself. Director Najmah Salam and I talked about how we, in real life, when in front of intense personalities, tend to bend and hide our feelings in favour of keeping the conversation forward. The essence of Vivi is that awkwardness to the extreme: a reporter that always had to keep quiet, smiling, looking smart in front of people “more important” than her. Always a social chameleon, nobody really knows her real personality. And how Vivi is in private, really? In truth, she is pretty normal: quite spontaneous, thoughtful, a little emotional, also a little silly – like many of us when are when nobody's watching. To reflect this private everyday side, I focused on her internal monologue: Vivi does not think elaborately on screen: instead, she SCREAMS internally. When she is in front of peculiar situations in the game, we see Vivi keep a levelled face, but we also watch her panic inside. I found the combination of social chameleon -- squeamish geek satisfying to develop and read.

However, it would not be me who would write Vivi. As narrative lead, I left the task to the team, along all the creative freedoms. The problem was, how to communicate with the team her complexities and backstory. The documentation and samples I provided got Vivi's conversationalist side covered. Then it took all of us several tries to nail that inner honest, sometimes funny voice. The first scenes did not quite capture the inner Vivi that Naj and I envisioned. “Perhaps”, I thought, “I’m making the writers’ lives harder, in a game jam lasting such a busy month” (GDC!). And perhaps I was. But the OrEx writing team is talented and extremely creative. A couple of brainstorming sessions later, the scenes for the second section of the game came in. There I saw the fruits of our efforts combined. All the smart Vivi, the fake Vivi, the silly Vivi. I was surprised and satisfied that such a personality worked. Her growth through the story turned out touching, even in the “bad” ending. So we rolled with it. I cannot wait to hear Vivi with a real voice now, as voiceovers for The Ouroboros Express are greenlit. And I hope more people will take the chance and discover her.

Keep an eye on our socials for more information regarding The Ouroboros Express 2.0, coming soon!