VGTimes Interview with the Author of Tiny Bunny

Tiny Bunny is one of the most original and highly rated Russian games of recent years. The project has almost seven thousand reviews on Steam, and 98 percent of them are positive, one hundred thousand gamers have gathered in fan groups, and YouTube videos about the plot collect millions of views. What is the secret of the project, how was it created, how much did the development cost? The creator of the game Saikono will tell you about this. If you prefer to watch rather than read, click on the video!

Tiny Bunny is a Russian visual novel that became one of the most highly rated Steam projects in 2021. However, if you are biased towards the novel genre, the game may change your mind — it turned out to be too talented.

The strongest side of Tiny Bunny is the story. The plot tells the story of a young man who used to live in a big city and believed that his parents were about to take him to Disneyland, but instead went to live in the Siberian wilderness. Probably, the matter is that the father was engaged in shady dealings and crossed the path of someone influential.

Alas, life in the new place did not work out. The parents argue every now and then and, God forbid, are about to get divorced. Mom is constantly angry and scolds the children even for the slightest offense. The new classmates, to put it mildly, are not friendly — they start bullying the newcomer to town on the very first day. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

One day, a policeman knocks on the door of the house and tells about the disappearance of a local boy who did not return home after school. But this is not the first and certainly not the last tragedy in these parts.

In addition, some kind of devilry is happening everywhere. Every night, the main character's sister sees a creepy owl as tall as a man outside her window. In the forest, you can sometimes see the terrible silhouettes of mysterious creatures. From somewhere far away, the simultaneously alluring and frightening sounds of a flute are heard. How can you not tense up?

As a result, the hero finds himself in a whirlpool of unpleasant events, and no one can help him. Who can he complain to about aggressive classmates if his parents are already at their limit? How can he tell about mystical creatures that lure his child somewhere? What can he do to make his parents stop arguing and make peace?

At the same time, the topics are presented colorfully and realistically. Although the plot is based on a short story of the same name, the developers brought a lot of new things to the script — at the very least, they added a huge number of details that make what is happening convincing.

The drawing in Tiny Bunny is also gorgeous. Gloomy black and white colors, attention to detail, well-developed backgrounds, beautiful characters, faces with facial expressions and grins. Often in visual novels, you want to click on the backgrounds and run further along the plot. Here, each new screen attracts attention for a long time — too much work was put into them.

But how was the game created? What problems did the authors encounter in the process? How much did the development cost?

VGTimes: Can you introduce yourself and tell us what you do?

Saikono: My name is Saikono. I'm working on the game Tiny Bunny, it's a visual novel. I've already released three episodes, which are available on Steam. People seem to like it.

VGTimes: Do you identify with the nickname Saikono more than with the name on your passport?

Saikono: Yes, I do. These are anime roots, I have a lot of experience in anime clubs. And I've had this nickname since I was 14 — I chose it and I've been wearing it.

VGTimes: The novella Tiny Bunny was released on behalf of the Saikono studio. Is Saikono just you or is it a team?

Saikono: In the beginning, we had a team of three people, Mars People Game. We had equal shares, and we started the game with this team. Unfortunately, not everyone believed in the project, and the guys had enough personal problems. In general, they all left the development, and only I remained. For now, Saikono is me and a group of freelancers.

VGTimes: Now the game has become successful. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the VK group, videos on YouTube collect millions of views, the number of positive reviews is impressive. Are the people who left the team sad?

Saikono: One of them is doing great. This is the author of the story, Dmitry Mordas: he left the team, but still remained the copyright holder of the source and receives a percentage. And the second one... there was not a very pleasant farewell, and I don't even want to remember his name.

VGTimes: For the first time, Tiny Bunny entered the information field in 2018. Then the first materials appeared, and gamers started talking about the game. And when did the development actually start?

Saikono: The development started a long time ago. I started in January 2016: I made a public page, and slowly started the process. This was the time when I also had a main job. After a working day, I found a couple of hours and sawed the game like that for several years.

First, we made a demo version. Then, when our author left, we rewrote everything with one person, then rewrote everything with another. In the end, I invited a friend, a great scriptwriter Evgeny Sokarev, to join the development team — he came and started to put things in order. He pulled up all the weak points, improved everything.

While I was waiting for the script, I drew and drew and drew. A lot of graphics accumulated — and not like in regular short stories with a background and a human sprite. We worked through each scene and sometimes added animation. I think that's why people like watching YouTube walkthroughs.

VGTimes: How long does it take to create one scene: backdrop, character model, and animation?

Saikono: It varies, there are different scenes here. We have a horror game, and sometimes we focus on creepiness. We try to maintain a balance, but in general I like to make tense scenes — I put more effort into them.

It's especially difficult with jump scares. For example, we reworked the first jump scare for the demo version ten times to make it work. The programmer simply hated me and said: «You don't know what you want.» And you see whether the scene works or not only when everything is done. However, it's really cool when the jump scare does work.

Besides, only now I was able to quit my job and focus on the game. And before that, what? Can you do much in an hour a day? We focus on maximum quality. However, I still drew faster than the writer prepared the text. This, by the way, is one of the reasons why we have a lot of pictures: I was ahead of the scriptwriter's schedule.

VGTimes: What were you doing at the job you managed to quit?

Saikono: I was a digital artist and drew for computer games. I visited many studios, and there were different cases. Somewhere the investor left, somewhere I did not suit someone or someone did not suit me. In general, I went to studios, gained experience and went freelance.

My last place of work was the Canadian studio VOLTA. We worked great with them: I drew concepts for a film that will be released soon. I also made cards for a CCG from Capcom.

VGTimes: Work on Tiny Bunny began in 2016. At what point did you manage to leave the hired work?

Saikono: The first episode, which we called the prologue, was free, but we hoped to collect donations for production. Doki Doki Literature Club was released free and became a huge success. But we didn't have success.

It only became a hit on the second try, when we made a paid version with two episodes and full voice acting. Voice acting is a delicate matter: it can sink a game if it's even a little bit bad. People will call it crap if at least one character fails. That's what happened to me with Ciri in The Witcher 3. I like everyone, but I don't like her, and I immediately want to switch to English. And you can't switch the voice acting here — it's only Russian.

VGTimes: The game is voiced even by famous actors. How did you attract them?

Saikono: Yes, we attracted dubbing masters. For example, Andrey Yaroslavtsev, who recently died. He's one of my favorite actors, he was a great person. We went straight to his house to record — he has a studio there. We didn't even dream that we would have Andrey Viktorovich, but everything worked out.

Plus the game was voiced by other old-school masters. For example, Lyudmila Ilyina — viewers may know her from the animated series «Sailor Moon», she voiced all the female characters in it. We, however, put her in an interesting role: she voiced Semyon and did a great job.

VGTimes: The voice acting turned out cool. I watched all the videos about the sound recording process and admired Katya's signature «yes-yes» and other phrases. How did you select the actors and check the quality?

Saikono: First of all, it's worth praising our screenwriter. He used to be involved in theater and phrases like «yes-yes» are his merit. At the same time, even if there was no voice acting, everything works — we checked. We have a character called Alice — she works great without voice acting. People like her image, but with a voice the effect is even more enhanced.

VGTimes: Was the voice acting done by a certain studio?

Saikono: The voice acting was done by Ravencat studio — we were very lucky with them. They are great guys, crazy perfectionists like us. They always push for quality. We want to make a good game, and they want to make cool voice acting. They also voiced «The Black Book» and can handle any task.

The so-called Comrade Voron helped find the voices. He suggested his actors and some of them were great — for example, Kristina Sherman, who voiced Polina, or the incredibly talented Alyana Syrova, who played Byasha and the hero's mother.

If the suggested actor was not suitable, I looked for them myself. I went on «Kinopoisk», looked for suitable actors, found out their number through connections and made arrangements. If we are talking about a young actor, he auditioned — this is normal practice. The person would record a part, and we would make a decision.

But you can't really record the masters. They have a lot of work, and they won't go through auditions. However, professionals have a huge portfolio. You look at a similar role and understand whether it suits you or not. That's how we found Maria Ovchinnikova.

I also have to mention Irina Kireeva: this is just a crazy level. She is one of the top ten Russian actresses. She does a take, and it's perfect — and she says: «I'll do it even better now.» And she really does it better.

VGTimes: How much does such a cool professional voice-over cost? How did you raise the right amount?

Saikono: There were no sales yet, but many factors came together. For example, Christina Sherman signed up for the cast early and gave a good discount. She likes indies, and she noted the quality of the project.

We also had donations. One very good person, Maxim Krasnyansky, you could say, paid for all the voice acting — he donated a lot of money for the development of the game. Seeing such amounts, I decided to invest them in the voice acting.

After the release of the second episode, we also collected donations to make mini-games. We keep our promises and invest everything in development.

VGTimes: How much did the voice acting and the entire development cost?

Saikono: In general, a little more than a million rubles were invested in Tiny Bunny, and the amount continues to grow. And the voice acting cost somewhere around 200 thousand.

The price of the actors' work depends on their level and agreements. The most expensive was Andrey Viktorovich — however, we confessed our love to him, and he lowered our price. It's the same with Boris Repetur: he likes to participate in such projects. He also made a big discount.

VGTimes: Considering that you are a fan of Boris Repetur and Andrey Yaroslavtsev, it is easy to conclude that you are a person from the nineties. Is that why you chose this setting?

Saikono: There is a lot of personal stuff in the game — a good scriptwriter successfully transfers it into the game. I tell him about situations, like with the fish in the third episode, and he twists it to the right degree and it turns out great. Or, for example, the scene with the date and the funny rehearsal. This is also my personal experience, something similar happened in childhood. We added jokes and character color to these memories — in the end it turned out great.

We are children of the nineties, and we know the setting well. Although sometimes we get scolded for this. They say that we exploit those times... But the game is about the nineties, and it does not consist of references, but of the spirit of the era.

VGTimes: Tiny Bunny raises themes of bullying and family discord. Have you experienced anything similar?

Saikono: I was lucky, this is not about me — that's just the script. This is a kind of technique, when on the one hand the hero is under pressure from bullying and family problems, and on the other — mysticism. Taking this opportunity, I do not recommend reading the original story Tiny Bunny yet, it is better to do it after the fourth episode. There will be a plot twist that is better to learn from the game.

VGTimes: By the way, how did you meet the author of the story Dmitry Mordas, and why did you decide to make a game out of Tiny Bunny?

Saikono: It was my initiative — I had a lot of creative energy back then. I needed to put it somewhere. At first, I wanted to make a comic, but it didn't work out. Then I decided to make a novella. I already had an unsuccessful experience with a novella: I pulled too much, took on a ton of responsibilities and couldn't handle it.

There is a reader Oleg Buldakov who voices audiobooks. I listened to the story Tiny Bunny performed by him, and I liked it. Later, we contacted the author of the story, Dmitry Mordas, who turned out to be a great guy, and started making the game.

He wrote the script for the first episode, and while I was waiting for the rest, he saved up a lot of graphics. Unfortunately, the script for the second episode never happened: Dmitry had personal matters, and he couldn't continue. It was the hardest period when we lost the original writer — finding a new one was a nightmare. After all, in short stories, and in Russian films, it is the plot that often suffers.

VGTimes: Why did you decide to make a visual novel and not a quest? Was it the easiest?

Saikono: Yes, it really was the easiest. There was no programmer on the team at the time, and the author of the story took over these functions. I also had an unsuccessful experience when we were making a quest — it was hard. It is not easy to make something interesting without a smart programmer, so the short story genre was chosen. But now we have a good developer who adds cool mini-games.

VGTimes: You said that the hardest thing is to draw screamers. How long did it take to create the scene with «Macarena»?

Saikono: With «Macarena» it was easy. You didn't even have to draw anything, you just had to direct everything correctly. Evgeny Sokarev came up with the joke, we laughed. By the way, I doubted it later, because the testers didn't laugh at all during the test runs. But in the end we decided to keep it, and everything worked out.

VGTimes: Streamers and YouTubers love Tiny Bunny. Did you contact them in any way at the beginning? Or did they notice the game themselves?

Saikono: There were attempts. At first, I sent them keys. Good practice before the release: sent keys to an incomprehensible and unknown game.

Even small streamers did not really want to play — but then BlackSilverUFA released a video about it. He helped us a lot, became the first big streamer who played Tiny Bunny. He loves demos, and the horror genre itself had an effect. They won't play regular novels, but they might appreciate a horror game. As a result, we became a little more popular.

Before the release of the second episode, I also sent out keys. I sent them out and sent them out, and the effect gradually grew. And then Dmitry Kuplinov happened, to whom I sent keys for three years in a row, and he ignored them. I think he himself noticed the popularity of the novel, he didn't find our key in his mailbox littered with such keys and bought the game. And before the release of the third episode, the streamers themselves wrote.

VGTimes: The release of all five episodes is planned for 2023. What should gamers expect in 2022?

Saikono: First of all, expect an increase in the age rating. Episode 3 is the calm before the storm. I was afraid that people would complain about the lack of creepiness — there is little of it. This is generally a problem with episodic nature: when you read the novel in its entirety, you simply do not notice it. But it is clear that the third episode is inferior in terms of horror. But there are other entertainments there.

The climax is in Episode 4, and the passions will increase. There will be a lot of creepiness and brutality. We will even think about a censored version for streamers.

VGTimes: At least Episode 4 will be released in 2022, right?

Saikono: Yes, most likely it will. We will try very hard to do everything: we have the resources, time and desire for this. After all, the fans are rejoicing and encouraging. In the worst case, we may be a little late, but we will do without hard postponements for a whole year, as happened with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.

VGTimes: If you approached a publisher now, you would be welcomed with open arms. Do you plan to do so?

Saikono: It's not that simple. We are negotiating with different publishers, and they are interested, but... So far, these are just negotiations, and there is no point in even talking about anything specific.

VGTimes: Are there plans for console and mobile ports?

Saikono: Yes, we would like to make ports on consoles. Maybe we will make a mobile version too.

VGTimes: I heard that you already have an idea for the next project?

Saikono: Yes, there is another very small project, but first of all we need to finish Tiny Bunny.

P.S.

The secret of Tiny Bunny's success is the irrepressible enthusiasm of its creators, who put all their talent into every background and every line of code and always strive for maximum quality. It is not surprising that the novella has become so popular. If you have not tried it yet, hurry to evaluate it — it is worth it.

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VGTimes has been operating since 2011 and during this time has visited dozens of exhibitions and festivals, where our journalists have collected many exclusive materials. For example, in 2019 we got to a closed screening of Cyberpunk 2077 at gamescom, in 2017 we prepared a photo report from WG Fest, in 2020 we were at the largest gaming event in Central Asia CAGS, and also visited IgroMir several times, where we saw Hideo Kojima and other famous developers.