Exclusive Access: Creative Vision Behind Keepers of Astaela
In this special episode of the Otome.com podcast, hosts Lover’s Lens and SweetPixel sit down with the dynamic duo behind Keepers of Astraela—Gwynne, the developer, and Wrenna, the writer. They discuss the creation of the fantasy visual novel, delve into character development, and share their future plans for the game.
You can listen to the full interview here and enjoy gameplay of Keepers of Astraela:
Keepers of Astraela is a beautifully crafted visual novel that features urban fantasy elements and captivating characters. In this game, players follow the journey of Eva, a librarian who begins to realize that the vivid dreams inspiring her fantasy novels may be connected to a much darker reality. As strange attacks plague her quiet town, Eva must uncover the truth behind the creatures stalking the streets, all while navigating complex relationships and making choices that will impact the fates of those around her.
Gwynne: I think I stumbled upon the visual novel genre when I was a teenager and played a lot of games by a developer called Pacticist, and I think she was a solo female dev, quite young, doing a lot of dating sim-type visual novels. And I just really liked the genre. I played a lot of Voltage games as well, or rather I watched Let’s Plays of them on YouTube before they got copyright striked. And it just seemed very approachable.
It just seemed like a genre that would play to my strengths if I wanted to write my own games.
Wrenna: It wasn’t too hard to adapt it over. Thankfully, Gwen was actually one of my first readers of the very first draft of Vision, and when we started building the game together, if there was anybody else in this world who knew Vision as well as myself, it was Gwen.
I think the only challenge that came up was that the book itself is told in the third person perspective from a couple of different points of view, and for the game, we definitely wanted it to be first person, just with Eva’s point of view. So there was a fun challenge being able to put all the puzzle pieces together so that Eva could tell the whole story and have it still be seamless and smooth.
Wrenna: I adore phoenixes. When I started kicking around the idea of making a character with fire abilities, I knew I wanted him to be a human phoenix. And something common in fantasy romance is a male lead that’s brooding, dark, you know, morally gray, and a lot of times they’re kind of cruel or a little mean to those around them. And I absolutely eat that up in fiction. I love it. I wanted Emrys to take a little different direction. He’s very much like this puppy dog kind of golden retriever-type character.
Wrenna: Bobby has known Eva for years. And at the start of the game, they’re already best friends who know everything about one another. And they’ve been through a lot of life together. And so they’re very bonded in a deep way, even before their romance can begin. Bobbi’s definitely the person that Eva can go to for anything, and she leans on Bobbi a lot when things get rough.
Eva hasn’t known Emrys quite as long, so while their bond really grows strong over this story, there are still a lot of unspoken things between them.
Gwynne: I don’t think we’re quite done with Keepers of Astraela yet. I know we have a couple of updates planned and then Wrenna’s book, Vision is actually planned as the first part in a trilogy of the Keepers of Astraela series. And so, I would like, hopefully, to even adapt the rest of the series, into the visual novel when it’s completed. I’ve written some prequel novellas that take place in the Astraela universe and we might do those as well.
Gwynne: I wanted Wrenna, since these were her characters in her world, to have the final say on what character artist we went with.
But I weeded through a lot of styles that I wasn’t so familiar with. That I didn’t think would work for this game. And it presented Wrenna with maybe a final 10 or 20. And so I was really happy with the fact that she would get to bring these characters to life.
Gwynne: I took the advice to kind of start small, start with something that you could finish. I started a little bigger than most. Heart and Soul was my first project. It was about 80,000 words and it was a commercial venture, but I felt prepared because of my business background.
Wrenna: For writers, I would say don’t be afraid to embrace the branching paths. It can be overwhelming at first, but once you let your creativity flow without bounds, it becomes such a rewarding process.
Wrenna: I would definitely say, hands down for me, Emrys is my baby. I definitely put elements of myself into each of the characters, but there’s something about him where It felt like, from day one, I was just pouring my soul onto the page, and his sense of humor and his good-hearted nature just always pulls me to him, even if all of his attempts at doing good things just fail hilariously. He’s got this charm about him that makes him very addicting for me.
Gwynne: I really like Jensen. I have the biggest crush on him. I’m just saying, I’m hanging on every word he says. I think he’s so dreamy. I really do. So yeah, it’s hard to combat that, as much as I love Bobbi and Eva. It’s just Jensen. It’s just kind of perfection.
As a special treat for our readers, we’re excited to reveal two exclusive CG images from Keepers of Astraela, which have yet to be shown to the public. The first image features Bobbi, showcasing her holding up her phone with evidence of the mysterious black good. The second image centers around Emrys, capturing a very handsome side of him. These visuals give us a glimpse into the captivating art style that makes the game so engaging and brings the characters to life.
Keepers of Astraela is available on Steam, and there’s much more to come, including Bobbi’s full route planned for release in 2025. Stay tuned for future updates as Gwynne and Wrenna continue to expand the magical world of Astraela.
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