Summary

• Demonology 101 is a quirky demon guessing game with a vaporwave vibe.
• The game was a product of Ludipe exploring new directions in his game design process, prioritizing creativity over commercial potential.
• Ludipe's free games like Demonology 101 are a labour of love, with donations serving more as thank you tips than actual revenue.

I stumbled across in a dingy corner of indie games convention WASD labelled ‘Curios’, a section for the convention’s most unique and interesting ideas. It’s a quirky little game by Ludipe, real name Luis Díaz Peralta, a Madrid-based game designer, in which you guess the identity of whichever demon is in front of you. You can speak with the demons to get set responses and then use the Necronomicon book to match the clues they give you to the identity of each demon. It’s quite a simple ide☂a, but you’d be surprised at how difficult it can be to nail each guess.

“I love designing thinky games,” Ludipe tells me. “Most things I do involve puzzles or some turn-based strategy. But sometimes I get more experimental, with prototypes that explore per꧋sonal experiences or that take games out of their usual context.”

Demonology 101 was a smaller game developed for The Case of the Thinky Game Jam, a game jam targeting detective games that Ludipe helped to organise. “Reducing the scope is how my creative process starts half of the time,” Ludipe tells me. “Detective games usually require a lot of assets and content, and I was looking for ways to keep it small. I couldn't stop thinking about how fun it was to look for clues on Phoenix Wright or Papers, Please.

“I kept wondering about new directions or settings where I could use that mechanic and I just came up with the idea about demons. I love stories about urban legends and occultism. I was doing the art assets myself, so I was also looking for something that concealed my limitations. I ended up with that vaporwave vibe, probably because I'm a big fan of those aesthetics. Turns out that a few weeks ago I had been toying with Wigglypaint, and I really liked the idea of mixing demons made in that tool with the vaporwave UI.”

Demonology is free on itch.io, with a ‘pay what you like’ system that allows for tips if you try it for free and love it. . Ludipe tells me that he never expects to make any money with smal🔥l games like Demonology 101, and taking it to a platform like Steam requires a lot of time and effort to prepare the required materials and get everything validated. Gamܫes also don’t tend to traffic on Steam unless there’s some marketing or promotion behind them, which means more time, money, and effort that developers have to invest.

“Even after all that, I would be surprised if I made $100-200 from it,” Ludipe tells me. “That's the way things work. When you see a small game making lots of money, it's a survivor bias, it's unlikely to happen. Most of my games don't have any commercial potential. They're still the games I want to make, but instead of spending a lot of time taking them to a store where they won't pay off, I choose to just focus on what I love. I tend to publish my bigger games on Steam as well, being the most recent example.

“When I release my games for free I anticipate zero earnings. Whatever people choose to donate💟 feels more like a thank you tip than actual revenue. When one of my free games gets $50 in donations that already blows my mind.”

Ludipe calls himself a “terrible businessman” and chalks up his successful games that pay tꦑhe bills as being accidental. His main drive is to create games he enjoys because he finds it fun, not because he’s expecting a huge payday, and that means he has more freedom with how he can deliver these games to consumers.

“If your game is unique and has a distinct identity, that usually helps get eyes on it,” he says. “But if your main goal is to sell a lot of copies, most times you'll want something more familiar with a twist. Non-traditional games might get some spotlight but they rarely sell. Overall I'd encourage everybody to break things and explore new spaces. Just not too much if you are making games that need to sustain a business.”

To explore some of his creative and 🌠qui☂rky ideas, you can follow or check out .

Another quirky game by Ludipe is , a physical solitaire-style card game inspired by bookcrossing, where someone leaves a book in a public place to find it, read it, and then lea🌼ve it someplace else!