Welcome to the FM Author Spotlight, a series of interviews that provides an exclusive peek into the world of fan mission creators. In this episode, we are talking to Squadafroinx, one of the most original authors from our community. Squadafroinx's solo debut in 2016 was Watery Grave, a cramped city miniature oozing with great atmosphere and compelling story. However, he is probably best known for his collaborations with Schlock that resulted in Into the Odd and Alcazar, which are both among the highest rated missions on Thief Guild. In this exclusive interview, Squadafroinx shares with us some insights on the sources of his inspiration, approach to working in DromEd, and most importantly - reveals information on a mysterious project that he is currently working on.
Aemanyl: Please introduce yourself and tell us how you discovered the Thief games.
Squadafroinx: Hello, I am Squadafroinx; a tricenarian man living as an anonymous cog within France’s enormous administration. As for how I discovered Thief, it was during the late noughties; I was searching for a good game and I stumbled upon Thief, that I purchased on a sudden impulse. In retrospective, I think it was one of the best thing to happen in my life, only second to when I discovered the community and its fan missions!
Aemanyl: Do you have a favourite genre, style, or theme of fan missions?
Squadafroinx: Yes! Since I really like miniatures, it’s no wonder that I really like densely detailed tiny and cramped fan missions, such as Sinful Opportunities by Polygon or Precious by AntiMatter_16.
I also really like what I call Neo-TDP or Neo-T2, maps that feel like they are continuities of the original missions but have also an interesting blend of custom resources, they feel so tasteful. Examples include Uncadonego’s The Power of Suggestion, a FM that is more T2 than T2, or of course the recent Neo-TDP trend that follows the 20th Anniversary Contest. I get an absolute blast every time I launch one of those new FMs.
Nonetheless, I also enjoy a lot custom-heavy fan missions such as Horns of Canzo or Bathory, which are among my favourite campaigns.
Aemanyl: Can you walk us through your typical workflow when creating fan missions? Where do you typically begin, and how do you approach the different stages of development?
Squadafroinx: It’s very chaotic. First, I get a rough idea, quickly open DromEd, and work for an hour or two. I think getting rid of the feeling of working on a white page is the most important part: stupid little geometrical shapes just standing there in the void feel eerie.
After that, I like to think of DromEd as a game of straight dominoes, as I try my best to match shapes and textures next to each other in the way it feels the most organic (as you match tiles with the same numbers of pips). I don’t really plan anything. I’d even say I don’t plan at all. When I began using DromEd, I used to plan everything down to a tiniest detail, but I noticed that it’s a chore, it’s hard to follow and it’s uninteresting. Now I just build because it feels cool. Too bad if I end up biting my own tail with impossible stairs, streets that are too twisty, apartments that are too cramped, and doors that lead nowhere.
As for when I hit a wall, I use the good old method of throwing brushes at the wall until something sticks.
My favourite moment is when I can finally use some sounds, to which I put a lot of effort. I think of sounds as an expressway to the mind, for they have the ability to bypass conscious processing and directly affect emotions. They can provide a sense of depth that visual stimuli alone can hardly convey. I put the same effort into writing readables, as I aim to hint a bigger, darker, and stranger world than what is confined within the map.
Aemanyl: What would be your proudest DromEd achievement?
Squadafroinx: I would say making my first conversation, or my first genie. Genies are NPCs that are stuck in blue rooms, and use levers to activate events happening in the map. They are like machinists moving the decors in a theatre. It’s duct tape and sticks at best, but I don’t like all this script-y stuff, I’ll gladly leave it to the nerds.
Aemanyl: What are your main sources of inspiration for your projects?
Squadafroinx: For visuals, I mostly take my inspiration from very busy movies such as The Color of Pomegranates (1969), The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) or Hard to Be a God (2013); those are movies where you feel like every prop is a symbol to something, every colour has its own significance. I also really love Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Albrecht Dürer, or more contemporary, John Blanche, François Schuitten or Tsutomu Nihei.
As for the atmosphere, my inspiration mostly comes from the memories of how I perceived and understood the world when I was a lad, how everything felt eerie and mysterious. Remember how important a mere toy was? How deeply an insult could wound? Or how absolutely petrifying it was to learn that the sun was going to exhaust itself? I try to un-learn evidence-based reasoning and aim for a dreamy atmosphere, where one feels dwarfed and insignificant in a gargantuan uncaring city, set in a even bigger and even weirder world. I pay particular attention to that feeling of insignificance, as it is in (in my opinion) what makes the players feel like being Garrett the most: one who is out of the system. This is why I mostly build oppressive and aggressive architecture made of crushing cityscapes and vast machinery that makes little to no sense, write cryptic readables that hints of intrigues, hint cobwebs of intrigues, tentacular organisations or customs so ancient it can make one head spin... I’d say the Cyberpunk and Dying Earth sub-genres are my main inspiration.
Aemanyl: Would you ever like to collaborate with a specific fan mission author that you haven’t had the pleasure of working with yet?
Squadafroinx: I think not. It’s not that I’m a control freak or something like that, but I always consider myself a dead weight, as I can by go several months without even opening DromEd. Moreover, I don’t like when my crude building is eating away the spirit of someone’s map, I feel it’s kinda rude. However, I have found Schlock and Firemage to be my DromEd war buddies, as they share my exact vision of what make a FM look interesting and fun to play.
Aemanyl: Are you currently working on any new levels?
Squadafroinx: Yes! I always have what we call never-evers: maps that I began on a whim but never finished, though they are not abandoned either. Finishing maps is not that important to me, using DromEd is just my way of venting off, but after seeing the success of Into the Odd, I try to make an effort. This is not really about me anymore.
But as for maps that aren’t really never-evers (as I’m not the only one on it), I am working on something a little special but that is still top secret, as it’s not a very common theme. In fact, I don’t think it was made at all, save for some demos perhaps. We (yes, we are several on it) want it to be a pure surprise.
As of May 2024, I hope it’s going to be finished for 2025 or some such!
Aemanyl: What are some of your other interests, pastimes, or hobbies that you enjoy in your free time?
Squadafroinx: I enjoy studying dreams, history and esotericism, but most of all, I’m an avid reader, be it books, mangas or bande dessinées. I strive to read and enjoy them as much as I can while I live. To me, the written word is really fascinating: you just stare at scribbles and signs, and you’re hallucinating words, stories, even emotions!
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Thank you for reading! We hope that you've enjoyed this insightful interview with Squadafroinx. Every Friday you can look forward to a fresh interview with fan mission authors, featuring both the rising stars and the seasoned veterans of our beloved community.
Stay tuned and see you in the next issue of FM Author Spotlight series!
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