Eniko Fox, Co-Founder of Kitsune Games — Interview Series

Kitsune Games, an inclusive independent studio based in Missouri, is on the cusp of releasing its all-in-one platforming game, Kitsune Tails—an art piece that will not only allow players to indulge in Japanese folklore, but also give them the opportunity to create swathes of mini-games via an in-house Tiled Map Editor, too. To learn a bit more about the game, we decided to reach out to Kitsune Games co-founder, Eniko Fox.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with us! Before we delve into the world of Kitsune Tails, please could you tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you, and what brought you to the gaming industry?

Eniko: I’m Eniko Fox, and I’m one of the founders of Kitsune Games. I’m a Dutch person who moved to the United States a few years ago, got married, and then moved with my partner back to Europe. I’ve been making games professionally since 2013, and have worked on MidBoss, Ultra Hat Dimension, Super Bernie World, and now Kitsune Tails.

I’ve been coding since I was very young, on MS-DOS with QBasic, because my father was a programmer by trade. He also got me and my brother into gaming, which obviously combined to make me want to make video games.

Let’s talk about your latest game, Kitsune Tails. What’s the story behind it, and how exactly will players be involved in the narrative?

Eniko: You play as Yuzu, a fox-person called a kitsune, who works as a messenger for the deity Inari. Yuzu immediately runs into trouble though, and has to be rescued by a healer and sorceress named Akko, much to her childhood friend Kiri’s chagrin. Yuzu gets caught up in a sort-of love triangle, which culminates in Kiri allegedly kidnapping Akko and imprisoning her in a magic prison. Players guide Yuzu through the elemental worlds as she tries to receive all five elemental blessings to open the prison and save the day.

Please could you tell us about some of the core gameplay elements that’ll feature in the game?

Eniko: The core of the gameplay is the platforming, running and jumping, which we’ve gone through great lengths to make feel fun and enjoyable. Players will grab powerups that give special powers as well as cute or cool outfits. Along the way players will play minigames with the cat merchant for powerful item prizes, and they can relax in the village at the arcade by playing half a dozen more minigames for coins to spend at the cat merchant’s shop. For those who struggle with platformers but want to experience the story there’s also a playstyle that revives the player where they were on a flying cloud on death.

Kitsune Tails has a release date! As just announced on Wholesome Direct, our Mario-like featuring queer fox girls will be coming to Steam and itch on August 1st, 2024!

Wishlist or try the demo now on Steam at https://t.co/9g0dOfuJQK or find more info at https://t.co/cdvGrJlQu1 pic.twitter.com/5OsvADhmA5

— Kitsune Games (@KitsuneGamesCom) June 8, 2024

Are we right in thinking that players will also be able to create their own mini-games, too? Could you elaborate on what you’re aiming to achieve with this?

Eniko: I really like game development, and I’ve really enjoyed making games with the Lua programming language for fantasy consoles like Pico-8. I initially created the minigame making framework for myself as a fun exercise, so I could quickly and easily add bespoke minigames to Kitsune Tails. I quickly realized that it’d be easy to let players make their own minigames, and I thought it was really fun making games with the assets already included with Kitsune Tails this way, so it seemed natural to allow players to make their own games. If even a few players discover the joys of game development by trying to make their own games, I’ll be very happy.

Would you say that the Tiled Map Editor is relatively simple to use, or is some level of experience necessary to take full advantage of its features?

Eniko: I think Tiled Map Editor is relatively simple to use, and I’ve certainly done my best to help make it easier. Most of the game’s features are easily taken care of, and we’ll have an extensive map editing guide that ships with the game. I think making levels is pretty easy unless you want to get into complex scripting of moving layers. That involves a custom scripting language, which may be daunting for beginners, but easy things like crushers are still not too hard to add.

So, what’s next for the team? Do you have your sights set on any other projects or collaborations? If so, please could you tell us a bit about what you’re working on?

Eniko: We’re not really sure yet. We’re a pretty underfunded team and a majority of our team members are queer, so it really depends on how Kitsune Tails does when it releases. We do know that we’ve all enjoyed working together so much the entire team wants to make a game together after this. Whether that’ll be more Kitsune Tails, or something else, we’ll have to wait and see!

Kitsune Tails will be a platformer to remember, full of mini-games and powerful modding tools https://t.co/CaqHE0FdbR#Linux #SteamDeck pic.twitter.com/oyML6CXIO1

— Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮 (@gamingonlinux) July 23, 2024

We’d love to stay in the loop ahead of Kitsune Tails’  global debut. Are there any social feeds, streams, or newsletters that we should be jotting down?

Eniko: 

Players can sign up for our newsletter on the Kitsune Tails landing page at https://kitsunegames.com/kitsunetails. Other than that the best place to keep up with news is to follow me on social media on Mastodon where I’m most active. You can find that at https://peoplemaking.games/@eniko, but I’m also on cohost (https://cohost.org/eniko) and bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/eniko.bsky.social)

Any final words for our readers?

Eniko: We decided to create Kitsune Tails in 2020 when many people were going through dark and uncertain times because we wanted to make something that made people feel good. We hope we’ve succeeded, and the gameplay, art, music, and queer story of Kitsune Tails will put a smile on your face!

Thank you for your time — and good luck with the launch of Kitsune Tails!

For more information on Kitsune Games’ latest projects, be sure to check in with the team over on their official social handle here. Alternatively, you can visit the website for additional updates here.