I had a great time with the Demonschool demo over the summer, so it was a pleasure to interview the school’s principal game’s creative director (and founder of Necrosoft Games) Brandon Sheffield. We conducted the Q&A over email, where Sheffield revealed some fun and intriguing insights into the design concepts and aesthetic inspirations that informed Demonschool‘s appealing blend of Shin Megami Tensei‘s horror-tinged demon hunting, Persona‘s social management, and air-tight tactics combat. You’ll even get some horror movie recommendations.
RPGFan: What are some of the main themes that informed Demonschool‘s overall design and narrative? How did they inform the development process?
Sheffield: The core design of the battles came initially from a tactics puzzle prototype – I was trying to devise the smallest tactical game I could. Things evolved from there to where the focus became a tactics game where you don’t have to make a lot of clicks or confirmations. That’s how I landed on the idea of moving your character and having them automatically do whatever sort of action is applicable when they reach an enemy, or an empty tile, or a trap, etc.
From there we defined the visual style by thinking of a fictional game console and trying to stick to its “rules.” Essentially if there had been an update to the Sega Saturn, a Saturn 1.5 or so. Giving ourselves bounding boxes helped the game feel true to its own universe. We also devised a loose conceit of the human world being represented by 2D, and the demon world being represented by 3D. When weaker demons come through they are flattened into our dimension, but stronger ones come through in full 3D, representing their threat and unfathomableness, which probably isn’t a real word.

RPGFan: In the marketing for Demonschool, you mention Italian giallo horror as an influence. How did the team incorporate this inspiration across different aspects of the game’s aesthetics and/or design?
Sheffield: You can mostly see the giallo and horror film influence in the lighting. Some areas are actually entirely colored by light and would otherwise be greyscale. There’s also the sound design, which is very evocative of those soundscapes, down to the light tape warble on the recordings. There are also some very giallo narrative themes of the unknown, mysteries to solve, and familial strife, but without a woman getting assaulted or stabbed every 5 minutes. We left that element out of there.
RPGFan: The tactics feel more reminiscent of the tight, puzzle-like decision-making of a game like Into the Breach than the larger and more loose encounter design of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor or Final Fantasy Tactics. How did you develop and settle on the game’s battle system?
Sheffield: I wanted something where every map was a bit of a puzzle (how can I complete this map most efficiently?), but which was also somewhat player-friendly (which is why you can rewind your moves any time during the planning phase). The biggest influence was really the phases and active battles of Valkyria Chronicles, though that’s hard to see in the final product – it’s just what got me thinking in that direction. The biggest challenge was outside the design of the system itself – it was how to communicate what’s happening, and managing the UI. That remains a challenge, but it’s much clearer than it started out.

RPGFan: The Demonschool demo only let you play as the four-student starting party, who all feel distinct in personality and combat, but there seemed to be many more slots for recruitable characters. How much variety can we expect to see in the different companions’ kits and character arcs?
Sheffield: There are 15 total characters (including Faye). The story is linear, so each character has their part to play, but there are also optional connection quests in which you can get to know each other character and their quirks. There’s definitely overlap between some characters’ basic attacks, but each has a unique special attack and vibe. Some of the later characters really do some weird stuff, but I don’t want to spoil it. You can also adjust your character builds with techniques the characters can unlock and learn throughout the game. So, for example, you could get an equip that makes you heal in fire, and combine it with one that allows you to confer fire damage on everyone around you.
RPGFan: The character designs are beautifully drawn and expressive. Persona fans will likely wonder whether they get to pursue a romance from this cast. Is that something your team decided to incorporate? To what extent does the player have choice in building their relationships with companions?
Sheffield: Whoops, I answered this one already! The answer is: yep. But I will warn you that there are some characters you can only befriend. But we don’t give penalties for romancing multiple people or anything like that.
RPGFan: Demonschool seems to be structured around a weekly game loop, where each in-game week features an arc that develops the overall narrative. Can you tell us more about what the world and mechanical progression will look like week-to-week?
Sheffield: The game is intentionally broken down into week, then day, then time of day. The intention with the story is that each segment, each time of day, should give you a little bit of interesting information about the story, so you hopefully want to proceed, and never feel like you’re spinning your wheels. That is, of course, challenging in a longer game, but that was the intention. This is so that players can just play one 15-minute chunk of the game at a time if they want and feel like they got something out of it. When they come back, their next objective will still be clearly labeled. Each week counts down toward an apocalypse, so that adds an extra bit of fun to it.

RPGFan: You recently delayed Demonschool to flesh out the “Things to Do” within its world. This was welcome news to me, as when I played the demo, I was looking for more excuses to hang out in the game world. How will the changes you are planning affect the overall gameplay loop?
Sheffield: Something players won’t have seen in the demo is the weekend. During the weekend there are some non-combat quests, the ability to choose a film for Knute to review in the school newspaper, things like that. All of the added things to do are optional, and we’ll see how many we can shove in before the deadline here, but I am hopeful people will find themselves digging through trash, fishing, cooking, looking for dogs, and going to karaoke in their spare game time (among other things). I wish the game could be all hangout stuff, but maybe that’s an idea for next time.
Bonus question: What giallo films would you recommend that people watch as they await Demonschool‘s release?
Sheffield: Some classics would be The Bird with Crystal Plumage, Suspiria (really more of a supernatural horror, but everyone loves the lighting and music), Don’t Torture a Duckling, or The Case of the Bloody Iris. But if you’re a big-time film hound, I would recommend some genre originators like Bava’s Blood and Black Lace, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, or Bazzoni and Fanelli’s Footprints on the Moon, which was a recent surprise favorite.
I went all in and had Knute review 50 movies for the school newspaper in Demonschool – you’ll never see them all since there are only around 10 editions during the game, but I hope folks will be able to discover something new!
A warm thanks to Brandon and Necrosoft Games for the insights, and best wishes getting to the finish line. I know several of us at RPGFan are looking forward to playing Demonschool in early 2025!