Interview with the creator of Rune Song

We spoke with Jesse Luciani about his upcoming indie game, Rune Song.

Rune Song is a promising adventure platformer made by American indie developer Jesse Luciani. We got in touch with him to talk about how it is to work as a single developer on a game, and how the game is progressing.

Who is Sleepyhead Games?

Currently, Sleepyhead Games is just me doing the solo indie dev thing like so many others. I’ve always had creative irons in the fire, be it composing, playing in bands, live streaming, making video content, and now this. As someone who loves art in all forms and has been creating things for decades, game development seems like a natural progression given that it encompasses all mediums of art in one sleek package. Also doesn’t hurt that I’ve had an unyielding love for gaming since I could hold a controller!

And who are you?

My name is Jesse Luciani but I also go by Toast / Frightened Toast online. I’m from the northeast USA, work a normal job full time and am a self taught game dev hobbyist. Although I’ve attempted making games on and off for the past 8 years, Rune Song is my first real attempt at creating a commercial game and will be my first ever release!

Where were your first favorite video games?

I could talk for hours about this so to try and keep my answer at an acceptable length, I’ll pick the most impactful of my earliest favorite to ramble about and then drop some honorable mentions. So this is a pretty generic choice but I’d slot Ocarina of Time as my all time earliest favorite. I won’t deny there’s unabashedly nostalgia baked in here and aside from Koji Kondo’s music, I wouldn’t say the game particularly excels in any single area. However, I don’t think I’ve seen another title where the sum of all of its parts come together and sing in concert quite like Ocarina of Time. The fact it seamlessly made the jump from 2D to 3D and got so much correct that 3rd person action games to this day are still applying it’s principles speaks for itself.

There’s been debates it’s overrated and I at one time fell into that camp, but if you really scrutinize it, it’s a phenomenal game and possibly the first mainstream example of «games as art». Just watch the opening title sequence, it’s incredibly cinematic.

Okay, rapid fire honorable mentions! Super Mario RPG, Contra 3, Donkey Kong Country 1&2, Star Fox 64, Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing, Super Mario All Stars, Resident Evil 2, Banjo Kazooie, Castlevania 64. People are just now starting to appreciate CV64 and my inner child is feeling vindicated!

Can you tell us about your upcoming game, Rune Song?

Sure! Rune Song is a 2D, action / adventure platformer with a focus on fluid movement, silly humor, and a vibrant cast of quirky characters. You play as a young wizard named Baba who works at his grandparents bakery. The bakery gets looted by career pastry thieves and it’s your job to track them down! I like to say it’s a visual novel disguised as a platformer because although the platforming and stage design stands on its own, the real juice of the game is the deluge of optional side quests, character interactions, and discoverable secrets that can easily take a level’s play time from ten minutes to well over an hour.

Where did the inspiration for the game come from?

Super Mario World and Night In The Woods were the two biggest inspirations behind Rune Song. The former being a fun classic platformer and the latter could almost be described as a walking sim. While I absolutely loved the slice of life aspect of Night In The Woods and its focus on exploring a large cast of well written characters, I also wished the platforming was faster paced and more fleshed out like those old Mario games. Well, Rune Song is quite literally that. An array of unique characters with a whole lot of depth and charm, packaged inside a great feeling, visually cozy platformer. Bonus fact, my inspiration for getting into game development as a whole was a serious addiction to Super Mario Maker!

What development tools are you using?

I’m using Unity as my game engine and that’s where I spend most of my time. For pixel art I have Paint.net which is incredibly basic. Windows Movie Maker has been sufficient for any devlogs or trailers I’ve needed to edit, and even though I own Pro Tools from back in my recording stints, I find Audacity to be more than enough for what I need to get done in the audio space. ScreenToGif is a phenomenal hidden gem that makes creating promo gifs a breeze and Greenshot is similar but for screenshots. OBS, of course, for recording game footage / devlogs, and to create sound effects, I use Bfrx.

You’ll notice the theme here that while my tools are mostly rudimentary at best, it’s all free software more than capable of doing the job. A common thing you’ll see in the music industry is people equating expensive gear with talent. It’s my opinion that your understanding and mastery of your instrument matters way more than the price of it and the same rings true in game development. All this to say to any potential devs out there, don’t buy into the trap that you need an insane budget and the latest and greatest tools to make something of substance. You just need an idea you believe in and the dedication to see it through!

Many solo developers tend to work too much for too long, how do you prevent yourself from burning out?

I think your best bet to avoid burnout is prioritizing your general well being as obvious or simple as that may sound. I jog / lift weights almost every day and try to eat decently. This has a ripple effect because game dev is all about mental fortitude and a healthy body will result in a healthy mind by proxy. If your mental is in a good spot, you’ll be thinking clearer and as a result be able to take the stress and challenges you encounter during those dev sessions in better stride, thus reducing the risks / effects of burn out.

Game dev is a marathon not a sprint, and it’s crucial to adjust your lifestyle for the long term that will keep you going indefinitely, not just for a few weeks of crunch. The unfortunate reality is that (and I’d argue this goes for smaller scoped games as well, just to a lesser extent) unless you want to spend a decade making your game, you need to consistently work long hours. That being said, it should go without saying that it’s okay to take breaks. Just be careful not to step away for too long or it’ll be harder to get back into the rhythm of things. This goes for exercising as well.

How do you keep your scope manageable?

Organization is key for managing scope creep and I think overall you just need to be hyper aware of the game you’re trying to make. Understand what it is, what is necessary for it’s bare minimum completion, and what would be cool but not integral. Stay focused on getting that bare minimum done and to the point where it’s capable of standing on its own, then you can revisit those other ideas if you want. Another thing is just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Keep things simpler than you’re capable of because even if you’re an amazing artist, you don’t want every single asset you create to take the effort of painting the Mona Lisa.

How do you go about promoting the game?

I’m using a similar but tweaked variant of the same methods I came up with back when I would promote my bands. It’s a constant but tiered approach where you create various bits of content and deploy it at timed intervals on different platforms to garner interest. There’s a Sleepyhead Games discord where I post frequent updates big and small. Next is Bluesky/Twitter (I’ll never get used to calling it X lol) where I’ll post cleaner, more polished bits to showcase the game every four days or so. Then I do devlogs on YouTube which aren’t very common but serve as more personal “state of the game” type updates. Finally I’ll take the best of what I currently have to Reddit every couple weeks as that seems to get the most attention and traction.

Think of these methods as tributaries which all lead back to your Steam page which hopefully culminate into wishlists, your demo being played, and positive demo review.

When do you expect to launch the game?

It’s so hard to say because even under ideal conditions, everything always takes a lot longer in this medium than you think it will. Add in the reality of game dev, which is that your next roadblock or major catastrophe is just around the corner, and your guess is as good as mine. That being said, I’m hopeful and striving for an early 2026 release. We’ll see however, as the old adage goes, Man plans, God laughs!

How can our readers keep up with the development of the game?

The best way to keep up with development is joining the Sleepyhead Games Discord server. As I mentioned before, we post all updates big and small there, have upcoming stages available for play testing, and it’s the best way to reach me directly. I’m also trying to make it an inclusive space for other creatives to network with like minded individuals and share / showcase their own work. Aside from that, you can also find me on Bluesky, Twitter, and Youtube!

You can find the game on Steam, and download the demo here!