I recently had the chance to interview the the game’s creator, Danny Hayes, and asked him about his influences and the difficulties he faced during development of this game.
GameSkinny: So, the first thing that I wanted to ask was about the process of making this game. There are only three people on the development team of this game, and you had to design, code, and write it. How did you manage to make something of this magnitude splitting the work between the three of you?
GS: The really unique part of this game is the way that you are able to seamlessly go to different planes of depth. You can go to background and then come back to the foreground, and you use to this game mechanic to solve puzzles and progress through the game. I can see some influences from Rayman and even Fez. How did you decide on using this game mechanic, and what were some other games that were very influential in the design?
GS: The music and art design are both very beautiful. I am personally a huge fan of the pixel art style and I honestly wish that I could buy this game’s soundtrack. They both work in conjunction to create the mysterious, almost dark atmosphere presented in this game. How do you as the writer/designer express what you need thematically to the artist and musician you were working with?
GS: There are a lot of indie developers making pixel art style games nowadays. Other than the game mechanics, are there any other ways that you have distinguished this game in such a saturated market?
For the art I’d try to describe how particular characters think or feel, or what kind of coloring would be cool.
But that’s the only “direction” I really gave, Jack and Matthew were the deciders in how they created their stuff. And they directed me just as much, keeping me on track for making the gameplay feel awesome. We all knew what the core values of the game were from the start, and we all just sort of built from each other’s work.
GS: This game shows what happened to robots after all the humans died. I really love the contrast between the mechanical robots in the game, and the setting of a lush forest. How did you come up with the story of the game and what are some of the more prevalent themes?
GS: How was the process of porting this game to consoles? Were there any technical difficulties? It has launched on both Sony and Nintendo platforms, but as of yet there has been no news about the Xbox One. Is this a platform you are looking into?
GS: What are you going to do now that this project is finished? Are you planning on working on a DLC, a sequel, or a completely new game altogether?
I’d like to thank Danny for his time and insight. You can found out more about the game by going to its website here. And please follow Danny at his Twitter, @DanHayesGamer.
