Even the game's interactive puzzles are only possible using multi-touch inputs and accelerometers. As with the controls of Simogo's previous output - Kosmo Spin, Bumpy Road and Beat Sneak Bandit - Year Walk's approach plays to the unique strengths of the platform. "Making it feel good, fast and intuitive was a big priority and I think we succeeded," reflects Flesser.
Viewed from a perspective that traditionally prioritises forwards momentum, the effect is user-friendly, yet alien enough to add to the game's sense of unease and disorientation. "Quite quickly we came up with the swiping concepts, but at that time we had imagined a game in which you moved about in rooms." Transplanted to an open environment without convenient, guiding walls, the solution was to allow players to swipe freely along a horizontal plane, with movement forwards and backwards restricted to certain points. "While working on Bumpy Road one day we asked this silly question, 'How would a first person game work in 2D?'" says Flesser. We've been scribbling maps and symbols like crazy persons for this." Irrbloss To allow players to explore Year Walk's snow-covered expanses, Flesser and Gardebäck had to settle upon a navigation mechanic. But the most important tool for us is always pen and paper.
"Our usual style of improvisation-development didn't quite work for this type of game." "We used a number of tools including Unity, Maya, Audacity and Madtracker. "I think the biggest challenge was to make a game with a narrative in one 'open' world, without levels and a traditional game structure," says Flesser. Simogo typically employs a more freeform style of development, one that does not place too much emphasis on design documents or plans. However, the game's story, puzzle structure and explorable environment demanded that the studio abandon its usual approach.
Year walk lore free#
Only once these other projects were out of the way was Simogo free to focus on Year Walk.
Year walk lore full#
"From late May or early June we planned the game from start to end while working on a number of other projects full time," says Flesser. "Some real star aligning, there." "Like a force of itself the project began taking shape in early 2012." Skogsrået Year Walk's development initially overlapped with a number of other Simogo projects, yet from an early stage the studio had a clear vision of what the game would become. The Årsgång script "With Jonas' script we finally found a good story to match our ambition of doing something with a more somber tone" says Flesser. Once on that journey, says the legend, participants would be greeted by visions and offered a glimpse of things yet to pass - be it love, life, death or despair. On a festival day such as May Day or New Year's Eve, a year walker would sit alone in a room without warmth, light or food until the stroke of midnight, before venturing out into the dark.
Year walk lore movie#
"Then Jonas Tarestad showed me his script for a short movie called 'Årsgång,' and I was really intrigued by the concept." The Simogo boys, Simon and Magnus Translated from the Swedish, Årsgång literally means "year walk." Bound by a set of strict rules, year walking was an ancient Swedish phenomenon with the purpose of seeing the future. Årsgång "We had been talking about doing something with a darker tone, or horror inspired, for quite a while, but we never really had a concept to fit that ambition," says Flesser. In our latest making of we speak to Flesser about the origins of this chilly tale and delve a little deeper into Year Walk's bleak world of Mylings and Night Ravens. Yet in other regards Year Walk is a continuation of a journey Simogo has been on for some time, the latest step in founders Simon Flesser and 'Gordon' Gardebäck's unique creative direction. The first-person adventure game's melancholic, unsettling horror stands out against Simogo's previous work, in terms of genre, tone and its approach to storytelling. "We wanted to challenge the perception of what a Simogo game is." A world away from the colourful, arcade experiences of Simogo's back catalogue, Year Walk represents quite a departure for the Malmö, Sweden-based indie studio.
0 kommentar(er)
