"While working on Bumpy Road one day we asked this silly question, 'How would a first person game work in 2D?'" says Flesser. To allow players to explore Year Walk's snow-covered expanses, Flesser and Gardebäck had to settle upon a navigation mechanic. We've been scribbling maps and symbols like crazy persons for this." But the most important tool for us is always pen and paper. "We used a number of tools including Unity, Maya, Audacity and Madtracker. "Our usual style of improvisation-development didn't quite work for this type of game." "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. Only once these other projects were out of the way was Simogo free to focus on Year Walk. "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. 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. "Like a force of itself the project began taking shape in early 2012." "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. 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. "Then Jonas Tarestad showed me his script for a short movie called 'Årsgång,' and I was really intrigued by the concept." "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. Mysteries and clues await everywhere in Year Walk, but to fully understand the events that took place on that cold New Year's Eve, you will have to delve deeper than the adventure and lose yourself between fact and fiction."We wanted to challenge the perception of what a Simogo game is."Ī 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. Solve and decipher cryptic puzzles, listen for clues, and learn about mysterious folklore creatures in the built-in encyclopedia as you seek to foresee your future and find out if your loved one will ever love you back. Venture out into the dark woods where strange creatures roam, on a vision quest set in 19th century Sweden. About This Game In the old days man tried to catch a glimpse of the future in the strangest of ways.Įxperience the ancient Swedish phenomena of year walking through a different kind of first person adventure that blurs the line between two and three dimensions, as well as reality and the supernatural.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |