Style is King

Style is King Footnotes #6: Monochroma

Rainer Sigl — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 15:04:04 +0000

Style is King Footnotes #6: Monochroma Rainer Sigl Di. 11 Mär 2014 - 16:04

In continuation of my piece on visual innovators in games, I was drawn to the black and white beauty of Monochroma. I asked one of its creators, Burak Tezateser of Turkish developer Nowhere Studios, a few questions about the game.

A short description of Monochroma could be "Limbo meets Ico", but Monochroma's style emphasizes different aspects and uses 3D in a 2D-setting. In your own words: What makes your games' visual style unique?

We created a dystopian world and a visual style reflecting that oppression and hypocrisy. We wanted the game to look dark and restless. Yet we used red expressively to create a striking contrast, something that doesn't really fit to the environment to tell the player subtly something is wrong. The player suddenly thinks, then maybe the whole black and white thing is wrong.

Monochroma appears to quote 1950s architecture, culture and environments. Why did you choose that style, that timeframe?

50's is the era where the consumer society came into power and we are criticizing the consumer society, that's why we have chosen that era. Dystopias have a very important role. They spot the issues in our current world and they take them to the extreme. They warn us that if we can’t find a solution for these issues we will end up in a similar situation. We made something unusual and created a dystopia in the past, because maybe we're living in something similar to that dystopia in our current world.

Do you see other visual arts and artists as inspiration? If so, which in particular?

Visually we have been inspired by movies a lot. To name a few, Alex Proyas works "The Crow" and "Dark City" inspired us while creating the city. Metropolis, City of Lost Children and Blade Runner were also imporant inspirations for the atmosphere. Aesthetics of Limbo was important as well while creating the visual language and the consistency throughout the game.

Although there are a few Turkish studios doing international games - TaleWorlds comes to mind - you are geographically still very much on the margins of the games industry. Do you think that this "outsider perspective" can also be seen as an advantage? Or does it even matter anymore, with the internet and Kickstarter basically making the business truly global?

Taleworlds is an amazing studio with amazing developers. I believe they created the ecosystem in Turkey and made something truly unbelievable with very scarce resources. I also appreciate that they are telling their own stories and I believe this is something we have to do as well. Only then, we can create a new perspective. Telling your own story with images and words understandable by the whole world is the key of creating a masterpiece.

How would you describe the Turkish dev scene?

Evolving. We recently started to be able to keep talented developers in our studios. In the past all of them were leaving to more industrialized countries. Now we have mobile, social game and PC and console deveopers, a nice community that is very supportive to each other and some government funds to keep the companies alive. We are lacking education programmes, investors and specialists. Currently we have too much generalists as the studios are often run by few people.

Do you think that it's more difficult to succeed for games that try something different visually?

I'm thinking exactly the opposite. If you can't beat the current styles by making something with a better production, you should try something new. And that's the only exit way for indie developers. Visuals is an important part to make your game differentiate as well as gameplay and narration.

Monochroma will be released soon; meanwhile, you can take a look at the alpha demo.

Style is King footnotes #5: Limasse Five's NaissanceE

Rainer Sigl — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 13:57:30 +0000

Style is King footnotes #5: Limasse Five's NaissanceE Rainer Sigl Mo. 10 Feb 2014 - 14:57

In continuation of my piece on visual innovators in games, I couldn't help but admire the sheer beauty and originality of the up and coming NaissanceE, due to be released later this week. I asked its creator Mavros Sedeño a few questions about his stylish, nearly monochromatic first-person puzzler.

In your own words: What makes NaissanceE's visual style unique?

NaissanceE uses simple texture-less shapes combined in such a way that leads to rich and complex environments. This paradoxical association creates an unusual visual style helping to give this world its particular mood. In addition, the almost colour-less ambiance re-enforces the feeling of desolation and abandonment the player experiences when exploring the endless gigantic structures of NaissanceE.

You also can notice in the different videos and screenshots that there is a large range of abstraction in the environments, from pure visual to more representative constructions. These many variations, however still homogeneous on a large scale, are in correlation with the several games mechanics the player will encounter, like sections where lights and shadows are used to alter the perception of space and rhythmically structure the player progression.

Why did you choose that style?

When walking through this world, you can sometimes recognize more or less familiar structures like buildings, stairs or bridges, but assembled in such an abnormal way that you can’t be sure what you are facing. What is the purpose of this kind of underworld cities ? Where did all the inhabitants go? Are you alone?

The main reason I chose to give the game this kind of minimalist but also symbolic graphics is to encourage the player to use their imagination and to find their own answers. It also was a good way to express my artistic creativity by not limiting the level design to traditional constraints.

NaissanceE's look is a peculiar kind of abstract realism. What do you think about the industry's constant striving for photorealism?

My opinion is photorealism is simpler to understand for most people. Graphics art is language and the industry doesn’t like to take risks. So most big companies prefer to use the most simple language, the one it’s more easy to see the beauty in for most people, because it looks like the world they see everyday.

But I think things are changing, thanks to the explosion of the indie scene. Some years ago we saw Okami or Madworld missing the commercial success, but today AAA games like Dishonoured or Bioshock Infinite propose something out of the norms and are successful. These examples may encourage the industry to give more freedom to game artists.

NaissanceE takes visual cues not only from other games (Portal comes to mind, but also Antichamber), but also from film (Kubricks 2001, Syd Mead) and graphic artists like Piranesi and MC Escher. Am I correct? Do you see other visual arts and artists as inspiration for your game's visual design? If so, which in particular?

Correct indeed. Others big influences are Blame! by Tsutomu Nihei, Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural work, Anouk de Clerck’s "Buildings" or the House of Leaves book by Mark Z. Danielewski. This last one I discovered it during the game production by reading comments on a news about NaissanceE !

You can find many sources of inspiration, references and artistic creations in the same wave as NaissanceE on the twitter series I posted : #ProximaNE

But I would say the most important influences is music. It’s my best inspiration and many sequences in NaissanceE are directly inspired, even structured by the music, in order to create a kind of synaesthesia. For that reason I want to thanks a lot Pauline Oliveros, Patricia Dallio and Thierry Zaboitzeff for allowing me to use their music in the game. Without them, NaissanceE would never be the same experience.

Do you think that it's more difficult to succeed for games that try something different visually?

It may be easier to get noticed among the mass of games when trying something visually different but on the other hand, it will limit the audience to those ready to enjoy this difference. So it’s hard to say if it’s more or less difficult but I think it’s clearly more rewarding for the developers and more pleasing for the player.

Kommentare

Was man spielen soll: NaissanceE | Video Game Tourism Fr. 14 Feb 2014 - 14:56 Permalink

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[...] dessen einzelner Entwickler Mavros Sedeno bereits hier ein paar Fragen zu seinem Spiel beantwortet hat, nimmt die berühmten Kerker des [...]

NaissanceE is now out on Steam | DaPhat.com Online Gaming Co Sa. 15 Feb 2014 - 07:29 Permalink

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[...] can also watch Chris Priestman’s video review, A limasse five new interview and more reviews on [...]

Videogiochi Esperienziali: NaissanceE · Gioca Giuè So. 9 Mär 2014 - 11:52 Permalink

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[...] con successo nel suo intento di incorporare nel gameplay riferimenti artistici alti (vi consiglio quest’intervista in cui si tirano in ballo Lloyd Wright e Piranesi) che si percepiscono istintivamente senza troppe [...]

Style is King Footnotes #4: Alientrap's "Apotheon"

Rainer Sigl — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 10:28:47 +0000

Style is King Footnotes #4: Alientrap's "Apotheon" Rainer Sigl So. 22 Dez 2013 - 11:28

Researching for my piece on visual innovators in games, I sent a few questions to Alientrap Games, developers of the fabulous Apotheon, the world's first and finest sidescroller inspired by ancient Greek pottery. Here's what the game's art director Jesse McGibney had to tell me.

In your own words: What makes your game's visual style unique?

I think the classical Greek art style has really been under-explored in games (or other popular media for that matter). It's a style that pretty much everyone is familiar with, as are the myths and narratives that are so closely linked to it. If I say "Hercules" or "Zeus", most everyone in the western world knows what I'm talking about. And even though a lot of games might draw inspiration from the classic stories and characters, there really hasn't been much that's embraced the whole package of art, narrative, and history I think in the same way that we're attempting to do with Apotheon.

Why did you choose that style?

When we eventually settled on the black-figure pottery style, in hindsight it seemed like a no-brainer. It was perfect for what we wanted, and was very surprising that we seemed to be the first to try it for a full game. Greek mythology is recorded largely on these pots, so the art and the narrative are already inseparable. If someone sees the black-figure art, they automatically know what the subject matter and setting are.

And then from a game development standpoint, the style is incredibly easy to work with. It's already in a 2D side-scroller perspective, it uses simple lineart drawings which are very fast to produce, easily tiled and communicates information well to the player without excessive clutter. All we really had to do was look at the pottery, and try to figure out how to make it move.

What do you think about the industry's constant striving for photorealism?

"The closer we get to photorealism, the more artists will be willing to see what ways they can use it more artistically."

I think it's a pursuit of a technological goal rather than an artistic one. And that's a fine goal to have, as it pushes the innovation of the hardware and software developers can use, and I can see why big companies with lots of money to throw around are so invested in it. A good artist can make great art with a stick of charcoal, or they can make great art with multi-million dollar CGI suite, the difference being that the investors don't make much money on the little stick of burnt wood. I also think the closer that we get to photo-realism (and we're getting pretty damn close), the more artists and developers will be willing to then take that awesome technology and see what ways they can use it more artistically.

It's sort of like learning to draw. First you have to study structure and anatomy and go to life-drawing classes until you can draw very realistically. Then once you have all that knowledge, you can start to twist and shape it into something more stylistic. I think a good example of this is Team Fortress 2. It's very cartoony and exaggerated, but without the built up technology from trying to do more realistic games (like Half-lLife 2), it would have never looked as awesome as it does.

Do you see other visual arts and artists as inspiration? If so, which in particular?

"Imagine a cubist game where you could walk around a 3D environment, but everything would have multiple abstracted perspectives."

While doing research for Apotheon, I can say that I've found boundless inspiration from just reading history books and websites. There are so many ancient cultures and people that have such defining art styles and narratives that would make fantastic fodder for game ideas and settings. Things like European medieval tapestries, Mayan/Aztec stone reliefs, Huron totem carvings, Egyptian hieroglyphics, heck even pre-historic cave paintings would make for some pretty cool art themes.

If you want to get really weird, I would love to see some modern art genres making their way into games. Imagine a cubist game where you could walk around a 3D environment, but everything would have multiple abstracted perspectives. You look at a table and you can see the top, bottom, sides and back of it all at the same time. Crazy!

Do you think that it's more difficult to succeed for games that try something different visually?

As I said before, the investors don't make much money from a twig of charcoal, so it really depends on what's invested. Obviously indies and smaller game companies with less to lose can take those smaller risks and it can really pay off. But 'different' doesn't necessarily mean 'good'. Making something different just for difference sake is really the wrong way to look at it. I don't think it's more difficult to make visually different games. It's just difficult to make GOOD games at all.

Style is King Footnotes #3: Duangles "Nowhere"

Rainer Sigl — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 19:32:33 +0000

Style is King Footnotes #3: Duangles "Nowhere" Rainer Sigl Do. 19 Dez 2013 - 20:32

Reste, allerfeinste Reste! Mein Artikel zum Thema visuelle Innovation hat auch ein interessantes Gespräch mit Duangle ergeben, das es ebenfalls aus Raumgründen nicht in den fertigen Artikel geschafft hat. Hier also deshalb ein paar Antworten von den Machern des fantastisch aussehenden Projekts Nowhere, das momentan noch in Alpha ist.

Nicht zu sehen: der geniale Sound. Und das auf Oculus Rift - da braucht man, Schweizer Freunde mit Labor vorausgesetzt, getrost auf keine Goa-Party mehr fahren. Ich zumindest bin sehr gespannt.

Was macht euer Spiel visuell aus und warum habt ihr euch für diesen Style entschieden?

Wir haben uns sehr früh für eine Schwarzlichtoptik entschieden; das war so mit eine der ersten Entscheidungen, die von Anfang an feststanden. Dementgegen setzen wir eine pastellfarbene Tageslichtbeleuchtung, die noch in Bearbeitung ist und in der nächsten Alpha sichtbar wird; zusammen bilden beide Stile dann den Tages/Nachtzyklus ab. Wir haben früher oft Goa-Parties besucht, wo teilweise wirklich ausgefallene Schwarzlicht-Deko und -Kunst ausgestellt wurde, und uns hat dieser mystische Eindruck von unerklärlich selbstleuchtenden Objekten sehr fasziniert. Später dann gab es einen Level in Psychonauts, der vom "Black Velvet"-Stil inspiriert war, und da wurde das klar, dass sowas technisch gut funktionieren könnte.

Gibt es andere Künste/Künstler, die euch inspiriert haben? Welche?

Vor einigen Monaten haben wir mal wieder James Cameron's The Abyss gesehen, wo dieses leuchtende Unterwasser-UFO vorkommt, welches an der Oberfläche dann Perlmuttfarben schimmert. Unheimliche Begegnung der dritten Art ist auch eine Inspiration.

Für die Formengestaltung ziehen wir sehr viel Inspiration aus Ernst Haeckels "Kunstformen der Natur"; das meiste schlummert noch in Sylvias Konzeptzeichnungen, denn die Umsetzung in equivalente Prozeduren ist eine große Herausforderung, vor allem, da die Bewohner unserer Welt ja über die Zeit hinweg stetig wachsen. Wir arbeiten auch Eindrücke aus Unterwasserdokumentationen ein; es gibt da zum Beispiel eine bunt leuchtende Qualle, die schon selbst aussieht wie ein Kunstprojekt.

Was haltet ihr vom ständigen Streben der Branche nach Fotorealismus?

Am Anfang des Projektes weniger als jetzt. Unsere Designs waren am Anfang minimalistischer, wurden aber mit der Zeit immer ausgefeilter; es zeigte sich, dass der menschliche Wahrnehmungsapparat viele optische Hinweise miteinbezieht, um die Raumtiefe zu rekonstruieren, und einen Ort als real wahrzunehmen; das ist merkwürdigerweise insbesondere dann wichtig, wenn die Inhalte abstrakt und eher unbekannt sind.

"Da unsere Spielwelt außerirdisch ist, können wir die Kommunikation mit dem Betrachter nicht abkürzen"

Ein Spiel, das mit Gegenständen aus dem Alltag arbeitet, kann sich des existierenden Verständnisses bedienen und so die Kommunikation mit dem Betrachter abkürzen - liegt z.B. eine Bürste auf einem Tisch, müssen weder Tisch noch Bürste sonderlich fotorealistisch sein, damit der Betrachter sie akzeptiert. Da unsere Spielwelt aber außerirdisch ist, können wir das nicht; unsere Objekte hat noch nie ein Mensch gesehen, und so kann ein minimalistischer Stil bei uns dazu führen, dass man die Geduld des Betrachters, sich auf seine Umwelt einzulassen, strapaziert. Es kommt erschwerend hinzu, dass unser Medium ein zweidimensionales ist: der Raum wird auf die Bildschirmoberfläche projiziert, und das muss unter Verwendung von Beleuchtung, Nebeleffekte und Schattierungen ausgeglichen werden.

Das andere Argument ist natürlich, dass mit dem Oculus Rift, für das wir das Spiel gezielt entwickeln, eine "realistischere" Umgebung die Lust am Betrachten steigert. Ungeachtet der spielerischen Möglichkeiten soll es dem Spieler auch genügen, sich an einem Panorama zu ergötzen; Wir neigen doch dazu, bei weniger malerischen Orten eher durchzuhetzen. Skyrim und Journey haben das wieder einmal wunderbar deutlich gemacht. Der Bergaufstieg zum "Throat of the World" war eine erstaunlich persönliche Erfahrung, und Journey ist ja durchweg ein einziger Traum :)

Glaubt ihr, dass es für Titel schwieriger ist, die visuell etwas anderes versuchen? Oder ist es ein Vorteil?

Sylvia nannte gerade Tearaway von Media Molecule als ein aktuelles Beispiel für den Gegenbeweis; und so ziemlich alles, was von Double Fine kommt, hat einen eigenwilligen Style. Es steckt doch viel Charakter in solchen Arbeiten. Sicherlich ist es schwieriger; warum, ist mir nicht ganz klar.

Wichtig ist doch, dass es da draußen eine kleine, aber kritische Menge an Spielern gibt, zu denen wir auch gehören, die immer wieder nach anderen Erfahrungen und Eindrücken suchen, und mit denen fühlen wir uns verbunden. Damit lassen sich vielleicht keine Millionenbudgets verheizen; aber dafür hat man die Welt hoffentlich dauerhaft ein klein wenig bereichert.

Style is King Footnotes #2: Santa Ragione's "Mirror Moon"

Rainer Sigl — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 09:16:31 +0000

Style is King Footnotes #2: Santa Ragione's "Mirror Moon" Rainer Sigl So. 15 Dez 2013 - 10:16

Researching for my piece on visual innovators in games, I sent a few questions to Santa Ragione, the Italian developers of the fantastically abstract and beautiful Mirror Moon EP. Unfortunately, their thoughtful and interesting reply arrived too late for inclusion in my article, so here is what Pietro Righi Riva, one half of the creative duo of Santa Ragione, had to tell me.

In your own words: What makes your games' visual style unique?

MirrorMoon EP has a distinctive look, it's true. We don't know if it is unique, but we tried our best to make it stand out. Probably the most distinctive aspect of the visual style are all the various color's fields that each new planet creates. As you might know, the camera vertical axis is fixed in the game. That allowed us to have a sort of "prepared canvas", always divided in 1/4 ground and 3/4 sky, on top of which new elements were appearing and disappearing with a lot of contrast and tension. MirrorMoon EP turned out to be a sort of hard-edge digital painting.

Why did you choose that style?

We wanted MirrorMoon EP visual style to be so good that any screenshot would look memorable. it’s a kind of style that we’ve been researching with our work across our previous games, such as FOTONICA and Street Song. it is important to have a distinct style and to research an expressive form that is personal and meaningful. Of course, it’s also a matter of making a game look as good as possible with the time and resources we had. Time and resources, along with core game design elements, were the fundamental boundaries in which the visuals were developed. We did not develop the visual style on its own but we tailored it around the game needs, around our abilities and our limitations.

As an example, architectures are transparent because we did not want the player to deal with collisions against objects on the planet surface. It would have made walking more difficult and frustrating. It would have obscured important gameplay elements in the sky. It would have made it harder to justify why physical structures (instead of transparent and ethereal ones) were disappearing during daytime or nighttime like ghosts. There are many others aspects of the visual style that shaped the visuals through the development.

What do you think about the industry's constant striving for photorealism?

I believe that one of the main reasons for photorealism is the ability to be easily understood and appreciated. The lower the level of abstraction the easier is the interpretation requested to understand the fictional setting. By reducing the ambiguity we are trying to solve a communication problem.

Realism creates higher expectations, and most of the time games are incapable of delivering on those expectations.

At the same time, though, the lower the level of abstraction the lower is the players’ ability to actively analyze or speculate over the world they are in. This "need for interpretation" can be used as part of the design process. It does requires more effort to understand in respect to realism that try to reduce ambiguity through the use of real-looking elements.

We are fascinated by both approaches, although we are not that interested in working towards the photorealism, yet. We believe that realism adds another peculiar design problem: it creates higher expectations, and most of the time games are incapable of delivering on those expectations. Simply recognizing the re-use of the same asset in a very detailed game (like seeing many times the same model of a person reused in different locations, in an open world game like GTA) will disrupt immersion and make the game world less believable.

Do you see other visual arts and artists as inspiration? If so, which in particular?

There is a enormous amount of reference that goes deep into our past and present. From painting to architecture, illustration, sculpture, digital art, older games, and contemporary art.

If I had to name a few I'd say that during MirrorMoon EP development we were inspired by the work of Moebius (French illustrator and comic artist), Lebbeus Woods (American architect) and by the Italian indie game Noctis IV.

Do you think that it's more difficult to succeed for games that try something different visually?

Not necessarily, but if by "different visually" we mean “abstract”, like in MirrorMoon EP, then I'd say yes. Mainly because abstraction requires a higher level of effort to be deciphered and sometime it will force players to attribute subjective meanings over visually obscure elements of the game.

If by "different visually" we mean all kind of styles that don't directly go towards the reproduction of the real world, then the answer is more complex. It can be a canonic cartoon style that is easier to appreciate or more sophisticated illustration techniques that will reach the same level of difficulty that geometrical abstraction has.

Style is King Footnotes #1: Blackpowdergames' "Betrayer"

Rainer Sigl — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 08:43:01 +0000

Style is King Footnotes #1: Blackpowdergames' "Betrayer" Rainer Sigl So. 8 Dez 2013 - 09:43

Researching for my piece on visual innovators in games, I sent a few questions to Blackpowdergames, makers of lovely looking Betrayer. Here's what David Longo, art director, had to say in reply.

In your own words: What makes your games' visual style unique?

The high contrast black, white and red look of Betrayer is uncommon but there have been other games, movies and comics that have taken a similar approach, so that's not revolutionary. I think what's unique about the Betrayer's style and the use of a minimalist palette with high-fidelity content. Most games that have taken a black and white (and maybe color) approach have tended to go more comic or highly stylized in the forms whereas I think our game has the grounding of realistic forms and surface treatments. To me Betrayer feels like a beautiful dark fairytale illustration from the early 20th century where the stylization doesn't depart from reality in a dramatic way (other than the color palette) and there's a richness to the details, especially when the wind blows.

We've also added controls to let players adjust the visual style to suit their personal tastes in a way I don't think has been done before. We decided to include sliders to adjust the black and white contrast for people who wanted a softer black and white look and added a color slider for the gamers who prefer more conventional looking game. When we were at PAX Prime showing off the sliders for the first time, people had fun adjusting the look but most of the people went back to the black white and red look which was encouraging.

Why did you choose that style?

We tried a variety of styles throughout development: both color treatments and variations on the black, white and red theme but kept coming back to the high contrast look because of the tension it added. The game became more suspenseful with the shapes of things in the world appearing and disappearing as you explored. In a world full of mysteries and supernatural threats roaming the landscape, we felt this look best supported the experience.

What do you think about the industry's constant striving for photorealism?

I think it's great. As our computing power increases developers are going to find ways to push the technology to make the visual fidelity more convincing and the experiences more immersive. It's thrilling to play a game like The Last of Us and feel like you're in a real place, experiencing a zombie apocalypse in those beautiful deserted and overgrown environments. It's also cool to see games like Bioshock Infinite stylize the look of their game in ways that utilize photorealistic advancements in the technology but not in an entirely realistic way. I'm not talking about the obvious design of the floating cities thing... I love their hyper-saturation of the bounced light in that game. It's not realistic but what they did with it could not have been done without the progress made in games to replicate the way light behaves in reality.

At the same time, I love the stylistic variety happening in the indie scene. Minecraft isn't photorealistic but I think that game is visually compelling. There's a beauty in its simplicity and abstraction. And of course there are games like Journey which is absolutely beautiful and highly stylized. Like Bioshock Infinite though, there's a lot of sophisticated technology going on there (the atmosphere and depth created with the haze, wind and sand) that comes from trying to capture an element of realism.

Do you see other visual arts and artists as inspiration? If so, which in particular?

Absolutely: other games, movies, comics, painters, photographers, graphic design and everyday moments provide a limitless supply of inspiration for me and I think most of the guys on the team. Early in development I was looking at the illustrations of NC Wyeth where the themes for a lot of his paintings were swashbuckling adventures and some of his paintings had these beautiful forests and giant fairytale trees. Arthur Rackham is another illustrator I referenced who has a beautiful and haunting style in his illustrations and has some of the most beautiful drawings of trees and brambly underbrush. When there are specific inspirations like that, especially early on in the project, everyone on the team is encouraged to share with the team and post images on our project's wiki as our game's unique look takes shape.

Someone comment that our game looked like an Ingmar Bergman film, an incredible visual storyteller to have our game compared to.

We'll also reference moments in other games or scenes from movies that capture a look or tone that we think would be cool to try glean something from to fit our game. Some of the movies that most of us watched while making Betrayerwere: Sleepy Hollow, Dragonslayer, 13th Warrior, Last of the Mohicans, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Pan's Labyrinth, New World, Valhalla Rising, The Village, Aguirre: The Wrath of God and more. Each of those has moments or details that fed into the look and feel we tried to get into Betrayer.

On a somewhat related note, someone in the game screenshot community (Midhras) compared our game to Gustave Doré's etchings for Dante's The Divine Comedy, which I thought was awesome. I don't think anyone on the team ever referenced his work or made the comparison but I've studied his work for years and have books on his etchings around my house. Doré is a master of composition and lights and darks and it was cool that someone thought he'd been an inspiration for the game. We also had someone comment that our game looked like an Ingmar Bergman film at an indie games event in San Francisco earlier this month, another incredible visual storyteller to have our game compared to.

Do you think that it's more difficult to succeed for games that try something different visually?

I think it can be but at the same time, I think if a game is fun, people who do like the look will tell their friends and get some folks outside of their aesthetic comfort zones.