På Gamescom fik vi chancen for at prøve dette korte, men følelsesmæssigt gribende eventyr. I stedet for at læne sig op ad dialog fortæller spillet sin historie gennem fascinerende grafik - lag på lag af akvarelkunst skabt af Taisuke Kanasaki.
Gameplayet er minimalistisk, men meningsfuldt. Du interagerer via enkle peg-og-klik-mekanikker - som at tegne en streg, vælge morgenmaden eller trykke for at give en elsket et kram. Hver lille handling uddyber den følelsesmæssige forbindelse til karakterens rejse.
Under messen mødte vi Taisuke Kanasaki sammen med spilinstruktør Maho Taguchi, som delte deres tanker om udviklingen og samarbejdet. Taguchi forklarede under interviewet:
"I was actually already very close to Kanasaki-san, so we had the opportunity to work together, and something happened when we discovered the game Florence. We were really interested and shocked by the absolutely beautiful visual environment and style of the game, which gave us the idea to work on a similar style of game, and this is where it all started."
Taguchi uddybdede, hvordan Florence inspirerede dem, og hvordan de ønskede at skabe noget i samme ånd - men med deres eget særpræg:
"So yes, as it was previously explained, we wanted to create something with this kind of atmosphere close to Florence. I also wanted to express my own style, and to make sure we would be able to create something that would express what we both wanted to express, and this is how it happened."
Det største trækplaster ved spillet er dog uden tvivl det visuelle design. Kanasaki forklarede, hvor meget research der lå bag, for at sikre at historien blev fortalt gennem kunststilen:
"We have made a lot of research to make sure that the way the story was intended to be developed would be carefully and successfully transmitted through the visual style."
De to jokede også om udfordringen ved at rotoskopere kattene, der dukker op i spillet, og berørte muligheden for at udgive spillet på flere platforme:
"We are trying very hard to be able to offer the same experience on maybe other platforms, but at this point, it is still difficult to say."
Se hele interviewet her nedenfor.
