In September this year, the Pixel Wind Adventure Puzzle "Eastward", released by Heartbeat and completed by Picpi Studios for more than five years, was officially released. This work, which received a lot of attention before its launch with its excellent pixel aesthetic, also lived up to expectations after its release, and achieved quite good results.
For a near-start-up game development team, how did Pikpi compete with himself to complete step-by-step development challenges and finally complete the work? Recently, GameRes had the honor of interviewing Tomo, the producer of "The Land of the Wind", to share the story of the creation process of the work.
There are many attempts at the beginning, and finally the focus is on expertise
Hello everyone, I'm Tommo, the founder of Picpi Studios, and the producer and main programmer of The Land of the Winds.
First of all, we are a studio of about ten people, and there are three animators in charge of the art in addition to the main beauty, two people who are responsible for the plot performance, and then four or five people who are responsible for the level and scene designers. Most of us have very little experience in the gaming industry. The main Mei Hong ink dye has been doing JAVA mobile game art in Beijing for several years before.
After Ink Dye joined Pikepi, we tried to do a mobile game project, and after some failures, we realized that we had to focus on what we were good at. The starting point of the "Wind Country" project was a set of sci-fi-themed pixel art settings drawn by the main Mimi-dye a few years ago, and finally we decided to develop a story-rich action JRPG game. We've also been inspired by a lot of games and animations from the around the '90s, such as the Mother series, the 2D series of The Legend of Zelda, and great animations like Star Cowboy and Metropolis.
From the plot, levels to the visuals, the overall construction of the country of wind
Wind country is a core two-character action RPG single-player game, but also a Zelda Like adventure puzzle game. Despite the diversity of elements, our goal is still to use puzzles, actions, words, and scenes to drive the story, build a good emotional experience, and immerse players deeply in the interaction with the game world. During development, our plot will participate in the level design, and the level will also affect the plot. In addition, visual performance is our most important part. For us, the "Country of the Wind" is a whole.
Although the game is a single player switching between two protagonists for puzzle battles, Sam is the real protagonist of the game from the setting, and John, as one of the main objects of operation of the player, is more like the player's avatar to participate in this series of adventures. Setting him in a state of silence is also hoping that the player can take over the role while focusing on the performance dialogue more Thanan. On the other hand, part of the original idea of the game originated from the creator's own parenting experience, and experiencing the child's growth from a parental perspective was also the entry point for our earliest design.
When we first designed the game, we planned it according to a 30-hour effective experience time. Considering the various mini-games and puzzle-solving elements in the game, the actual time to complete the level may be longer. Among them, many players have dubbed "The Land of the Wind" as the "Children of the Earth" launcher, and enthusiastic friends have made a detailed clearance guide for the Children of the Earth, and we are very grateful for your love for this built-in JRPG Easter egg pixel game "Children of the Earth".
"Children of the Earth" is the original Chinese project title of The Land of the Wind, which means "Child of the Earth", which translates to "Earth Born" in English. It's also a tribute to the Earth Adventure series – it was this classic Nintendo RPG that inspired the team's initial creative inspiration and enthusiasm.
Being a "game within a game" may be a special complex for our generation of gamers. We didn't want to do a "big" built-in game early on the project, and the idea was more inclined to make a mini card game. As Children of the Earth was increasingly mentioned in the main storyline, we began to think about making a "game that could really catch on in the game world." I think that in addition to enriching the worldview of the game, the built-in game is also a choice for players to adjust the rhythm of the game. But the most important thing is that it's very interesting, for the players, and for us producers.
The concept of "Children of the Earth" runs through the entire development process of Wind Coming. We wanted to create a cultural symbol that could connect people from different parts of the continent even in the shadow of Kuroshio, so that the Easter egg game could also reflect the strange character world of The Land of the Wind. As the Child of the Earth has received more and more attention and love from players, we have also added an additional option to quickly launch the Child of the Earth in the game interface in the last V1.1.0 feature update. We are also planning the peripheral extension related to the Children of the Earth, and look forward to bringing you a richer content experience in the future.
Use pixel aesthetics to create a world of light and strangeness
Why did Windswept country choose pixel style? Cost is one of the factors, but the most important thing is that we all like this form of expression very, very much. Although we have members of different ages who have different feelings and cognitions about pixel art, there is one thing that is agreed upon in Pikpi: pixel art is a very refined method of expression. But in fact, pixel art usually has a size or color limits, these restrictions require art to make a lot of trade-offs when modeling and animation, so the information density of pixel art is actually very large.
An important goal of the art of Wind country is the expressiveness of the characters, and the game has created more than 200 different characters. When we modeled the characters, we chose a size that was large enough to present the expressions and actions of the characters, and what ultimately made the game "come alive" was the rich expressions and actions of these characters.
Mo Yan said that character creation is the greatest pleasure in development. After each character is determined, we will give them a basic setting and give each person a line that best reflects their characteristics. The next step is to connect them, not only the characters and the characters, but also the roles and the environment should have their connection. Some characters will appear in groups, and some will wander around. As time passes, their lives change. However, naming each character is a very headache, and it depends on the imagination of everyone in the studio.
In terms of detail, we have added a 3D effect lighting system in the 2D pixel world of "The Land of the Wind", so that the whole game can present a more delicate drawing style and a more fantasy style world. Once the player enters the game, they can notice the landscape at dawn and dusk, with complex layers of fog and rays of sunlight coming through. We handmade every detail of The Land of the Winds, which took us a long time.
These details are realized through a self-developed engine. The self-developed engine usually grows with the project, so it can always maintain a relatively compact structure. The main advantage of this is that it can be quickly adapted and expanded according to the needs of the workflow. Later projects will be considered according to the size and type of project. Of course, we all want to be able to keep the existing engine going.
The music for The Land of the Winds was created by Joel Corelitz, who excelled at creating a nostalgic musical atmosphere. But "The Land of the Winds" isn't just "nostalgic." Based on the nostalgic atmosphere, we blend some more modern, higher-resolution sounds with more contemporary production techniques to give a new definition of "nostalgia".
We had very little experience working with musicians before, so Joel Corelitz, who was in charge of composing music early in the project, provided us with a lot of guidance and help. Usually we design music with a specific situation or emotion as the theme, Joel will give us one or two directions to choose, usually a few versions down we can complete a track. But sometimes we find that there are also pieces that are more suitable for use on another theme, and Joel will be very enthusiastic to give his ideas and help us adjust the pieces accordingly. In addition, the copyright of OST is owned by Joel, and if there is an OST entity release plan in the future, it is up to him to decide, and we will try to provide assistance.
What's next?
It took five or six years from development to launch, and for us, the greatest sense of accomplishment was that the game was completed. As a new team, in fact, the whole development process is also a process of continuous learning.
It's not easy to make indie games, and although it took a long time, we tried our best to complete the project as much as we wanted, which was very helpful for everyone's confidence. Indeed, a lot of player feedback after going live is something we didn't expect. But when it comes to the experience of managing player expectations, I think it's about "making the next game better."
As for Pikpi's next arrangement, "The Country of the Wind" is still mainly based on optimization work, and the follow-up content is already planned. The specific content will take some time to determine, so please look forward to it.