"White Shadows shows a world based on contrast. Rich and poor, powerful and powerless, light and darkness, despair and hope."

White Shadows has a striking visual aesthetic that immediately leaps out of the screen. How did you land on this look for the game?

It’s all based on a pretty simple concept. White Shadows shows a world based on contrast. Rich and poor, powerful and powerless, light and darkness, despair and hope… And it deals with some pretty serious topics – systemic racism, propaganda, a world that uses its citizens as resources instead of giving them civil liberties, a world that is kind of entertaining itself to death. It’s pretty heavy stuff at times, and you know, showing these things can be amazing, but it can also be horribly boring and preachy.

We felt the best way to show all that was by having a stylized way that would allow us to show everything we needed for the story, but never completely fantasy, so there’s still a connection to the real world. And we also wanted to make fun of things. It’s a world where the powerful control the powerless. The world is huge, and you play someone who is really small. So we have these monumental settings, but as we all know, the powerful can be really stupid. So everything is in disrepair, bent and broken and held together in strange ways. We wanted both the horror and the absurd fun of what people do in our world to pop out as much as possible. The game world is off and it’s weird, but also strangely familiar. And the game looks like that, too.

White Shadows’ setting and narrative premise seem rife for some very relevant commentary- is that much of a focus in the game?

Yes, it is. We want to speak about what’s going on in the world around us today. We feel like we’re part of this world and, like most people, we want to help make the world around us a little better, not worse. What you see in the game is our reflection of what we see in the real world we all share. The racism, the propaganda, a world that is growing apart and where people don’t really speak with each other anymore. It’s our little contribution to keep some important conversations going. And it’s also our effort to give you some awesome entertainment at the same time.

Is the light and shadows visual style equally important to the way the game tells its story and the way players interact with it through gameplay mechanics?

Yeah, absolutely. For us, the visuals and the mechanics are not separate parts. They are part of the same thing. Black & white graphics are a visual choice, but they also speak to a world that is divided into parts by powerful people. And power – or powerlessness – is very much part of the gameplay experience. Having strong contrasts of light and shadows is a visual style, but it’s also a mechanic – light can be your enemy in this world, with people looking for you, but it’s also necessary to see things, obviously. It helps create a tension where you’re never quite sure what to expect.

"For us, the visuals and the mechanics are not separate parts. They are part of the same thing. Black & white graphics are a visual choice, but they also speak to a world that is divided into parts by powerful people."

What was behind the idea of occupying the game’s dystopian world with animals and anthropomorphic denizens?

Well, we’re all animals in some way, aren’t we? In its essence, White Shadows is a modern fable. We aim to tell a universal story through the things we all understand intuitively. Wolves are bad, rats are mean, pigs are dirty, sheep just bleat along and repeat what the other sheep are saying. But then, is that really true? Are things really that simple? We want to show a world of stereotypes – and then let the player decide if this allocation are true or not.

White Shadows promises a story that is dark yet funny- which is an exciting prospect, but a hard balance to strike. Can you talk to us about that, and how White Shadows goes about achieving that?

It’s always a question of how the game flows. In the end, our players will hopefully laugh and cry and cringe at what they see on the screen and what they feel playing the game. It always goes back to the world of our game – it’s a pretty dark setting which is loaded with connections to the real world we have around us. But it can also be really boring and depressing when dark stories are just dark and nothing else. For darkness to be truly dark, you need light as a contrast. For something to be funny, you need something serious next to it. It’s those contrasts that give ideas their full expression. When I play a game, I don’t want to just feel one thing – I want to feel everything. And so “dark yet funny” is not actually a paradox for us. It’s necessary to tell the story in the way it should be told.

Can players expect to learn much about the history and backstory of the game’s world through the course of its story?

Yes, they can. There are scenes specifically built around understanding the backstory of the game world and the origin story of our little heroine. The main thing is for us is to tell our story through gameplay – so when there’s something to understand in the world, we make sure that we give it to you in a playable way and not in a cutscene. We want to keep up the flow of the game at all time and tell you a great story – but in a way that enables you to decide for yourself what that story means.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of White Shadows be?

I’d say 3 to 4 hours, more or less the same length as games like Little Nightmares or Inside. But of course, play time is always hard to estimate. We are doing our best to make the game accessible to people who don’t usually play a lot of games – while keeping it challenging for everybody else.

Do you have any plans to launch on the Switch?

Yes, we have plans for that, but not right away. For the launch, we will focus on PC and next-gen consoles and then we’ll see if you guys like it.

"When I play a game, I don’t want to just feel one thing – I want to feel everything. And so “dark yet funny” is not actually a paradox for us. It’s necessary to tell the story in the way it should be told."

While most multiplatform games are choosing to launch as cross-gen titles in the early stages of the coming generation, White Shadows is exclusively on PC and next-gen consoles. Can you talk to us about how you arrived at that decision?

Well, you can’t always get what you want. Part of the reality of being a small team is that you must focus your efforts. Of course, we would like to make our games available for all players on all platforms at the same time. Every creator wants to get their stuff out there and we’re no different. We want to make it possible for everybody to enjoy our games on their preferred system. But we are a small team trying to build something extraordinary, and for that to have a chance, we must focus.

White Shadows depends to a large extent on big, detailed scenarios with minimal loading times, and that obviously needs enough hardware power to run fluently. Going PC and next-gen has its own challenges, but at least the hardware isn’t a big issue. And so, we don’t have to spend too much time on performance issues and can instead focus our efforts on where they should go: making the best possible experience for the players.

NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to the game’s launch.

"While other teams were making underwater and underground action games, we decided we want to look under the surface of the people’s minds and to build a game in which you have real psychological gameplay."

The idea of engaging with conversations as puzzles in and of themselves is an interesting one- how did this concept come about?

The very first version of the game was born at a game-jam, where the theme given was “Under the Surface”. While other teams were making underwater and underground action games, we decided we want to look under the surface of the people’s minds and to build a game in which you have real psychological gameplay. Police interrogations were then and obvious go-to: the tensest and engaging scenes of psychological sparring in modern cinema. Once we knew that was the game’s concept, it was clear to us that we needed to make dialogue be not just expositional, but the actual gameplay. After we made the first few interrogations, we had to face the challenge of tagging the innovative gameplay we designed, and “conversational puzzle” was the only one that fit.

What sort of challenges will players be faced with in this interrogations? How much of an impact will things like morally grey decisions or piecing together clues have on how these conversations unfold?

Challenges evolve and transform over the course of the game. In some interrogations the players have all the time in the world, but in others they are on the clock. In some interrogations they need to discover the guilty, in others just to find the more manipulatable of the already-known guilty. There is a lot of variety and we wouldn’t want to spoil all the surprises we have lined up for our players.

Players have to face the press, authorities, public perception, they have handle their agents’ motivation and administrative elements like budgeting. We wanted to show the realistic array of pressures that such departments are subjected to.

Moral grayness in Interrogation is not something isolated to certain well-telegraphed moment, just like in the real world. Every action of the players, from the orders they give to the special unit they manage, to the way in which they frame their actions to the press, to things that they decide to do inside interrogations, like lying to suspects or even roughing them up, all of these have realistic consequences on the main character’s reputation, sanity and on the investigation.

Interrogation claims that players will be able to psychologically manipulate people during conversations- can you talk about how this is implemented in terms of gameplay?

Players will face varied challenges in the interrogations. In every interrogation players will have to understand their suspects and decide how to approach them, what they respond to well. Should they try to frighten them, to build rapport, or a combination? How should they steer the conversation towards the topics they find more promising, especially after uncovering a new clue? Which phrasing of a question will lead the suspect to the desired emotion? How can they corner those they suspect logically? How can they cross-reference what several suspects are telling them? 

"Managing the reputation of the special unit the player leads, in front of both the press, the public and other authorities, is an essential gameplay component. In real life, it’s not only about catching the bad guys, but it’s a lot about managing to properly frame your efforts and decisions."

I imagine interrogations will be the primary mechanic here, but the addition of other things, such as the management mechanics, is quite interesting. How exactly do these factor in, and how do they interact with the interrogations? 

Beside the administrative elements, choices made between the interrogation can have great effect on the interrogations themselves. People inside the interrogation room will react to the player’s reputation. Players will select ‘memories’, effectively perks, that customise their playstyle in interrogations. Missions you’ve assigned to your agents can ensure sit-downs with key players, that, in turn, give you extra info to follow-up on in the questioning rooms.

Can you talk to us about the idea of having to contend with press interactions? How much of an impact will this have on the game and the way its story plays out? 

Managing the reputation of the special unit the player leads, in front of both the press, the public and other authorities, is an essential gameplay component. In real life, it’s not only about catching the bad guys, but it’s a lot about managing to properly frame your efforts and decisions. 

Given its premise, will Interrogation put much of a focus on challenging and relevant contemporary real-world issues?

Totally. Games that tackle head-on hard topics are exactly what we set out to do when we founded Critique Gaming, and Interrogation is no exception.

It looks at terrorism, anarchy, police brutality, personal stakes, and the power imbalances between citizens, the state, and large corporations. 

Interrogation’s art style is a striking one, and quite appropriate for its noir aesthetic. How did you land on this particular look for the game? 

Film Noir has a history in delivering hardboiled dark morally-grey stories about detectives and broken societies, so it was a rather obvious choice. However, there were a lot of iterations until we reached a style that we viewed as appropriate. Greyscale or just black and white? More sketchy or more photographic? 30s noir or 80s noir?

In the end, we realized that we can borrow a lot of visual elements from comic books. We, however, knew this game will be about characters, and that we want them as realistic as possible. That is when we discovered that rotoscoping over photos of real actors does allow us to reach a mid-way between a photographic and a comic-book-like style, which felt just right for the game. 

"We are certain that we will launch on iPad and Switch as soon as possible."

Why have you decided to launch as a PC exclusive? 

It was strictly a logistical decision. We just didn’t have the funds to first of all port the game on multiple platforms and then to launch it.

Do you have any plans to launch on the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch?

We would love for as many people to get to experience Interrogation, especially since it is a game that can be approached also by people that are not traditional gamers. That’s why we would love to get the chance to launch it on as many platforms as possible, both console and also mobile.

From all of these, we are certain that we will launch on iPad and Switch as soon as possible.

"The main drive behind the look is our team and art director Tim Gaedke, who is a published comic book artist and insists on Minute of Islands looking like a hand-drawn comic book illustration each and every frame."

The thing that most people will immediately notice about Minute of Islands at first glance is its beautiful hand-drawn aesthetic. Can you talk us through the process of how you settled on that style, and if there were any other works you may have taken inspiration from?

The main drive behind the look is our team and art director Tim Gaedke, who is a published comic book artist and insists on Minute of Islands looking like a hand-drawn comic book illustration each and every frame. His art direction is mostly inspired by French and Franco-Belgian comic books, such as Tin Tin or the works of Moebius. But all members of our 2D art and animation team bring in their own inspirations and ideas, to make the game look as dense and playful as it does.

Exploring unique landscapes in a game with an art style as gorgeous as this one’s is a prospect that is inherently exciting- is that something that you’re looking to leverage? Can players expect a lot of diversity in terms of the locations they visit?

Yes, absolutely. We will stay on this archipelago, with all its romantic and nautic imagery, but the game is very anachronistic in its environments, it goes into really dark sci-fi territory and is peppered with strange psychedelic visions.

"The player will constantly discover new functions of the Omni Switch, but these functions are directly tied to the environmental puzzles, not to an upgrade system."

Can you briefly talk to us about Mo’s Omni-Switch, and how that is going to work in terms of puzzles and platforming?

Mo’s Omni Switch is an interface device designed to allow her to interact with the strange and eerie, sometimes dangerous, giant machines and technological underbellies of the islands. It’s the only such device ever made for human hands, a gift from the giants to the one human who befriended them.

The giants never took into account that humans might use their technology one day, so it doesn’t resemble anything players would expect. Players need to figure out how these machines work, how and when to connect the Omni Switch and how to traverse huge engine-like landscapes without floors, walls and ceilings.

Is the Omni-Switch something that players will be able to upgrade throughout the game?

Not directly. The player will constantly discover new functions of the Omni Switch, but these functions are directly tied to the environmental puzzles, not to an upgrade system.

Will there be other tools or weapons that players will be able to use besides the Omni-Switch?

No. It’s just you, the islands, the secrets below and the Omni Switch.

Is there any combat in the game, or is this focused purely on puzzles and platforming?

Just puzzles, platforming, and exploration.

"It’s an epic story used to tackle very personal subjects and heavy themes. So, yeah, we hope to deliver on both fronts with Minute of Islands."

Minute of Islands’ narrative setup seems like it will enable a personal story as one that touches some large-scale arcs- would you say that’s an accurate assumption? Does the game lean more toward one side of those two in terms of storytelling?

It’s an epic story used to tackle very personal subjects and heavy themes. So, yeah, we hope to deliver on both fronts with Minute of Islands.

About how long will an average playthrough of Minute of Islands be?

The story is tightly told and we hope for players to stay within the emotional space of the game for the whole time, finishing it without interruption. This has lead us to create a narrative adventure, rich in content, that players can mainline and finish in around four hours.

As an indie developer, what are your thoughts on the Switch, which has quickly become a haven for indie games?

The game will launch on all consoles and on steam, so players can pick their favourite platform to visit the islands. The game will look great on big displays, but personally I will be playing on Switch. The flow of the game and string of tiny discoveries will make it perfect for sinking into your couch with the device in your hand.

"It has been a long and adventurous journey until now. We started as students with a clear vision of what we want to create but we had to learn tons of new things as it was our first game. Because of that we had almost no idea how it will work out in the end and we’re very happy that it was a success."

Far: Lone Sails was received with great praise when it launched on PC last year, and now it’s expanding its audience even further with a console release- how as the journey been for you, from launch to now?

It has been a long and adventurous journey until now. We started as students with a clear vision of what we want to create but we had to learn tons of new things as it was our first game. Because of that we had almost no idea how it will work out in the end and we’re very happy that it was a success.

What was the drive behind creating a game with a “zombie-free post apocalypse”?

The game is about the journey with your own special vehicle. We wanted the player to enjoy this and not feel pressured by dangers all the time. Nonetheless the world should feel unwelcoming at times and has many situations to surprise the player. It’s exploration through progression in the game and the environment should show interesting things the player hasn’t seen before.

One of Far’s most distinctive features is its incredible aesthetic, which grabs attention even with a single screenshot- how much attention did you pay to getting that aspect of the experience just right during development?

The aesthetic and in particular the composition has been a strength of FAR since the early days and we tried to keep that and improve. In some cases we had to make changes in favor of usability and gameplay, e.g. the camera distance and the player character’s small size became a problem. To makes things more clear, even if they’re small, the interactive and important elements are colored red or orange with a nice contrast to the mostly grey environment.

"We wanted to bring the game on consoles from the beginning. It was initially planned to have a simultaneous release on all platforms but we decided against it as it was our first release and this was a big enough step at the time in itself."

Was it always the plan to eventually bring Far: Lone Sails over to consoles, or was it something you assessed and decided on post-launch?

We wanted to bring the game on consoles from the beginning. It was initially planned to have a simultaneous release on all platforms but we decided against it as it was our first release and this was a big enough step at the time in itself.

Does the console version of Far: Lone Sails include any extra content or features that we haven’t seen in the game till now?

We optimized the game a lot compared to the PC/Mac release version. Everything else is the same on all platforms.

Do you have plans for more content coming to the game in the near future?

We were and still are busy with the console porting and working on our next project. So we haven’t decided yet to create additional content for FAR: Lone Sails.

Do you have any plans to launch on Switch?

Yes, we’re working on the port, but we have no release date yet. Some time this year.

Will the game will feature Xbox One X and PS4 Pro specific enhancements? What can players expect if they are playing the game on those systems? Is 4K/60fps on the cards?

No, the game runs on all Xbox One and PS4 platforms with 1080p/60fps.

"We’re working on the Switch port, but we have no release date yet. Some time this year."

The PS5 specs were recently revealed in an interview with Wired. What are your thoughts on that?

Looks quite amazing. I’m wondering what the price point will be.

The PS5 will have a Zen 2 CPU processor which is a major leap over the Jaguar found in the PS4. How will this help in games development?

It will definitely bring console performances closer to PC / Desktop settings which means less optimizations for ports.

What is your take on Sony’s reluctant policy on cross-play with Xbox and Nintendo?

I guess they are protecting their business. Of course it’s not cool from a gamer’s perspective, but that is the sad truth how capitalism works.

Many developers have come out and spoken of the things that will be made possible with the PS5’s technology, which is something that Sony’s Mark Cerny, lead architect on the console, revealed not too long ago. From its inclusion of an SSD, which Sony says will make loading screens a thing of the past, to even something more basic like enabling backward compatibility with PS4 titles, there’s plenty about the new system that has got a lot of people very excited.

Recently, we spoke with Okomotive, developers of the exploration adventure title FAR: Lone Sails, which launched on PC last year and recently came out on the PS4 and the Xbox One last month. Speaking about the PS5 and its technology, Okomotive founders Don Schmocker (Creative Lead of FAR: Lone Sails) and Goran Saric (Tech Lead) spoke of one particular aspect that had been confirmed in its initial specs reveal– its Zen 2 processor.

“It will definitely bring console performances closer to PC / desktop settings,” they said, “which means less optimizations for ports.”

However, like many of us, while they think the PS5’s specs – the ones that have been revealed so far – look “amazing”, they do wonder what the price point will end up being as a result. Around the time of the system’s soft reveal, Mark Cerny had said the price would be “appealing to gamers in light of its advanced feature set”– whatever that ends up meaning is anyone’s best guess.

It’ll still be a while yet before we find out. The PS5 won’t be out in the next twelve months, by Sony’s own admission, but we can still expect a late 2020 launch, as per other reports.

FAR: Lone Sails, meanwhile, is currently available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Our full interview with its developers will be going live soon, so stay tuned.