The Art of... Over the Alps
actually look at you. And even with that little bit of Seth Barton looks at the inspirations, work, with the help of the animation and really smart evolutiondesigners and production of the art of and engineers, with everybody working Over the Alps, led by Joshua together, you could tell from Callaghan. the very beginning that A branching game set would against shenarrative was a character that people really gravitate toward.” the turbulent backdrop of 1930s Quill really becomes a fully fleshed out character with Switzerland by Stave Studios
the help of the game’s strong world-building. As an interloper in Quill’s world, the player experiences it not through her eyes, but as an observer watching as she lives her life in her familiar setting. It’s a strangely intimate feeling, and one which gives way to joint apprehension as both the player and Quill enter new, unfamiliar areas. “When you go through Mousetown and you see Quill run throughver there see she title has from a hometown, theand Alpsyou was thethat debut Londonthe feeling of her leaving it, of that town maybeInitially being in based indie studio Stave Studios. danger, gives you more of a bond,” says. “If released in 2019, it built Alderson an adoring fanbase that part2020 was on leftSteam out, you wouldn’t feel like there wastitle over and Apple Arcade, with the much to fight for. Everything that we’ve done, the mood coming to Switch soon too. settings, Quill from one area to the next and It’s ataking branching narrative title set between theletting wars you restthe and take in this environment… It’sshould all supposed with developer stating that players “expect to action, exaggerate andsuspense accentuate that mood that you’re drama, and yodelling.” Samuel feeling. It all ties back answered into how you connecting with Partridge of Stave ourare questions. Quill and her world.”
O
WAS THE APPEARANCE OF THE GAME CORE TO SAME QUESTION EIGHT WAYS ITS INITIAL CONCEPT? Collaboration key during thedidn’t development Entirely so! was Our original pitch go muchofbeyond Moss, not‘interwar just within narrative the team game’ itself,until but we withstarted the help to of obsess external playtesters. about thePeople objectswere our research often brought was digging in to feedback up. This on started with old photographs, watches and other physical things, but soon coalesced around the travel posters of the era. From there, we decided postcards were a pleasing visual method of relaying text, which in turn triggered the idea that the main character was a spy writing postcards in invisible ink; the rest is history. WHAT INFLUENCES DID YOU DRAW FROM? Those travel posters were critical to the project, so
the game and asked questions about their experience – even if most of these questions were actually very similar. “External playtests were mostly about ‘Okay, how do people feel when they play? Do they like it or not like it?’,” Alderson explains. “At the end of playtest we would ask the same question eight different ways. The question is really ‘What didn’t you like?’, but we would ask it differently: ‘What pulled you out of the experience? What took you out of the headset? If there’s one thing you could change what would it be? If you had two weeks to finish the game, what would be the thing that you’d fix?’ “Those help bring a playtester into their comfort zone, because no one wants to play something that people put a lot of care and love into and then turn around and say much ‘This issowhat thatI some didn’t of likeour about locations it’. So are it takes taken a little directly while from to getthem. the playtester Writers Jon comfortable, Ingold, Katharine and we found Neil and that later finding Harry different Tuffs ways were to hugely ask the inspired same by question Le Carré means and you eventually Fleming. Finally, get theour really obsession good stuff with after thethe works fourth of or Wes fifth time Anderson you ask shone it. through everything we did. For example, “I don’t Andy think anyone Huckvale, in our ourstudio composer, has ever andmade Matt a Arneil game both like this, didso a sterling I think it’s jobimportant making our thatsoundscape you trust the as Andersonian process. You as trust possible. playtesting and you make sure that you allow yourself some time and freedom to try something HOW and then WAS keep THE going. ARTTry CREATED somethingAND new and BY WHO? branch out, The but also art was use very your much experience led byfrom Joshua games Callaghan. that you’ve Josh’s background made before in and print you’ll media be ficombined ne. As longwith as you’re a lovehaving of the era’s fun too! artstyle We enjoyed forms the playing backbone Moss throughout of what makes the entire Over the process Alps’and art look I thinksothat good. really Claire helps.” Brooks, Angus Dick and Martin Binfield came in as freelancers to add to this with illustration and animation, but right now it’s Josh flying solo. CAN YOU PUT ANY NUMBERS ON THE SCALE OF THE PROJECT? We squash just over 1GB of super high quality image files into a game that’s just over 0.5GB, with little or no compression, which took some doing. We also have 35 characters, each of which have anywhere between 2 to
48 | MCV/DEVELOP February 2021
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