When We Made... Bonfire Peaks
actually look at you. And even with that little bit of work, with the help of the animation and really smart designers and engineers, with everybody working together, you could from the very Chris Wallace gets behind thetellscenes beginning that she was a character that people of Bonfire Peaks. A contemplative, would really gravitate toward.” sombre puzzle game that pulls Quill really becomes a fully fleshed out inspiration from thehelp Beach Boys, character with the of the game’s strong because it indoes. world-building.of Ascourse an interloper 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, Moss, not just within the team itself, but with the help unfamiliar areas. onfire Peaks, from developer Corey Martin, is of external overburdened withPeople possessions thatbrought I couldn’t playtesters. were often in “When you go through andtoyou see Quill a gameMousetown that manages be simultaneously quite figure outgame how and to get rid of. Throwing them to feedback on the asked questions about run through there and you seeand thatimmensely she has a taxing. hometown, meditative the sea–ineven frustration isn’t a valid solution, it their into experience if most of these questions were the feeling of her of that town maybe being in the actually Theleaving game’sit,narrative, such as it is, follows turns out. very similar. danger, gives you moreof ofaasolitary bond,” man Alderson says.a“Ifmountain, adventures climbing “External playtests were mostly about ‘Okay, how do that part was left out, wouldn’t like there was burning allyou of his worldlyfeel possessions as he goes. people SACRIFICES MADE feel when theyMUST play? DoBE they like it or not like it?’,” much to fight for. Everything that no we’ve done, the There’s no dialogue, exposition, nomood context. The game’s approach to its Alderson explains.hands-off “At the end of playtest weown would ask settings, taking from one area theinto nextaand Just Quill put everything youto own boxletting and watch the same narrative eases the different pressureways. off a The little.question A player question eight you rest andit take burn.in this environment… It’s all supposed may‘What get stuck to navigate is really didn’ttrying you like?’, but we their wouldpossessions ask it to exaggerate and accentuate mood thatprior you’re It turns out that ourthat protagonist, to through implausibly narrow but they What differently: ‘What pulled you out ofspaces, the experience? feeling. Itwhatever all ties back into howbreakdown you are connecting emotional prompted him be turnedIf there’s away by a dense, took certainly you out ofwon’t the headset? one thing you with Quilltoand herrefuge world.”in the flames, was something of seek is more couldimpenetrable change whatstory. wouldBonfire it be? IfPeaks you had two weeks to
B
a materialist. Any player wanting to finish all of SAME QUESTION EIGHT WAYS Bonfire Peak’s puzzles (of which there are over Collaboration key during 200) was will have to do the a lotdevelopment of burning. of
Corey Martin, developer
a particular orthat an idea, finishevocative the game,ofwhat would beemotion the thing you’drather fix?’ than ahelp specific about into a specific character. “Those bring story a playtester their comfort zone, “Bonfire as part of the because no onePeaks wants started to play something thatLudum people put They’ll have to be quite a bit brighter than Dare game jam,” Corey Martin explains to us, I am too – Each of the game’s hundreds of “the theme was ‘Sacrifices Must Be Made.’ I had puzzles tasks you with burning a single box of gotten used to making these character-based 3D your own possessions, and they’re increasingly puzzle games, and wanted to make one focused unforgiving as the game goes on. Most puzzles on climbing. The theme then inspired carrying can theoretically be finished in under a minute, something for the sake of sacrificing it, and I got though in reality I spent much of my time staring a few solid puzzles out of it. From there, it took a at Bonfire Peak’s gorgeous Voxel graphics, while for it to really start taking shape.”
58 | MCV/DEVELOP November/December 2021
