The first teaser trailer for Harold Halibut was launched seven years in the past and was solely a minute and a half lengthy, nevertheless it instantly grabbed my consideration. The footage confirmed a cease-animated Harold (or what appeared cease-animated) cleansing up graffiti in an underwater facility. The putting visuals impressed a thought I don’t usually have – how did they do this? It was my first query for sport director Ole Tillmann and artwork director Onat Hekimoglu after I lately spoke with them.
“We actually started with the idea of wanting to make a stop motion game,” Tillmann says whereas citing that the primary steps he and his group took towards making the sport had been in 2011. Harold Halibut shouldn’t be really cease-movement animated, however every thing you see within the sport is one thing the group has made in the actual world. “We build sets and the puppets, and then we 3D-scan everything to make 3D models out of them,” Tillmann says. “Of course, they need some manual tweaking. But ultimately, we basically have the same kind of 3D models you would use in any other 3D game, which means we also have all the possibilities.” The result’s a gorgeous visible model that genuinely appears to be like hand-crafted.
Much of the group’s background is concentrated extra on the artwork of constructing fashions and movie versus video video games. “The whole team has very diverse backgrounds, from all kinds of different things that are not necessarily game-related,” Hekimoglu says. “We have lots of people in our team who hate games. But it’s actually a nice and interesting check to see if … if they like this game, then it will also work for people who are non-gamers,” Hekimoglu says.
Game director Ole Tillmann and artwork director Onat Hekimoglu showcase the mannequin created for Harold
The premise of the sport is as compelling because the visuals. During the Cold War, a neighborhood of explorers and scientists left Earth, fearing its destruction. The mission was considerably profitable. The ship exited Earth trying to find a brand new liveable planet, nevertheless it crash-landed on one coated in water, the place exterior atmospheric points prevented it from escaping. The ship and the parents dwelling on it determined to make do with what that they had. Now, generations of people have survived for tons of of years on this underwater planet.
Harold, alongside everybody he is aware of and meets all through the sport, has been on the ship his complete life. A brief window of alternative has appeared, nevertheless, granting them a quick likelihood to doubtlessly depart and eventually return to Earth.
Tillmann and Hekimoglu confirmed me some gameplay that concerned exploring the ship, assembly its residents, and serving to them wherever doable. Harold moved between ship sections by climbing right into a pipe that might fill with water and primarily flush him to a special space.
Harold Halibut is an journey sport, however doubtlessly difficult puzzles shouldn’t scare you off. (*11*) Tillman says, citing the success of video games like Night within the Woods and Firewatch giving them confidence that gamers would embrace an journey sport targeted completely on narrative. Still, the group was not interested by making a movie. “At one point, we really thought about a case that while this is a very cinematic and narrative-focused game, there is still something that the interactivity adds to it,” Hekimoglu says. “Even if it’s just walking around and talking with people, because it enables a more empathic connection to the medium.”
Harold Halibut has been within the works for a very long time, however it’ll lastly be launched this yr on Xbox Game Pass alongside different platforms. You can take a look at a demo for the sport proper now on Steam of a part of Next Fest.
This article initially appeared in Issue 361 of Game Informer.
Discussion about this post