Although there are still some exciting releases for 2024 as the year slowly comes to a close, some 2025 games are earning the interest of players in their own right. Among the upcoming releases for next year,Koirais aunique textless adventure published by Don’t Nod Entertainment. The story it tells is a simple yet beautiful one: that of a player lost in the woods with a puppy.
AtGamescom, Game Rant spoke with Studio Tolima creative director Ben Lega and lead game developer Sander Vanhove about expectations, the recently released demo’s reception, and the benefits ofKoira’s more minimalist approach.This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The Uncertain World That Lega and Vanhove Wish to Share
Q:Koirais known to be a wholesome game so far, but I think everyone’s number one question with a game like this is that, in the end, is the puppy going to be okay?
Lega:I think that’s a question we get a lot. Something that we wanted from the start of the project and its mood was that it would be kind of inbetween feelings - kind of bittersweet. It’s not all about putting the dog in danger, but it’s inspired by movies likePrincess MononokeorKing of the Mockingbird. We wanted to have it where there are both moments of innocence and beauty that are contrasted by a more profound theme.
We don’t want to make something that was likeMy Little Ponyor super wholesome, or make something that was super dark horror. We wanted something that was more akin to the reality that we live, which is life with its ups and downs, and we wanted to reflect that in the story.
Q: The game uses a rather limited color palette of four or five colors. Why was that decision made going into the project?
Lega:The limited color palette was a design choice from the very start. That visual is one of the first things that we established. The advantage of the limited color palette is that it makes for a far more striking image. It makes it very iconic, and you see that in a lot of poster designs where they will pick between two, three, or four key colors. You have a lot of Hollywood posters where they are often orange and blue; there are so many movies that use that.
We wanted to find something that reflects the core narration we wanted to give so that we both have this harsh feeling of winters, the black and white, but also the spark of happiness of light that comes with the reds and the different tints of pastels.
Now,if you look inKoiraitself, you’ll see we have a lot of different tints of color. You have some bluish stones, you have some turquoise that comes in from time to time, so even if you stay withKoirafor snowy forests, you have more colors flashing into view depending on the moment and your happiness in-game.
Q: Obviously, there’s not just a play on color, but also light and dark in the game as well. Can you talk a little bit about what that means for the game?
Vanhove:Yeah. In general, that’s a lot of contrast inKoira. It’s not just the visuals where there’s light and dark. We play with different emotions, where there’s light in happy moments and dark in more mysterious moments or moments where the player is meant to be anxious, butwe also play with the mood. Like Ben already said, we like this bittersweet kind of feeling where people can feel this wholesomeness, but also sometimes feel a little danger or mystery. We like contrast in general, for sure.
Q: Could you talk a little bit about designingKoira’s mysterious forest as a whole? Were there any sort of guiding principles for the forest?
Lega:In the design of the forest, it’s almost the main antagonist of the game. You play as this characterand you encounter a little puppy, and the relationship between the two characters is at the core of the game. It’s really about the bonding between them. They’re in this forest, and because we don’t have any text to tell our story, a lot is left suggested to the player.They’re in the setting of this forest, and we don’t really know who the characters are, where they’re going, why they’re going where they are.
We wanted to emphasize this mysterious vibe to the forest, there’s some magical element to it. There are these statues that you encounter that can transform the environment. That’s really something we wanted to spike the interest of the player and keep them kind of guessing as they are progressing through the story. This third big theme that you’ll find in the demo is the layer of danger and tension because, as the characters are progressing towards their goal, they are being chased by hunters. They seem to have particular interest in the puppy and try to kidnap them.
The trio of the three ingredients - the bonding friendship, the mystery, and the danger - really create this unique alchemy that makes it perfect.
Q: You mentioned building the bond with the puppy is one of the main features. you’re able to sing to it, there’s ways to interact with it… Could you talk a little bit about trying to take something as emotional as trying to bond with a puppy and turning that into gameplay?
Vanhove:For sure. I think that the game is full of these little moments where you’re able to play with the dog and just bond with it. For example, in the demo, you look at clouds together, you can play fetch with a stick, you can throw a snowball at them…We really like to pepper those moments in because those are the meat and bones ofhaving a friendship with a dog, right? It’s not just that the dog is there to help you solve puzzles because then the dog would only be utilitarian in purpose. You also need to have fun with them and have these little moments with just you and the dog, so you can project your own kind of story onto that.
That’s one of the reasons we also chose to not have text in the game - it was a design choice from the start, but it allows the player to fill in the blanks and project what they want to see in the relationship with the dog.
The Challenges and Rewards of Minimalist Designs in Gaming
Q: What can you tell me aboutKoira’s sound design?
Lega:The sound was really core to the project from the start. In the prototype phase, I was working on the project with Reginald Nowe, who is the composer of all the sound in the game. He was able to quickly establish the mood and story of the experience because he made these very melancholy yet melodic compositions. It kind of helped the mood, the vibe of some of thekey momentsKoira’s story prosper.
It’s something that, because we don’t have any text in the game, we use music to emphasize emotions a lot and to tell a truthful story, so it’s key to underlying emotional moments and things that are happening on the screen. In the moments in between, we focus more on the ambiance of the forest. You can hear your footsteps in the snow, the winds cracking and passing through the branches…We want to make the forest feel very alive. As you progress, in these moments between musical sections and more high emotional tones, you have a lot of interactions in the world that will actually create sound.
You have the flowers on the ground, the mushrooms, or the birds… they will all be voiced by instruments to generate music as you walk. Both main characters are actually voiced by instruments - the main character is a flute, I think the dog is an accordion. As you go through the forest, you may have these discussions with the dog, you can talk to each other, discuss what you’ve seen in the world, and it creates this melodic ensemble as you walk and talk to one another through the world.
Q: It seems like you aimed to make the game with as minimalist of a design as possible. What advantages do you think this approach as a whole brings to Koira?
Vanhove:I think there are multiple advantages. We have the fact that people can interpret the story as they want, of course. Then there’s the fact that it’s very universal because there’s no text. Because it’s very minimalist, there’s less of a cultural background required to get into the game andpeople can just pick up and play it. Because there’s no text, we try to guide the player as much as possible, which was a big challenge to get right, but I think we did a very good job getting the player up and running with the whole game without telling them things like “fix the box,” like… “you have to press these buttons.”
Of course, there’s the part where it’s more poetic because “a picture is worth more than a thousand words.” And to add to that, there’s the music, the animation, and the gameplay progression…and with all that, we’re at maybe… four thousand words per image? Yeah, I think that helps a lot.
Q: You briefly mentioned there are challenges to trying to guide a player without text, but as a whole, what was the biggest challenge for guiding players without text tutorials?
Lega:The tutorials themselves[LAUGHS].
Just getting people acquainted with all the systems, because, originally, we wanted to also have the UI as minimal as possible. In the end, we chose to show a button here or there to make sure people know what to do, or we show it the first time you can do the interaction and we assume the player will pick it up from there. In general, just making sure that the environment is inviting you - the player - to do these kinds of interactions so it feels natural to do them.
Q: The demo is ends on a cliffhanger. When it comes to surprises inKoira, how many more surprises should players expect?
Lega:What we want is there to be a lot of surprises, definitely. The game is made to be played in one extended sitting, so the demo is really like a small snippet of the whole experience, which we really want to bean emotional journey that keeps the player hooked from start to finish. It’s something you can really see in the demo with different moments, the kind of progressive moments of bonding, exploration, the tension with the hunters… It’s something we aim to keep during the whole game to kind of push the story forward, while also still leaving the player guessing.
There are a lot more exciting things to come after the demo’s first encounter with the hunters, so yeah, you have to try the rest of the game to see.
Q: Is there anything you can tell me about the hunters as an entity?
Lega:So, the hunters…. The way that we approached the narration of the game, we wanted to make something that was more akin to a tale, something that would be very easy to understand. It’s all about character interaction. You bond with this dog, and the hunters are trying to attack you. It’s all about this trio and how they interact but to also keep true to our whole mythical approach, and we have the fact of having no text and a deeper layer of symbolism. Typically, hunters in a story are also there as a very strong archetypal symbol, you know? You have this dog that’s kind of like a small child with these hunters that’s coming to chase you always behind your back, you’re going to this house… these are all things that evoke a lot of things for everyone.
The hunters are there for what they represent in the story. They are kind of the ones breaking the peace in the forest, disturbing it to bring in violence, and they’re also kind of relentlessly not letting you rest, always lurking around. You don’t know where they might be, so the forest is very important - that’s the approach that we took to show that.
First, in their graphical design, they are taller thanthe main characters ofKoira. They’re always a bit mysterious, they are draped in fog and clothes, and they always have these big hats that kind of cut the shape of their eyes, making them have a menacing look all the time. We wanted to have this kind of ambiguity and mystery around them, so that they would best fit what we want them to represent in this story.
Q: Would you say that it’s the same sort of contrast between the main character and the hunters, just like the one between the main character and the puppy that we talked about earlier?
Vanhove:Yeah, absolutely. Contrast is a very general term, and it’s something that we can use a lot to convey strong emotion by changing between one moment to the other. It’s something that you can see a lot in the game. It was in the art, it was in the music… like playing or not playing the music, and so we use all these key tools that we have to convey the narration in terms of difference - in terms of art, in terms of mood, in terms of animation, and in terms of music.
We definitely attempt to emphasize the relationship between the character and the dog, which is very small and cute, and the tall hunters that, on the contrary, are not cute at all. We try to push the difference really strongly with them.
Q: How important would you say nature in general is to the story? Since we’re dealing with all of these creatures?
Vanhove:It’s something that they are surrounded by, it’s the main area you go through in the game, but the game is really about the bonds between them. Typically, the character gets influenced by everything around, so the forest and the season - how it’s a snowy forest - the conditions are very harsh. Food is scarce, there are a lot of dangers, there’s wind, there’s cold, sonature is something they are kind of battling with naturally.
On top of that, the hunters' presence in the forest is ineluctable to them, so it’s something like the forest is the first antagonist to the game, right? The two characters, the hunters, and then the forest who is kind of there, not as a good or a bad character, but it’s a source of magic and wonder…but also some type of danger.
Q: Though the demo hasn’t been out very long, has there been any sort of immediate feedback that you’ve seen?
Vanhove:Yes. Everyone has been loving it. Everyone who’s commenting on it really loves to play with the puppy. Everyone we see here at the Gamescom booth as well. They stay to play the whole 30-minute demo, and then they turn around and they have a smile on their face, like “Oh, this was great.” Or with a little shock from the ending, but that’s designed that way, so that’s alright.
Q: Last question to kind of wrap everything up - with what’s been shown in the trailer and demo so far, we’ve talked a lot about the bond between the character and the puppy being the main focus. But as players anticipate the release, what would you say their general expectations should be forKoira’s full release?
Lega: I think the demo showcases themain aspects that you can expect forKoira; it’s a good example of the different types of emotions and the gameplay that you can expect. It’s a good representation, and so if people like the demo, I think they will definitely like the full game. The full game obviously has more to propose as the full story kind of unfolds, so if the demo is just the teaser and if you feel like you like that, then the full journey still has things to say.
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