{"id":108045,"date":"2020-01-25T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2020\/01\/feature_liberated_developer_on_the_challenges_of_creating_a_truly_playable_comic_book"},"modified":"2020-01-25T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T16:00:00","slug":"feature-liberated-developer-on-the-challenges-of-creating-a-truly-playable-comic-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/01\/25\/feature-liberated-developer-on-the-challenges-of-creating-a-truly-playable-comic-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: Liberated Developer On The Challenges Of Creating A Truly Playable Comic Book"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
\"Liberated\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

Announced during last year’s Indie World Showcase<\/a> in December, Liberated<\/a><\/strong> is an upcoming noir graphic novel game coming from to Switch this year. Developed by indie team Atomic Wolf and L.INC, it blends the darkness of a branching dystopian comic book narrative across chapters with side-scrolling action-aventure gameplay. The result is a playable graphic novel with hand-drawn art that has you getting involved with the stealthy gunplay as well as dialogue choices.<\/p>\n

To find out more about this intriguing media meld, we spoke to Marek Czerniak and Konrad Wa\u0142kuski, Creative Director and Producer respectively at Atomic Wolf, about striking the trial and error of finding the right balance when mixing mediums, the hope of attracting comic book readers as well as core gamers, and the real-world and genre influences the team looked to while developing Liberated.<\/p>\n

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Nintendo Life: Liberated blends the form of the comic book or graphic novel with the interactivity of a video game. Tell us a little about the game and its conception.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Atomic Wolf:<\/strong> So\u2026 how did it all get started? Well, we \u2014 as in the Liberated crew \u2014 are basically huge fans of both, we grew up on video games and comics and they\u2019re still a huge part of our lives. So the simple answer is that it was kind of\u2026 the obvious thing to do. [smiles]<\/p>\n

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A really big [challenge] was just getting a good ratio […] Shoot off too far in either direction and you end up with either a visual novel or an action game that just has comic book cutscenes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Indie gamedev is more accessible than ever, digital comics are getting more and more popular, so we just figured: why the hell hasn\u2019t anybody done this yet? We could be doing so much more<\/em> with digital comics!<\/p>\n

So we went out and decided to make the world\u2019s first truly playable graphic novel. Our dream experience \u2014 something that feels and reads like a comic book, with all the charm that goes with that, but also pulls you right into the story, and action, and challenges to overcome.<\/p>\n

We were kicking around different ideas and approaches for a pretty long time actually. Just trying out different art styles and gameplay elements, even starting from scratch several times over (what you\u2019re seeing now is actually the third reboot), until we finally hit the sweet spot \u2014 this fun and engaging and beautiful balance between a comic book and video game.<\/p>\n

To be perfectly honest, there are moments where we feel it\u2019s actually kind of incredible how well the two mediums can end up working alongside one another.<\/p>\n

\"Liberated<\/a><\/figure>\n

We\u2019ve seen attempts in the past to mix games with other art forms (film, music, etc) with varied results \u2013 some incredible, others not-so-much. What challenges have you encountered merging these two very different mediums?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh man, there was plenty of challenge. Like I mentioned, it took MANY attempts to get to where we feel like we\u2019re in a good place.<\/p>\n

A really big one was just getting a good ratio between the comic book and video game elements. Shoot off too far in either direction and you end up with either a visual novel or an action game that just has comic book cutscenes. So even getting to that point where we feel we have the right balance, that took a while.<\/p>\n

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Something you\u2019d think is simple like speech bubbles: you have to consider positioning, fonts, reading speed, variety, and don\u2019t even get me started on localisation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This was also important since we\u2019re hoping to not just reach gamers, but also comic book fans that maybe aren\u2019t core gamers. One of the ways we\u2019re making that work is by introducing two gameplay styles \u2014 something challenging for the gamers, and a more casual story mode for the readers.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s that general comic book flavor and style that we want to preserve whether you\u2019re reading the story or playing out the action. That means little details like visually showing off sound effects (guns that literally go \u201cBANG!\u201d), but also finding an art style that transitions seamlessly between 2D and 3D. Think Into the Spider-Verse<\/strong>, which has done an Oscar-worthy job of that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

And I mean, creating a comic in general is tough as hell. We have amazingly talented artists on the team, but we\u2019re an indie studio not comic industry veterans, so we had to figure out a lot of the basic stuff well. Something you\u2019d think is simple like speech bubbles: you have to consider positioning, fonts, reading speed, variety, and don\u2019t even get me started on localisation.<\/p>\n

Audio is also a big one, we iterated on this a ton. We\u2019re not doing voice-overs, so music and sound effects are so important in setting the right tone and feel and pacing when you\u2019re reading the comic.<\/p>\n

You know in the end, we could just continue iterating and changing things forever because there\u2019s always improvements to be made or crazy new ideas to try out. But I think we got to a good place that we\u2019re really happy with, our playtesters generally agree, now we just have to see how everyone else feels and go from there.<\/p>\n

\"Liberated<\/a><\/figure>\n

The mixture as seen in the trailer (bottom of the page) immediately brings to mind the Mega Drive \/ Genesis game Comix Zone<\/a>. What inspirations – across any medium – did you look to when developing the game?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a really big question because in terms of age, our team basically spans two generations. Everyone brings a part of themselves and their own inspirations to the table.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s just start with the obvious: video games. Comix Zone, XIII<\/a><\/strong>, Max Payne<\/a><\/strong>, and a bunch of others already dabbled in mixing comic books and gaming so of course those are going to be an influential part of our DNA. We\u2019ve seen individual bits and pieces of comic book influence in those video games, but I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s gone as far as we\u2019re doing it with Liberated. We also really look up to Inside<\/a><\/strong> and Shadow Complex<\/a><\/strong> as action-adventure excellence, so I definitely hope that comes through in a good way.<\/p>\n

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We\u2019re hugely inspired by cyberpunk because, well, it\u2019s basically all around us […] the puzzle pieces are already here, and they all come together in the world of Liberated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Also: comic books, comic books, comic books. We\u2019ve had to study the hell out of the format. In particular V for Vendetta<\/strong> and anything by Frank Miller, especially Sin City<\/strong>\u2019s work with contrast, all have been hugely influential. Our art is generally inspired by noir, but I hope that we found our very own identity too.<\/p>\n

And then \u2014 and I think this is just as important as the way the game looks and plays \u2014 there is the world and the themes that we\u2019re shooting for. And honestly, for a good list of inspirations you just turn on the news.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re hugely inspired by cyberpunk because, well, it\u2019s basically all around us. Mass misinformation, deep fakes, remote drone warfare, world politics playing out online, Cambridge Analytica and subtle global surveillance, extreme class inequality, China\u2019s social score system \u2014 the puzzle pieces are already here, and they all come together in the world of Liberated.<\/p>\n

So, humanity has kind of caught up with the cyberpunk fantasy, but it\u2019s still something that influenced us as when we were young and feels so nostalgic. Asking around the office, some of us used to play pen & paper Cyberpunk 2020<\/strong>, read Gibson and Ghost in the Shell<\/strong>, we read about androids and their electric dreams. Speaking as a Poland-based studio, Jacek Dukaj and his novels are an absolute treasure \u2014 I believe The Old Axolotl<\/strong> is available in English, and Netflix is actually doing a show! The younger folks on our team are all about Black Mirror<\/strong> and Blade Runner<\/strong>, and we even sat them down to watch The Matrix<\/strong> for the first time ever (too bad they never made any sequels [smiles]).<\/p>\n

Liberated is being built in Unity, although using a specific tool created by L.INC. Can you tell us about the tool and how it helped development?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Working on Liberated sort of naturally had us developing our own toolset, so we\u2019re now building a whole Playable Graphic Novel framework around it. PGN we call it. The reason why is that we just want to keep going after Liberated. Continue exploring this direction of bringing comics over to a new medium \u2014 not just video games with bits and pieces of comic book flavor, but simulating the whole comic book experience that\u2019s then enriched with sound, motion, choices, and honest-to-god enjoyable gameplay.<\/p>\n

\"Liberated<\/a><\/figure>\n

The game is coming to PC and Switch first. The tablet-like form of Nintendo\u2019s console presumably makes it ideal for a game that\u2019s part-comic book. Were there any other reasons for making the game a Switch timed-exclusive?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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I won\u2019t sugarcoat it: thematically, Liberated will not be escapism. It\u2019s noir, it\u2019s inspired by the world around us, and it\u2019s filled with shades of gray.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I mean the Switch form is just perfect for a comic book-like experience that you can pick up during commute or cozy up with at home. And what\u2019s more important, anytime we\u2019d show off the game, people would immediately ask \u201cIs it coming to the Switch? That\u2019s how I want to play this!\u201d<\/p>\n

So of course we had to listen, and switching (pun super intended) focus over to Nintendo\u2019s platform proved to be pretty helpful as an indie studio with limited resources. Nintendo is a great partner, Liberated was featured in the recent Indie World showcase which came with a lot of new publicity (hello Nintendo Life!<\/a>). We\u2019re just very excited in general about that partnership and Nintendo\u2019s support.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s been the biggest challenge of developing for Switch? We imagine that controls, UI and text scaling must cause headaches in addition to any general constraints.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It feels like legible font sizes and text scaling seem to be a problem with a lot of games these days. Being a comic book and all, Liberated has a lot to do with text so we\u2019re looking at that very closely. Switch is especially tricky when you consider handheld and TV mode, so we\u2019ve developed a solution that lets us dynamically adjust the view and text sizes to fit either mode. Smooth performance and optimising for the Switch is definitely something that we\u2019re working very hard on right now as well […] We\u2019re making sure that the comic looks good and legible regardless of which mode you\u2019re on.<\/p>\n

\"Liberated<\/a><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s certainly no shortage of near-future dystopias to enjoy in games (or books or films, for that matter). With current events polarising many people and news reportage thriving on doom and gloom, how do you combat player fatigue and set Liberated apart from other games with similar settings?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I won\u2019t sugarcoat it: thematically, Liberated will not be escapism. It\u2019s noir, it\u2019s inspired by the world around us, and it\u2019s filled with shades of gray.<\/p>\n

But we don\u2019t intend to be preachy with an outright agenda to tell you who is right or wrong, or who\u2019s good and who\u2019s the bad guys. We take a step back from that, and observe a diverse cast of characters in the world of Liberated. I don\u2019t want to get too deep into the plot, but you\u2019ll encounter themes of hope and hopelessness, a clash of values and perspectives, and fundamentally good people pit against each other by a broken system.<\/p>\n

Liberated is coming this year \u2013 any idea on a more precise release date?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re not ready to commit beyond Q2 of 2020 just yet. Sorry! Soon\u2122\ufe0f. A rushed game is forever bad and all that.<\/p>\n

Finally, are there any Switch games the team has been enjoying during their downtime?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Short answer: yes!<\/p>\n

Long answer, going around the room: I\u2019ve recently finished Return of the Obra Dinn<\/a><\/strong> by Lucas Pope over the holidays which was an absolute masterpiece, and now hopping back and forth between Astral Chain<\/a><\/strong> and Fire Emblem: Three Houses<\/a><\/strong> depending on the mood. I\u2019m hearing Luigi\u2019s Mansion<\/a><\/strong> from our game director, also Baba is You<\/a><\/strong>, Grim Fandango<\/a><\/strong>, and Night in the Woods<\/a><\/strong> from others. So, seems that our tastes are pretty varied!<\/p>\n