{"id":117042,"date":"2020-08-21T15:40:22","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T15:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=q9fq8jkq"},"modified":"2020-08-21T15:40:22","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T15:40:22","slug":"behind-the-design-song-of-bloom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/08\/21\/behind-the-design-song-of-bloom\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Design: Song of Bloom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When designing games, Philipp Stollenmayer has a confession to make. \u201cI\u2019m easily bored,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I just don’t want the player to be bored when I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

The German developer\u2019s aversion to monotony has fueled a prolific number of creative and off-kilter titles over the years, including Sometimes You Die<\/em>, Sticky Terms<\/em>, and Bacon \u2014 The Game<\/em>. 2019\u2019s Song of Bloom<\/em> goes further still. The Apple Design Award-winning puzzle game is enigmatic and ever-shifting, with a series of layered and intertwined levels that invite people to tap, shake, draw, and explore their device.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Song of Bloom\u2019s puzzles range in style, design, and execution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt’s an abstract game [that develops] into something more understandable with time,\u201d says Stollenmayer. \u201cThe more you get in the story, the more you discover and the more the interaction changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

This concept is a core part of his philosophy around game design: create an instantly graspable idea, then keep thinking, pushing, and inviting players go further. There\u2019s no true \u2018goal\u2019 beyond the exploration of the narrative and the puzzles \u2014 in Stollenmayer\u2019s words, the game is \u201cuser experience in its truest form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Song of Bloom<\/em> grew from one of Stollenmayer\u2019s vacation experiments. Having taken a looping video of waves on the beach while in Italy, he decided to try and add a new aspect to it with device rotation: when the video flipped, the water would fall out of frame. From there, \u201cit just became a process of triggering new ideas and new experiments,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The milk carton from Song of Bloom, made real.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Unlike Stollenmayer\u2019s other games, nothing is constant in Song of Bloom<\/em>. \u201cNot the elements, not the interaction, and not even remotely the style,\u201d he says. One puzzle might look like a rough sketch, while others include hyper-realistic popcorn kernels. His favorite puzzle of the series? A stop-motion risograph-inspired milk carton.<\/p>\n

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There is always this doubt in the back of the mind if what you are seeing is real. This contributes a lot to the mood I am trying to convey.<\/p>\n

Philipp Stollenmayer<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Every image in Song of Bloom<\/em> is computer-generated, the result of experimenting with code \u2014 sometimes with unintended results. \u201cAs a designer who isn\u2019t the greatest programmer, my code usually creates visual errors,\u201d says Stollenmayer. \u201cOn the way, I would let myself [be inspired] by my own faults.\u201d<\/p>\n

That included manipulating items to make them look more like how they might in a real-world setting. For example, one puzzle, which requires someone to virtually knit an item, includes the sort of stray holes and tiny offshoots that you might expect from a newer knitter. \u201cMaking digital versions without these faults is much easier,\u201d Stollenmayer says. \u201cBut copying the faults creates moments where you ask yourself: Could this be real?\u201d<\/p>\n

He drew inspiration from immersive installations and puzzle games alike, including multimedia artists Laure Prouvost and Franz West and games like Blackbox<\/em>, Device6<\/em>, and Prune<\/em>. \u201cI look at a lot of art to get a sense for color, composition \u2014 but also how to control and transform surroundings,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n

I am interested in the between, where it all comes together, because in our world, nothing exists without context.<\/p>\n

Philipp Stollenmayer<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Each visual, haptic, motion, and verbal cue within the game is designed to get the player to explore that space and interact with its imagery. Because the puzzles are often highly abstracted, Stollenmayer used haptics to help guide people through the game \u2014 using them to signify mood in higher- or lower-stakes scenes or aid someone in evaluating potential solves. \u201cLike in the real world, the player expects a reaction from every action,\u201d Stollenmayer says.<\/p>\n

One of his earliest concepts for transitioning between puzzles in Song of Bloom<\/em> was that of someone blinking their eyes: Solve the puzzle or move to the main screen, and the entire screen blinks in and out.<\/p>\n

Stollenmayer experimented with several multitouch gestures around that concept, including a pinch gesture, before settling on a button \u2014 a single curved line \u2014 in the corner. \u201cI had to get it into the player\u2019s mind,\u201d he says. That meant creating something easily findable and understandable, and not adding gestures that might get triggered by chance during the exploration of a puzzle.<\/p>\n

That thin curved line is one of the only pieces of consistent, persistent interface amidst Song of Bloom<\/em>\u2019s many artistic changes. \u201cLike the home bar on full screen iPhones, it\u2019s just there to remind you that [it] exists, without disturbing the running scene with any content or contrasting style,\u201d Stollenmayer says.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Stollenmayer with an early version of the Song of Bloom tree.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On tap, it allows people to return to the game\u2019s main screen and view the branching tree of puzzles they\u2019ve helped grow. This tree also serves as the game\u2019s sole hint mechanism, letting people use long presses to peek at possible areas to focus on within the game. The more you play around with it, the more the story (and tree) grows and the more hints you discover. Along with original music, it\u2019s this fertile combination of forces that earns the game its name. <\/p>\n

With so many different art styles and creative influences, it\u2019s amazing how effortlessly they all blend together in Song of Bloom. The story is important, of course, but for Philipp design is really about how it feels. Call Song of Bloom<\/em> what you will \u2014 a game of personal discovery, a provocative tale of art and clues \u2014 for Philipp Stollenmayer, the goal is simply to play; to make people feel at once captivated and liberated all in the same hour-long session.<\/p>\n

\n

In Song of Bloom, you just play for the sake of playing. And this is what I was trying to achieve \u2014 to help the player get lost in his own interpretation.<\/p>\n

Philipp Stollenmayer<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Learn more about Song of Bloom<\/a><\/p>\n

Learn more about Song of Bloom on the App Store<\/a><\/p>\n

Download Song of Bloom<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When designing games, Philipp Stollenmayer has a confession to make. \u201cI\u2019m easily bored,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I just don’t want the player to be bored when I am.\u201d The German developer\u2019s aversion to monotony has fueled a prolific number of creative and off-kilter titles over the years, including Sometimes You Die, Sticky Terms, and Bacon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apple-developer-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}