{"id":126079,"date":"2022-06-27T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T07:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=0yia4yw7"},"modified":"2022-06-27T07:00:10","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T07:00:10","slug":"behind-the-design-gibbon-beyond-the-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/06\/27\/behind-the-design-gibbon-beyond-the-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Design: Gibbon: Beyond the Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Why design games? For Apple Design Award winner Felix Bohatsch, it\u2019s about more than creating delightful diversions or telling a great story.<\/p>\n

\u201c[They\u2019re] a kind of asynchronous communication,\u201d says the Vienna-based designer. \u201cI can share topics and thoughts with people all over the world. I find that very rewarding \u2014 if it turns out well!\u201d he adds with a laugh. <\/p>\n

Gibbon: Beyond the Trees<\/em> turned out pretty well. Developed by Broken Rules, of which Bohatsch is a co-founder, Gibbon<\/em> casts you as an ape who flings, swings, and slides their way through a beautifully realized landscape. The flinging-around-trees mechanic is unique, but easy to learn \u2014 even for earthbound humans.<\/p>\n

\"Welcome<\/p>\n

Welcome to the jungle: *Gibbon* begins in a gorgeously drawn forest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe goal was to create a flow state with the gameplay, where players get into the swinging and jumping without thinking too much about it,\u201d says Bohatsch, who conceived the game with Clemens Scott, Broken Rules\u2019s creative director and lead artist. \u201cWhat we hope is that the device sort of vanishes, and all you have is the players, world and characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s more to Gibbon<\/em> than free-flying fun. \u201cWe quickly realized we couldn\u2019t just build this purely escapist infinite runner, where everything\u2019s lush and beautiful and happy,\u201d Bohatsch says. \u201cGibbons are endangered. They\u2019re losing their habitats and their forests are being destroyed. And that led to my second motivation: To show the world the difficulties gibbons face. Not to be preachy \u2014 but to show how it might feel to lose your family, or to live in a world where there\u2019s maybe not much place for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The game\u2019s bustling cityscapes are a commentary on how gibbons are losing their habitats, says Bohatsch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The digital draw<\/h3>\n

For a short while, Bohatsch felt that there might not be a place for him in design. He applied to university with the hopes of studying graphic design but wasn\u2019t accepted to the program he was aiming for. \u201cI thought, well, I\u2019ll learn more about computers, since that\u2019s what designers use,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

He spent the next few years learning the tools of the trade and the science behind it. Though he certainly played his share of games, he never considered himself a hardcore gamer. What he did feel was the draw of games \u2014 the way they could unify graphic design, interactive design, and computer science. <\/p>\n

When an opportunity to study game design materialized, he jumped at the chance. \u201cI\u2019d never seen myself as a game designer, but that moment was where I realized I could combine my passions and put them to good use.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

I wanted to evoke feelings that might be linked to the natural world [without] re-creating it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Appropriately enough, the idea for Gibbon<\/em> came from a family trip to the zoo, where Bohatsch found himself noticing the animals\u2019 remarkable agility and almost otherworldly movements. <\/p>\n

The Broken Rules team explored variations on that idea over several years as they worked on other projects, trying to find the right translation of that motion to a screen. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want a simulation game; we wanted a sense of abstraction,\u201d Bohatsch says. \u201cI wanted to evoke feelings that might be linked to the natural world [without] re-creating it.\u201d <\/p>\n

To breathe life into the game\u2019s rich hand-drawn look \u2014 the lush forests full of spreading branches, inviting vines, and mighty tree trunks \u2014 the team turned to London-based artist and designer Catherine Unger, a game veteran who\u2019d worked on such titles as Tangle Tower<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal was for the visuals to look like an illustration,\u201d says Unger. That meant adding hand-painted 3D textures, rough edges, and even a little wobble in the game\u2019s linework to capture that storybook feeling.<\/p>\n

The team initially used 2D assets to create a parallaxing environment with the game, then experimented with turning the canopies themselves into 3D splines. \u201cIt looked amazing!\u201d says Unger. \u201cThat snowballed into a discussion that led to [more] 3D foreground elements that gave the game a whole new level of depth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

There was a lot of debate…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When it came time to replicate the animals\u2019 movements in the game, the Broken Rules team, well, broke the rules. <\/p>\n

\u201cGibbon<\/em> has a kind of inverted control scheme.\u201d Bohatsch says. \u201cYou hold when the gibbon has to hold, and release when the gibbon has to jump. Basically, whenever the gibbon collides or interacts with a tree or a vine, that\u2019s when you touch the device.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Early<\/p>\n

Early sketches show how the Broken Rules team reached for a \u201cpoetic connection\u201d between player and character. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

To refine the mechanic, Broken Rules brought on Canadian developer Eddy Boxerman to sharpen the game\u2019s main physics and movement. \u201cWe never wanted it to be about pixel-perfect timing, but we did want some kind of challenge that gave you agency over your actions.\u201d The team tried out alternate outcomes for not lifting your finger at the right time, including one that levied a penalty and another that… did pretty much nothing. \u201cThe gibbon would just jump away on his own. It was easier for some players,\u201d laughs Bohatsch, \u201cbut it was getting pretty boring.\u201d <\/p>\n

Gibbon<\/em>‘s jump-to-release mechanic subverts the traditional press-to-jump action of most games, but the Broken Rules team stands by it. \u201cThere was a lot of debate about whether this was a good idea,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I think it creates a kind of poetic connection between you and the character.\u201d <\/p>\n

The mechanic created a challenge for Unger too. \u201cIt was particularly difficult to create the art style for the trees; the gameplay meant that the trees looked a bit alien and unusual,\u201d she says. It was game co-creator Scott who solved that challenge, suggesting that Unger and team limit tree canopies to the background branches and keep the main gameplay branches free for gibbon swinging. <\/p>\n

\n

The games we want to build aren\u2019t necessarily about being realistic, but about developing emotions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The poetic connection Bohatsch mentions is the keystone of the game \u2014 and it\u2019s been Broken Rules\u2019s specialty since the studio’s 2009 inception. The Broken Rules catalog includes such well-regarded titles as And Yet It Moves<\/em> and Secrets of Raetikon<\/em>, as well as two more Apple Design Award winners: Eloh<\/em>, a rhythmic puzzle game, and Old Man\u2019s Journey<\/em>, whose main character follows his own arc of loss, regret, and reconciliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really about emotion, right?” he says. \u201cThe games we want to build aren\u2019t necessarily about being realistic, but about developing emotions. When I was younger I played a game called Echo<\/em>, and there was a moment when you held a button to grab hands with a secondary character. It felt so great. All you did was press a button. But the characters and their reactions were so natural and evocative. That showed me how games can create a whole range of different emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

In the end, *Gibbon* is about a search for family. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Emotion isn\u2019t the only thing at play in Gibbon<\/em> \u2014 the team has a careful eye on embodiment, too. \u201cPlayers tend to have a bias toward the characters we play,\u201d says Bohatsch. \u201cIn Old Man\u2019s Journey<\/em>, we heard from players about how, as they played, the developed more empathy for the old man.\u201d It\u2019s the same with Gibbon<\/em> \u2014 putting yourself in the hands of another creature creates that connection from the first jump.<\/p>\n

This immersion carries through in the game\u2019s environments. When play begins, you\u2019re in a lush forest: swinging amongst spreading branches, inviting vines, and mighty tree trunks. As the game continues, however, those forests begin to thin out. The primal green backdrop so familiar to those early moments is replaced by harsh, chugging construction vehicles and the dissonant rumble of man-made machinery. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted the deforestation scenes to feel starkly different from the jungle scenes, not just for visual variety but also for emotional impact,\u201d says Unger. \u201cThe more realistic desaturated tones in the deforested areas mirror the empty feelings of the gibbons in the game. But they\u2019re also a true-to-life representation of a jungle devastated by human impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The game\u2019s deforestation scenes have a dark, unsettling feel \u2014 especially when contrasted with the natural beauty of previous levels. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the end, Gibbon<\/em> takes its place among Broken Rules\u2019s titles as a game that\u2019s something more. “I want people to think about gibbons and about how much space we can still give them,\u201d he says. \u201cWe want to linger in people\u2019s minds after they\u2019ve played.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he wants to continue creating games that speak to something bigger, something more universal, something that can\u2019t be created in a vacuum \u2014 or, sometimes, even a studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had any advice for aspiring designer, it would be to go out in the world and live a life outside of games,\u201d he says. \u201cTravel, talk to lots of people, read books, go to concerts. Play games, sure, but don\u2019t spend all your time with them. There\u2019s so much inspiration in the world, whether it\u2019s coming from nature or other human beings or other species. That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to design: new ways to look at the world through the gaming lens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more about Gibbon: Beyond the Trees<\/a><\/p>\n

Download Gibbon: Beyond the Trees from the App Store<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why design games? For Apple Design Award winner Felix Bohatsch, it\u2019s about more than creating delightful diversions or telling a great story. \u201c[They\u2019re] a kind of asynchronous communication,\u201d says the Vienna-based designer. \u201cI can share topics and thoughts with people all over the world. I find that very rewarding \u2014 if it turns out well!\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126079","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\/126079","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=126079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}