{"id":14038,"date":"2018-03-02T08:59:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T08:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/315047"},"modified":"2018-03-02T08:59:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T08:59:00","slug":"designing-florence-to-convey-the-ineffable-feeling-of-being-in-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/03\/02\/designing-florence-to-convey-the-ineffable-feeling-of-being-in-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing Florence to convey the ineffable feeling of being in love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFlorence<\/em> is like a map of a whole relationship,”\u00a0says dev Ken Wong, creative director at Mountains. “Being able to find yourself on that map, or remembering that you once walked the same path and made it through, is reassuring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released earlier this month on iOS and Android to critical acclaim,\u00a0Florence<\/a><\/em> is Mountains’ debut game: a striking interactive narrative that aims to capture the heady experience\u00a0of first love\u00a0through minimalist moments captured with no dialogue.<\/p>\n

The story of Florence and Krish, moving through their first meetings to dating to moving in together to the erosion of their feelings for one another. are all conveyed with very specific beats and times, using the mundane to show things that many will\u00a0remember from their first relationship.<\/p>\n

Can you recall the first time you spent the night together? Held each other’s\u00a0hands? Brushed your teeth side-by-side? Started putting your things together on your shared shelves? Florence<\/em> is designed to use\u00a0these moments to connect with the player, perhaps reminding them of things they\u2019ve felt before, or that they hope to feel, or reassuring them that others have also\u00a0gone through it.<\/p>\n

Capturing these beats was a challenge for Wong, but for Florence<\/em> to resonate as powerfully with other first loves, he would have to work capture those feelings with just the right moments and interactions.<\/p>\n

Putting the pieces together<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Wong struggled, for a time, to figure out what to do for his first project with his new studio<\/a>. The inspiration, which may not seem all that surprising to anyone who\u2019s spent a winter\u2019s night completing a puzzle with a loved one, would come from connecting jigsaw puzzles and relationships, telling a story through that connection.<\/p>\n

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“There’s intentionally not much animation in the game. The color palette is very simple. Perhaps this simplicity allows players to imagine more, and fill in the gaps with their own experiences.”<\/span><\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cFinding our studio’s first project was a long journey!” Wong says. “We had been experimenting with jigsaw puzzles and we knew we could do something exciting with them. Amongst the ideas we discussed was telling the story of a relationship between two people, with the variations on the puzzles serving as metaphors for the different emotional beats. The team gravitated towards this idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Admittedly, doing a puzzle with a loved one doesn\u2019t quite convey the passion and excitement of a first relationship, but there is something quieter \u2013 more subdued \u2013 yet just as powerful, about such a\u00a0moment. It\u2019s the comfortable part of the relationship, conveying a warmth that comes in time, and is an important piece of showing a whole relationship. In this way, the developer saw the strength of the quiet\u00a0moment and the small interaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Through conveying these kinds of moments, Wong sought to create a connection with the player\u00a0through\u00a0shared feelings over similar moments in their own relationships. \u201cWe realized small interactions could have a lot of emotional impact, as players would draw from their own experiences. As we wanted to make this story as relatable as possible, we started talking about this being the protagonist’s first love, and all the highs and lows that come along with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

What tiny moments should one capture to convey that feeling of first love, though? The obvious ones all carry large feelings with them, but lack the subtlety of the quieter moment. This meant a lot of iteration for Wong and his team as they sought to capture just the right feelings and interactions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried so many different levels, and more than half of them didn’t work,” says Wong.\u00a0“For a level to work, it needs to have an interesting interaction that evokes a feeling or tells a story. The feeling or story has to come from the interactions, not from the images — and there’s no dialogue in Florence<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually, we had a string of major beats – meeting Florence as a single adult, Florence meeting Krish, their first dates, moving in together. We then had to fill in the gaps to strengthen their story,” he adds.\u00a0“One of the major revelations was realizing that we hadn’t shown why these characters are good for each other – we had to go back and create scenes that showed that.\u201d<\/p>\n

These connections, and many other important parts of their lives, would show them together through quieter times together. Something as simple as shared breakfast or sitting together on the couch could convey their comfort with one another, helping draw the player in to their time together.<\/p>\n

Breathing life into characters via art, music, and\u00a0mechanics<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Another important aspect beyond choice of beats was in choosing how these beats would be conveyed. Player interaction, music, and art would all work together to strengthen that sense of familiarity within the player, and of making them a part of Florence and Krish\u2019s relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne way is we look for metaphors – how can a touch screen interaction (dragging pieces, tapping on objects to get rid of them) suggest an event in a relationship, or a feeling?\u201d Wong says. \u201cWe depict an event in their relationship quite literally, like choosing what objects to put on a shelf, or shaking Polaroids. These are simple, mundane activities, but they carry powerful associations for players.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Wong, these interactions — like\u00a0moving and placing objects on a shared shelf (or, in a sad turn, taking them\u00a0off) —\u00a0help\u00a0tie the player in to the moment. It makes the player take on a role in the game, rather than just tapping dialogue to advance or playing a minigame with thin ties to the narrative. For Wong, it was important for the player to act out and participate in what was happening on-screen,\u00a0to both drum up memories as well as carry them through the emotions of a scene.<\/p>\n

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Of course, the dev team also used visual cues to convey the emotional tenor of scenes. The character’s speech bubbles, for example, shift to emphasize how the characters’ way of speaking with each other changes over time.\u00a0\u201cUsing speech bubble shapes as metaphors for dialogue was a powerful discovery,” says Wong.\u00a0“When we had to depict the characters arguing we revisited this metaphor, showing that the characters now talk to each other differently.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And while the light, comic strip look of the game is a key part of its design, it didn’t come easy — Wong says he had to iterate on it multiple times before landing on an aesthetic that resonated with the game’s themes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe art style wasn’t really an intentional decision! I was trying different art styles, but all of them were trying to say too much,” Wong says.\u00a0This comes from my background as an illustrator rather than a comics artist. Tired and frustrated, I just started sketching in a more relaxed way, and I found the style. It’s designed to be quite ‘naive’ and unassuming, and not demanding too much of my poor drawing skills!\u201d<\/p>\n

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“Perhaps the interactions are so simple and naked and not about ‘winning’, that the player has to give them meaning in their own mind.”<\/span><\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to Wong, it\u00a0was important for Florence<\/em>‘s\u00a0art style to give players room to be a part of the story. Too much detail would have drowned the player\u2019s need to use their imagination, giving them a game about a relationship rather than one where they were expected to put a bit of themselves in the story. The simple, yet evocative art style allows\u00a0the player a little room to think of themselves within it, or to interpret a scene through the lens of their own experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe music on the other hand, I had strong feelings on,” Wong continues. “I listen to film music and game music all the time. The initial feeling I wanted to evoke was intimacy – to portray the deepest feelings between two people.”<\/p>\n

To heighten that sense of growing familiar with someone over time, the Mountain team scored the game in such a way that each of the main characters is represented by a signature instrument.<\/p>\n

“We knew early on that Krish was a musician, and I decided on the cello because it felt like an instrument that could make you instantly fall in love with someone,” says Wong.\u00a0“The cello became a voice for Krish, and the piano a voice for Florence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The music gives players a\u00a0sense of the emotion of the scene, and it also gave the dev team room to give the characters a voice —\u00a0without<\/em>\u00a0having to rely on actual text that might get in the way of the player’s own feelings. Looking back, Wong notes there was no way to write words\u00a0in a scene that would resonate\u00a0every person who would ever play it. Through this musical mechanic, though, the team felt they\u00a0could more effectively convey the emotional tone\u00a0that players could get from a scene.<\/p>\n

“Simplicity allows players to imagine more, and fill in the gaps”<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Intriguingly, despite putting in all this work\u00a0to try and make players feel connected\u00a0to the story of Florence<\/em>, Wong isn\u2019t entirely sure why it works so well.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven after making the game, I still think I need some time to fully understand why the interactions work as they do,” he admits. “Perhaps the interactions are so simple and naked and not about ‘winning’, that the player has to give them meaning in their own mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back, Wong chalks up a lot of the game’s critical success to its light touch and emphasis on evocation, rather than direct communication.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people read books without pictures, they have to imagine sound and imagery for themselves. The author is harnessing the reader’s imagination,” says Wong. “There’s intentionally not much animation in the game. The color palette is very simple. Perhaps this simplicity allows players to imagine more, and fill in the gaps with their own experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

By portraying quieter moments of love alongside all the grand times, Florence<\/em> tells a full story of first love, through good times and bad. It\u2019s the entire experience, conveyed in particular moments chosen by the dev team to make the player part of\u00a0a story that would evoke\u00a0their own experiences.<\/p>\n

In doing so, Wong hopes it helps the player feel a bit of what they had before, or what they hope to feel some day. It convinces the player to unlock that part of their heart and look in on the feelings there. Through brushing teeth and eating breakfast and sharing\u00a0quiet times, it calls up that warmth of having someone to care about; it convinces the player to feel that warmth, sharing in what once was or what is to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot about storytelling during this game. So much of it is about making the characters relatable, getting the audience to feel like they’ve been in this moment before, or they’d like to be,” concludes Wong. “Romance and relationships and almost universal experiences. We feel connected when we feel like we have shared experiences. Maybe that’s one of the reasons we seek out stories:\u00a0because we want to not feel alone in what we’re feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFlorence is like a map of a whole relationship,”\u00a0says dev Ken Wong, creative director at Mountains. “Being able to find yourself on that map, or remembering that you once walked the same path and made it through, is reassuring.\u201d Released earlier this month on iOS and Android to critical acclaim,\u00a0Florence is Mountains’ debut game: a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14038","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=14038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}