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Interview with Thomas Brasdefer & Diana Diaz Monton

Hello everyone,

If so many players could enjoy Haven in 9 different languages, it’s thanks to our amazing translators. It’s time to highlight their work with an interview of Thomas Brasdefer and Diana Díaz Montón!

Can you introduce yourself, your background and your work on Haven?

Thomas: My name is Thomas, I’m an anthropology professor currently at University of Vermont, I specialize in linguistics and I translated Haven from French to English.

Diana: My name is Diana, I am a professional translator specialised in game localization, and have been working in the industry for over 20 years. I have participated in the localization of hundreds of games, as a translator, editor/proofreader or multilingual project manager. I am also co-founder of Native Prime. I was the Spanish editor at Haven.

According to you, what are the most important qualities to be a great video game translator?

Thomas: Translation is never just about words, most of the work is making sense of something for someone else… Which means that the translator has to understand the reasons why the words exist. But in a video game you have a million things to interact with, from the NPCs to the environment, and a surrounding community of gamers; so you have to take an entire universe into account before you even get started. I would say that having a carefully crafted game as material is definitely a big part of it.

Diana: I completely agree with Thomas. In game localization, the goal is to convey the emotions into the different target languages, so players can truly engage with the characters they are controlling and immerse themselves in the game universe. A good video game translator needs to understand how games work as a whole, they should be familiar with the different mechanics. It is important that they also master the source formats we work with, and how strings will be used in the game, be it as part of the interface or as VO dialogue. And also need to know their target audience well, their expectations. But overall, translators have to master the source and target language so the results sound fluent and natural and match the tone and style of each particular game.

Haven is a huge project, with more than 90 000 words. How do we start while translating a game as talkative? How long did it take to translate the game?

Thomas: Believe it or not, Haven isn’t the longest game I’ve worked on. And on top of that, there are parts of the script that didn’t make it into the game! I actually like it better when there is a lot of dialogue, because that gives me time to become closer with the characters, and to watch them grow through the storyline. But it does have some drawbacks when it comes to continuity: games aren’t being developed in a linear manner, there’s alternate stories, some parts are ready before others, some need to be re-written, etc. I think it took a bit over 3 months for the whole process, but it was spread out over the course of a year from start to finish.

Diana: As Thomas mentioned, this is not a large game, though it does have quite a bit of dialogue. I also agree that this is the most fun part of any project. Dialogues give you the chance to become more creative, and you can decide how a character should talk, based on their personalities. It is fun to shape them through the words we type. The project spanned over several months, mostly because not all content was ready when we first started working on it. The drawback is that there are several pauses and it makes it a bit harder to get a general picture of the game and the different parts that make it.

How do you approach cultural specificity? Some references could make sense in some countries, when they don’t in others. What are the best practices for you?

Thomas: Losing your reference points is a big part of Haven, so I had to be careful for what is alien to Kay and Yu to be also alien for gamers, while also maintaining the cozy parts as relatable. This is where knowing the characters is absolutely crucial because I’m not telling the story, they are! My job is to make sure that gamers are hearing the story more than my own voice.

Diana: This is what localization is all about, bringing the game, the story, the characters to a target audience through expressions and words they can relate to. Again, the goal is to keep in the target version the same effect the text causes in the original. Haven however has its own universe, so the challenge here was not to use references to the real world! I remember one line in which one character called another a “parsnip” and one of the translators was like: “But parsnips don’t exist in Haven”. So we had to change that to something else that made sense in the game universe. We had to keep on our toes and that was fun!

For Haven, writer Pierre Corbinais created a lot of new words: apple dew, creamberry, loofacrid, or even swear words like bloot or boron! How was it to translate those words?

Thomas: Pierre is a terrific writer, and I’m always looking out for what he comes up with. He speaks English quite well too, so he definitely had some input when it came to word inventions, as did Emeric, the creative director for The Game Bakers; some words they came up with, some I gave them options. This is another case where their vision is much more important than my translation because they know the universe better than I do. Cursing is especially difficult because you don’t casually say them, they come straight out of your limbic system; I liked using “boron” as a swear word tough, because it sounds very close to an existing insult, but it’s also an ore that’s kind of everywhere and not particularly valuable.

Diana: This was the most fun part in the localization process. All three translators decided together each of the terms in the game. Each of us suggested a translation and then held a couple of meetings to discuss the terms one by one to settle on a final translation. It was fun making up words for the food and medicines. We based our translations on the French and English alike, also considering the description and the visuals, trying to come up with words that were evocative and that matched the game lore. We also came up with a series of cursing words that we had to use in a different way compared to English. We spent a lot of time deciding the names of the planets. We felt these were an important part of the universe and we wanted to get them right. I am quite happy with the names we came up with.

Thomas: We owe the planets’ names to one Murray Gell-Mann, who actually passed away while the game was in production (look him up!). One of many cheeky references to be found in Pierre’s writing.

What makes a difference for you to be able to provide the best translation? Is it playing the game, a good translation guidebook, a good glossary, direct access to the team to ask questions, a little bit of all of that or actually something else?

Thomas: There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. I generally find it hard to rely on glossaries and guidebooks for video games, because it’s such a different practice than other visual media, but sometimes you need specific technical terms. I’ve also never started working on a game that was finished or fully playable (at first I only had gifs for Haven!), but having storyboards and demos is definitely a plus. Access to the team is certainly important in a narrative game, because they have a pre-existing relationship with the characters, but they also have to trust that you are doing your job. So I guess the key is to make sure that translation is part of your design process, and not an afterthought.

Diana: I’d say a bit of everything. It all depends on whether the game is finished by the time we start working on it, or if it’s still early in development and subject to lots of changes. I’d say, the key is to have good communication with the dev team, so we can ask questions and get as many assets as they can share with us: be it a build, gameplay videos or screenshots. In Haven we received a very detailed lockit up front, which helped us all get familiar with the characters, the universe and the mechanics of the game. This to me can be even more valuable than playing the game, since it helps us define how characters will talk, or how we will tackle the localization of certain terms. Having contextual information in the files we work is also very helpful, so that we know exactly where a string is used in the game, or in which context a line is spoken.

What did you enjoy the most while working on Haven?

Thomas: Literally everything: it was a wonderful experience from day one because everyone at The Game Bakers is so talented and dedicated, and the game is obviously beautiful. It felt really comfortable to spend all this time with Kay and Yu. And receiving a new batch of text was always exciting!

Diana: This was a really nice project. The game is beautiful, the characters are lovable and the dialogue was very relatable, so it felt great giving voice to them in our language. I was the editor in the Spanish team, so I got to discuss lots of things with the translators and had to make it all consistent and cohesive. As an editor, or if you are the sole translator, you get to read all the content and that gives you a good understanding of all bits and parts. The Game Bakers were also a very cooperative team, always eager to help. Feeling backed up and taken into consideration is not always a given!

And what was the most challenging for you?

Thomas: Because I was discovering Source at the same time as the characters in-game, approaching some of the practical details was sometimes pretty abstract. Things like Flow and Rust have no analog either for me or for them, so even if I knew more, it wouldn’t necessarily be helpful since the characters don’t have that information. It’s too tempting to over-explain things when you’re dealing with the unknown.

Diana: Probably defining the right terms to keep faithful to the game universe. We wanted to get it right so we took our time. As Thomas mentioned, there are some elements whose meaning was harder to grasp, such as the Flow, and we struggled to convey the exact meaning, but eventually everything fell into place!

Any last word for Haven players?

Thomas: I have to say that the community that came out of Haven is also something to behold. I still lurk on Discord and Twitch pretty regularly to check out how people are reacting to the game, whether it’s their first or hundredth play-through. But it was especially soothing during the early months of the pandemic, when I could just plug in to Haven and enjoy some quality time with my friends… including Oink!

Diana: Since the game was launched, reading all comments players left in Twitter and Discord, I could already tell this was quite a special community, very welcoming. And I feel honoured to be part of it. I just hope the players continue enjoying Yu and Kay for many years, in whatever language they choose to play!

You can follow Diana on Twitter and read more about Thomas on his website!

Favorite Love Stories of the team!

Haven is at its core a story about love and freedom, and we’ve asked our team to share with you their Favorite Love Stories (and they had plenty to share!).

So if you like romance, you will find below some recommendations of new works to read, watch or play. Please share yours in the comments too!

Pierre, Writer

  • The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Novel) by Carson McCullers: When asked by a journalist why there weren’t any love stories in the Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers seemed startled and she replied : « There is nothing but that ! ». This is always the first book that comes to my mind when I hear « love story », and even if it is not a romance, it’s definitely all about love.
  • Locas (Comic book) by Jaime Hernandez: Locas is a comic book series started in 1985 and still going today. It tells the decades long love story between two L.A. latin-american punk girls Maggie and Hopey. At times they’re together, at times they’re apart, and sometimes they’re not even there. I’ve been reading their stories since I’m a kid and I hope I’ll keep reading them for a long time. Locas is my The Young and the Restless.

  • Pilules Bleues (Comic book) by Frederik Peeters’ Lupus: I already mention Frederik Peeters’ Lupus when asked about my inspirations for Haven. Pilules Bleues is an autobiography about a couple dealing with H.I.V. It’s funny, sad, beautiful but most importantly : it’s deeply human.
  • Strangers in Paradise (Comic book) by Terry Moore: Katchoo loves Francine. David loves Katchoo. As for Francine, well, she’s figuring things out. This might sound like a pretty classic love triangle, and it would be if Strangers in Paradise didn’t also involve troubled pasts, secret agents and crime syndicates. Is this soap opera comic book a bit too long? Maybe. Did it jump the shark a few times? Certainly. It’s still a landmark of US indie comic books and is well worth your time!
  • When Harry met Sally (Movie) by Rob Reiner & Nora Ephron: This movie is often mentioned as one of the best romcom movies of all times (if not the best) but what I love the most about it is that… it’s hardly a romcom? I mean, most of the movie is about friendship, not romance. A Friendcom maybe? Now, is there really a difference between friendship and romance? Are they two different categories? A spectrum? Is sex compatible with friendship? Its absence with romance? Well let’s watch the movie and find out.
  • Castaway on the moon (Movie) by Lee Hae-joon: He’s stuck on a desert island in the middle of Seoul, she’s stuck in her room. Soybean noodles will bring them together. Sure, it doesn’t make any sense now, but in its own way, Castaway on the moon is a pretty classic romcom.
  • Language Lessons (Movie) by Natalie Morales & Mark Duplass: After a year in lock-down doing zoom calls after zoom calls, I didn’t think I would enjoy a movie which is basically that, zoom calls. And yet. Language Lessons is a super impressive first movie, a surprising huis-clos, and a wholehearted friendship/love story.

  • Alabama Monroe (The Broken Circle Breakdown) (Movie) by Felix Van Froeningen and Carl Joos: Sometimes you want to watch a cute lighthearted romcom, sometimes, you just want to cry every single drip of water your body contains, and more. Alabama Monroe is for the latter. You’ve been warned.
  • Big Ocean Wide Jacket (Video game) by Turnfollow: Would Big Ocean Wide Jacket even qualify as a love story? I think it does. It even offers two love stories for the price of one: the newborn, tweenish and cute love story between Mord and Ben, and the steady, tried-and-tested and not any less cute love story between Uncle Brad and Aunt Cloanne. It’s literally the best video game ever made (I mean it) and it’s short enough to be played 5 times in a row in a single day.

Emeric, Creative Director

  • Thelma & Louise (Movie) directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri: A road trip that goes bad for Louise and Thelma. I first saw this movie when I was much younger, and it struck me as one of the best love stories ever. To the point that, when I saw it again much later, I was surprised to realize that they were only presented as “friends”. Still one of the best love stories for me.

  • Ruby Sparks (Movie) written by Zoe Kazan and directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton: It’s the story of a writer who sees the character of his novel come to life. It’s both very funny and surprising and a nice angle on what happens in a couple when the balance of freedom is broken.
  • Maison Ikkoku (manga) by Rumiko Takahashi: I love Maison Ikkoku not so much because of the love story but because it shows the daily life of normal Japanese people. It’s fun, moving, and still very unique even though it’s 40 years old.

  • Nagi no asukara (Anime) directed byToshiya Shinohara & written by Mari Okada : Despite its cheesy looks, this anime is quite a surprise if you give it a chance for more than 3-4 episodes. I won’t spoil anything but if you’re into coming of age romcoms with a twist, it’s a good one.
  • Marin Eden (book) by Jack London : This book by Jack London is probably the most impactful love story I ever read. A young, poor and illiterate sailor falls in love with an aristocrat and to seduce her he dedicates his life to become successful as a writer. An unmatched love story about obsession.

Audrey, Executive Producer

  • Saga (Comic book) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples: A major inspiration for Haven. The story of a couple from two nations at war, fugitives hunted down by formidable foes, trying to protect their child. Yet on the backdrop of the epic odds they are against, their story is so ordinary and relatable: lassitude in the couple, raising children, getting on with the in-laws, giving birth…
  • In The Mood for Love (Movie) by Wong Kar-wai: For the sensuality and the restrained desire that emanate from this impossible love but also for the voluptuousness of the nights of Hong Kong.
  • Lost in Translation (Movie) by Sofia Coppola: for everything that doesn’t happen between them, the unspoken words, everything that could have been and never will be.

Marjorie, Game Artist

  • Lore Olympus (Webtoon) by Rachel Smythe: I love the cartoonist art style and the story. It’s about the kidnapping of Persephone by Hades but in a revisited and more modern version. It also deals with a lot of difficult subjects like harassment, physical & moral violence, rape.
  • Wuthering Heights (Novel) by Emily Brontë: It’s a dark but delicate story and setting. A story of love and revenge in England in the early 1800s.
  • Final Fantasy X (Video game) by Square: My favorite game of all time, but also a amazing story of chemistry & love between Tidus & Yuna.

Julien, Programmer

  • A Court of Thorns and Roses (Novel) by Sarah J. Maas that tells the tale of a young mortal Feyre Archeron who is abducted into the land of fairies after she accidentally kills one. This is a fantastic love story full of tension.

  • Kimi no Na wa (movie) by Makoto Shinkai. What to say? Probably my favorite Japanese animation movie. A cocktail of emotions and surprises that left me with a wonderful memory, and especially a reaction like: “But wait… what? WHAT?!”
  • Outlanders (TV Show) based on the novel from Diana Gabaldon: A huge crush. I think I watched the first season in just one week.

Also, one of my passions being music:

  • Crépuscule – Coeur de pirate,
  • Enfant de – Pierre de Maere
  • Margaux, Omar, Marlow – Kyo

Steven, Game Designer

  • Banana Fish (Manga) written by Akimi Yoshida : This manga starts off pretty intense: the first volume shows gang wars, murders, corruption, sexual exploitation… It kind of feels like a gritty HBO show. And in the middle of that, these two characters meet. At first, I didn’t think much of it, there was a lot going on anyway. But the more I read, the more I found myself rooting for these two, hoping they would overcome the many obstacles between them and find their way together. It might not be a love story in the strictest sense, but in my book, it’s definitely a great one.
    tldr: Came for the gunfights, stayed to see the relationship between the two main characters unfold.

Mylène, Marketing Specialist

  • Malgré tout (Comic book): This story by Jordi Lefebvre is about two lovers who never had the opportunity of living their love. It’s very touching and the narrative structure is very refreshing <3

  • This is Us (TV Show) created by Dan Fogelman: This is a story about family but also about love. I really enjoy the couple dynamics which are always trying to get the best of their partners. They feel relatable and a couple goals at the same time, and make us cry a lot!

Here you go for a few recommendations from Haven’s team, we hope you will make some discoveries that will stay with you for a long time.

Interview with Florian Coudray, concept artist on Haven

Hello everyone,

We received a lot of positive feedback about the creatures of Haven and Source bestiary, how you enjoyed their design, their presence by the two lovers’ side, and to pet them too! To give you a bit more context on the work behind the bestiary, we have decided to share with you an interview with Florian Coudray, concept artist on the game, who created most of the creatures on planet Source. Learn more about his work below.

Can you tell us more about you and your work on Haven?
Hi I’m Florian, I’ve been a freelance concept artist since 2017 and Haven was actually one of my first missions. This was an absolute treat to be able to work on such diverse topics and having a lot of freedom on concepts. I designed a lot of vehicles and creatures for the game. The scope of the game was pretty different back then and a good part of my work was also to design environments, vegetation and flavorful places.

How did you come to join the team working on Haven?
After participating in a community art challenge on Artstation I was contacted by Emeric Thoa who I guess appreciated what he saw and we came to chat and meet along with Audrey Leprince to discuss the game, the overall intention and start our collaboration.

What was the workflow for you, creating concept arts for the environments, fauna and flora for the world of Source?
I used softwares like Photoshop to paint rough ideas, sometimes I use photographs and bash them together to get a strong basis. I was always looking for some sort of story telling when designing places, in order to give some consistency and hopefully inspire the team with narrative ideas. There were a lot of discussions with Emeric and Audrey about narrative intentions, colours and overall mood of the game. They were always feeding me with cool ideas and this helped a ton get the concepts going.

You designed most of the creatures of the game. Oink is a big favourite but they are all amazing. Where did ideas come from? 
For Creatures I was inspired by creature design from Star Wars, and particularly the work of Terryl Whitlatch. I love the idea of injecting some earth-like elements in the creatures while always having some sort of quirkiness in them. I’m kinda fascinated by salamanders and the range of textures and colours we can find in them. Oink was one of many critters at first. In the end It’s the design team who made him into the lovely creature you want to befriend.

What was the more challenging part of designing creatures for Haven? What did you learn? 
Finding a fun interesting twist for each creature was I think the most challenging part. Also thinking about the overall ecosystem and potential interactions between them : predators, herbivorous or egg snatchers.

Creating the world of Source and of the Apiary, how did you find the balance between realistic enough to be relatable, but still from another planet?
Colours mainly I would say help a ton with creating otherworldly places. Playing with known assets from our world and altering their colours always gives a weird sensation. And of course implementing alien shapes and structures into the world helps a lot.

What is your favourite creature and why? (By the way you can participate in our twitter contest for “Best creature of Haven” here!)
Sunatcha (the egg snatcher) is my favourite. I honestly had a ton of fun when creating this one. A lot of creatures from Haven are very majestuous and this dude is just a sneaky thief with a ridiculous face.

Any last word for Haven players?
I hope you have a ton of fun wandering around the awesome fields on Haven and come to appreciate all the love put into this game by the team! I’m really glad to have participated in the creation of this awesome universe.

Florian Links: Artstation / Twitter

 

Haven Community Week – Fan Art Contest

Hello Havenist (we have Furist, so why not?),

As you may know, we just launched a new Haven Community Week and between February 14th and 21th we are celebrating Haven’s amazing community (details here). We are running a Fan art contest with the theme “You love them when they do…”.


Source Family – Kyleenim

Fan arts can take the shape you prefer (drawing, illustration, sculpture, collage, installation…) but has to be created especially for the contest. You have to be the original author of it. The contest runs for two weeks, until Tuesday 28th February at 23:59 PM CET / 03:59 PM PT.

To participate in the contest, you should send your application here.
Don’t hesitate to share it also on social media with #havenfanartcontest or in our community hub here! Please note that you have to submit your art to participate, posting only on social media doesn’t count.

Here are the prizes for the winners:

  • 1st: Haven Limited Run Collector Edition (PS4 or PS5) + Haven Soundtrack double Vinyl signed by DANGER + the brand new Haven t-shirt
  • 2nd: Haven Limited Run (PS4, Switch or PS5) + Haven Soundtrack double Vinyl signed by DANGER + the brand new Haven t-shirt
  • 3nd: Haven Limited Run (PS4, Switch or PS5) + Haven Soundtrack CD signed by DANGER
  • “Coup de coeur”: Haven Soundtrack CD signed by DANGER

Good luck and we can’t wait to see your creations!

Haven – Share the love during the Community Week <3

Hello everyone,

Over the last two years (time flies!), you have been sharing with us your stories playing Haven, how you thought Yu or Kay reminded you of people you knew, how some of you enjoyed playing the game with a partner, and how you were touched by their adventures in the world of Source. We received so much love from this community, so again thank you for all the messages, artworks, or recipes shared. It’s time to give a little back, so let’s have a new community week celebration!

For this new Haven Community Week, we will share some behind-the-scenes details and secrets about the game, new wallpapers, interviews with some of the team members who worked on Haven, a selection of our dev team’s favorite love stories, and more! As a tradition now during our community week, and because many of you are so talented, we are having a Fan art contest on the theme “You love them when they do…”. All the details and the prices to win are available here. We can’t wait to see what this subject inspires you!

Haven is also discounted with the highest discount ever, -60% off on Steam, GOG, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and 50% off on Xbox so we count on you to spread the word among your friends!

 

Job Offer – Marketing Manager

We are looking for a Marketing Manager to become the market pulse and communication mind of our studio, connect our games to their audiences and amplify our reach and image. We have been self-publishing our games since the creation of our studio and our publishing team is now growing! Your main focus will be on our upcoming game(s), but you will also be in charge of our previous titles and some third-party publishing.

Game Bakers is a French indie studio creating original games that stay in players minds, like Furi or Haven. Thanks to our games success, we are an independent and self-published studio since our creation in 2010. We are a small cohesive team, we work in a good atmosphere, with a good work life balance. We are a fully remote studio and this position is also fully remote.

We welcome applications from candidates with profiles that will bring diversity to our team, and unusual professional backgrounds (self-taught, from another industry…)

Mission:

Become the market pulse and communication mind of our studio, connect our games to their audiences, amplify our reach and image, deliver at a high level of care and craft, learn and innovate.
Your responsibilities:

  • Define the marketing strategy
  • Develop and implement go-to-market plans
  • Maximise visibility through featuring and advertisement campaigns
  • Optimise ROI on marketing initiatives
  • Optimise our games offering on the stores (sales and distribution)
  • Manage marketing content creation across all channels
  • Nurture relations with content creators and press
  • Coordinate with internal teams and external agencies
  • Maintain a good understanding of our target audiences and market trends
  • Monitor new marketing techniques and channels

Profile:

  • 2+ years of experience in video game marketing / helping games find their audience
  • Very good knowledge and love for indie games
  • Experience with indie games channels of discoverability
  • Autonomous, self-motivated, hands-on and a team player
  • Excellent communication skills in English (French is an advantage)
  • Artistic skills and video editing skills are a plus
  • Data driven with a love to learn and try new things
  • Keywords: impact, adaptability, market sense, creativity, accountability.

More information:

Dates: Start between May and September 2023

Location: Fully remote (anywhere in the world that works with CET+1 work timezone)

Competitive compensation with bonus scheme, flexible working hours, and several advantages.

Full time (4 day/week minimum) CDI ou Freelance

Please send a short intro with your resume / portfolio at hello@thegamebakers.com

Furi Community Week – Fan Art Winners Revealed!

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for participating in Furi community week and to the Furi fan art contest on the theme “Peace: what if Rider became friend with one (or several) guardians?”.

We received many submissions and we were very impressed with your work! It’s inspiring for us to see how you bring the characters from Furi back to life, in this peaceful alternative future that many of us have thought about. Thumbs up to some of you who sent fabric dolls or text submissions, a lovely variation from drawings and paintings. And a big thank you to all of you who made us smile or touched us with the subjects of your artworks!

Our judges consisted of:

  • Emeric Thoa (Creative Director)
  • Audrey Leprince (Executive Producer)
  • Anthony Beyer (Lead Artist)
  • Marjorie Deneux (Game Artist on Haven)
  • Mylène Lourdel (Marketing Specialist)

It was hard to chose, but, without further delay, here are the winners:

1st place: New kayaking buddy by Multi

2nd place: Peace by Afrosus
3rd place: A Friendly Game of Cards by ZowerLemon

For the Coup de Coeur, 3 entries got the same score, so we decided to award them all 🙂

Warm breeze by Aru53840337

Forgiveness by Vadanel

Fan Art by Esidisi-86

Furi Community Week – Interview with Chris, CG Animator

Hello everyone,

The community week is still going on! Today, we are happy to share an interview of Chris Hoareau, Lead Animator & Artist at The Game Bakers. To learn more about his work on Furi, read below!

Hi Chris, can you present yourself and your job on Furi?

Hello! I am Chris and I am a French CG animator and artist, living near Paris. I’m 33. I always drew and wanted to work in entertainment. Fun fact, according to my school teachers, I did my first flipbook at only 4 years old. In animation, I like moves that use the whole body (like fighting, you know). I also like to add unnecessary details, and I’m always the guy who’s late (I am sorry about this, truly). In life, I like speed, having fun, learning things – I actually want to learn everything – and, I’m also the guy who’s late.

For Furi I was in charge of the gameplay animations: that includes the long walk on the path, the fights, and some cutscenes. I also rigged* all the characters. I also storyboarded The Flame’s cutscenes. 2023, it will be my 10-year anniversary at The Game Bakers, so cheers!

Furi is about creating intense satisfaction to players, as Emeric Thoa, Creative Director, explains in a blog post. How is animation part of creating satisfaction? What were the keys to making Furi’s animation?

There are at least two categories of animations in the game that create satisfaction for players, without talking about cutscenes which make the story go forward.

First, the ones we call “Melee Attacks” (when the boss is stunned, and the player attacks to trigger a short cutscene) are very pleasant to watch. The player can appreciate the nasty blows the bosses have to swallow.

Then, Furi’s gameplay lets players do really quick moves to avoid, parry or attack bosses. Our animations just push up those actions to a next level, that makes them even more satisfactory. 

But I want to say it’s really the work of the whole team, animations alone wouldn’t be enough!

Furi is also a game about facing challenge. What was the biggest challenge regarding animation on Furi?

The biggest challenge was to make fighting animations that were fast but also readable to the human eye. It was my intention, but it was pretty hard to do, especially as I was a junior back then. I had not that much experience in animation. Some of the fighting animation length was something like 2 frames (Furi was animated at 30 frames per second, so that is pretty short in time). I hope players managed to see all the nice details we added!

Can you share some references you used to animate some of Furi’s bosses?

For sure!

First, Takashi Okazaki (character designer of Furi) drew some cool and original posings for Rider. I’m thinking about Rider’s running stance: holding his sword in two hands right in front of him while running at something like 50mph, haha.

I love and grew up with Japanese culture, mostly anime (precisely “shonen neketsu” like Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Hokuto No Ken, etc…) so I am imbued with these brutal accelerations, inhuman movements and iconic posings.

I also practiced martial arts for a few years, so I recorded myself with my smartphone smashing pillows in the living room of my previous apartment to reproduce and adjust my moves in the game. (Don’t ask, I will not share those videos).

Emeric, who has a big movie culture, shared some movie scenes that help me a lot, for instance from the Miyamoto Musashi movies. He shared ideas coming from fighting games like Soul Calibur or Metal Gear. He already had an excellent vision of the game before its conception.

Finally, I can tell that there was also a big part of “feeling”. I mean, the characters’ designs have strong personalities. Just looking at Takashi Okazaki’s artworks was often enough to know how to animate and give life to each boss.

What did you enjoy the most while working on the game?

To be honest, as an animator, Furi was the first game I worked on for PC and consoles. Just wow ! Secondly, this is a fighting game! I’m keen on fighting games. As I said before, I practiced martial arts and I really love them. It was just like a dream come true to animate all those incredible fighters! Thirdly, there was a big creation part. I was and felt really free to create some fighting moves. Every time I worked on a new boss, it was like entering a new world, with new feelings. It was enriching to try to imagine the mindset of each boss.

How did you proceed to animate Onnamusha, the new rider? What did you have to do to make her move as the rider?

I can’t reveal all the magic tricks, right?

Actually, Onnamusha uses almost all the same animations as Rider. The reason was that Onnamusha had to play correctly the existing cutscenes as the new Rider. To do this, I had to set up the 3D model (made by the awesome CG artist Anthony Beyer) so she had more or less the same body proportions to share the same rigged skeleton as Rider. In addition, Onnamusha had to keep her female shape, and that was the tricky thing: to have a female body share the skeleton of Rider. The more the two characters had the same proportions, the more the game and cutscenes animations fit.

Was there anything unexpected that happened during the development?

Developing a game IS a source of unexpected things! There is always something new to learn and something new to fix.

One thing that wasn’t really planned and gave me some trouble was that I had to animate (by hand) Rider’s hair and cape. For the first iterations of Furi, these parts relied on the physics of the game, and it was very beautiful. Then came the optimization pass (it was obviously very important to have a good frame rate to be able to play properly) and we had to make compromises.

Fortunately, I had already done that before on The Burst hat bands. It was already planned to animate the ribbons “by hand”, so I knew how to do it. At that time, we already knew that it would require too much resource to have her bands animated by the game physics, so, it was not an option. Everything was planned in the rig* and the animations of The Burst, and baked into her animations files.

So, I had to adapt Rider’s rig by adding bones to his hair and to his cape. To have something like a natural rendering, I simulated the physics of the hair and the cape and I created the animations one by one. I added wind effects and played with gravity when it was necessary. For example, when Rider runs, his hair and his cape had to go backwards. It meant I had to re-animate, re-export, and reintegrate the animations of Rider with the hair and the cape animations in the files. It was a lot of work!

Do you have any last word for Furi’s players?

For players: if you haven’t finished the game, please do!
For animators: don’t hesitate to do weird new things that can lead to great ones!
For me (how snooty): don’t forget to enjoy life!

* Like for a puppet, rigging is the creating the elements necessary to animate a character. First, we create a skeleton which will more or less influence the body parts that we want to move. Then, to animate it more easliy, we create “controllers” of the skeleton, which allow the bones to be moved as desired. A rig = skeleton + controllers on the CG model of the character.

Furi Community Week – Interview with The Toxic Avenger!

Hi Furist!

We know how much you love Furi’s soundtrack, as we receive a ton of feedback about it. And it’s keeps going strong, and we regularly hear from players who discovered the game through its music! This community week is the perfect time to share some up-to-date data on the success of the OST.

Thanks to the spectacular work of Danger, Carpenter Brut, The Toxic Avengers,  Waveshaper, SCATTLE, kn1ght & Lorn, streaming equals to over 600 years of listening 😱.

To celebrate the community week, we had a chat with The Toxic Avenger about his work on the OST.

Hello, you worked on Furi’s original soundtrack and composed two tracks and in particular Make This Right, that became emblematic of the game, and was in the launch trailer. Can you introduce yourself to those who don’t know you?
Sure! My name is Simon, I’ve been making electronic music for almost 25 years now, I’ve released 5 albums and participated in several movies and video games soundtracks.

What is your connection to video games?
I am 40 years old, I started playing with Galaga on NES, which means I’ve been playing for almost 35 years. At times a lot, at times a little, but there is always something to play near me. For the last ten years I’ve been able to see the behind the scenes of gaming and work together with video game creators.

For Furi, it was the first time you composed for a video game. How was the collaboration, and how did you approach this new adventure?
It was indeed the first time I composed original tracks!
My music had already been used in games like Need For Speed or Watch Dogs.
The collaboration went very well in the sense that I understood quickly what The Game Bakers wanted, and they also understood me very well, it’s always very nice to understand each other!
I took the work to heart because I know the influence that video games can have, and I was immediately charmed by the little I could see of the game before working on it.

In Furi, the music adapts to what is happening in the fight, especially the phases of the bosses. How did you manage this?
For me, it was a first! Composing differently. When a character moves from A to B, let’s say, B being a more tense moment in the game than A, the music has to adapt, become denser, and intensify.
For that, I had to compose in parts of tracks, with layers of layers and elements that can be assembled and removed if the player decides all of a sudden to go back closer to point A. I had to cut the track as in making different scenes, a bit like movie editing… but I don’t know if I’m very clear 😀

What was your biggest inspiration to compose Make This Right & My Only Chance?
I was lucky that The Game Bakers approached me and asked me to do what I am used to doing! So it was very easy for me, but obviously, the big inspiration was what I saw of the game. Graphically it influenced me a lot, it looked sumptuous!

What do you enjoy most about composing for video games?
To wake up the teenager in me (he’s never really asleep anyway). I also love to make music to the image.

Thank you! Do you have any news to share for our players?
Yes! I just released my new album, a double album in fact! It’s called “Yes future” and I’m pretty proud of it!

Furi – Community Week – Fan Art Contest

Between November 5th and 11th, we are celebrating Furi’s amazing community with a lot of events and content. You can see all the details here.

We are running a fanart contest on the theme “Peace: what if Rider became friend with one (or several) guardians?”. The fanart can take the shape of your choice (drawing, illustration, sculpture, collage, installation…) but has to be created especially for the contest. You have to be the original author of it. The contest runs from today until November 19th at 11:59 PM CEST / 2:59 PM PT.

 

To participate, please send your fanart, your nickname, your social media profile and the name of your art to fanart@thegamebakers.com. Don’t hesitate to share it also on social media with #furifanartcontest or in our community hub on Steam ! Be careful, you have to email us to participate, only posting on social media doesn’t count.The jury consists of Emeric Thoa (Creative Director), Audrey Leprince (Narrative Director), Anthony Beyer (Lead Artist), Marjorie Deneux (Game Artist) & Mylène Lourdel (Marketing Specialist).

Here are the prizes for the winners:

  • 1st: Limited Run Edition Collector (Switch) + Original Soundtrack on Vinyl + Furi Artbook + T-Shirt
  • 2nd: Furi Limited Run Edition (Switch or PS4) + Furi Artbook + Original Soundtrack on CD
  • 3nd: Original Soundtrack on CD + Furi IndieBox (PC)
  • “Coup de coeur”: Original Soundtrack on CD + Furi IndieBox (PC)

Since the release of Furi, you have created a lot of amazing fan art and we can’t wait to see the results of this contest!

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