Our latest Xbox Indie Spotlight focuses on the beautiful adventure game Röki, which launches for Xbox Series X|S today! We chatted with developer Polygon Treehouse to find out more, and co-director Tom Jones was kind enough to answer our questions.What is Röki?Röki is a gorgeous adventure game inspired by Scandinavian folklore, in which a young girl named Tove sets out into a world of myth and mysteries to save her family.When does Röki launch?Röki launched onto Steam last year to very positive reviews. You don’t have long to wait to play it on Xbox, either, as it launches for Xbox Series X|S today! “Our experience with Steam was great. Having come from exclusively developing for PlayStation, we weren’t entirely sure what to expect, but the whole process was very smooth. Since launch it’s been amazing to see the amount of positivity we’ve received for the game as well,” says Jones. “We’ve also been fortunate enough to work with Röki’s publisher (United Label) and their partners in order to bring the game to Xbox. The crisp graphical and vibrant style of Röki scales really well, so we always knew it would be a good fit for consoles and big screens. Similarly, early on in the game’s original production we shifted to using a controller as our means of input,” Jones continues. “We found it created a much more dynamic and tactile relationship with the player and Tove. We still think it is the optimal way to play the game, so it’s great to be able to have that setup with Xbox.”What’s it about?“Röki follows the story of Tove and a tragic event that happens to her small family,” explains Jones. “As the world (as she knows it) collides with magic and lore, she is thrown into a chaotic and dangerous quest to try and make her family whole again. Her wintery journey sees her meet a wide range of monsters and creatures, against a backdrop of ancient forests, snowy mountains and dark abandoned caves. Using her courage and brains,” Jones continues, “she must befriend, or outwit those that wish her harm in order to restore balance and save those that she loves. It’s a story of bravery and courage, pain and loss and what it truly means to be a monster.” Röki almost sounds a little akin to Spiritfarer, as both games explore heavy themes against a beautiful backdrop. The wild world of Röki is full of mystery and strange monsters of folklore. “When we started development back in 2017, we knew we wanted to make something narrative driven and family friendly, but otherwise the topics we were interested in were pretty broad,” begins Jones. “It was only when we started delving into general folklore and old fables, that we realised there were themes and ideas that really resonated with what we wanted to do. In particular, we liked that a lot of the Scandinavian stories weren’t about gods or deities but were about smaller creatures and monsters living amongst humans and affecting their daily lives.” From the sound of it, it’s a gamble whether any of the monsters you meet in Röki are fierce or friendly, and this too resonates in folklore. “Some [creatures] were kind and brought luck or assistance (for the right payment of course), but others were there for more nefarious reasons, mainly to scare children into being good,” continues Jones. “There was a freshness and vulnerability to some of these characters that we thought would make a great backdrop to our game, and ultimately their stories grew and evolved into something bigger than we could have imagined.”Röki features a strikingly beautiful art style, and Jones explains that several factors contributed to this choice. “We knew we wanted to make a colourful and vibrant world that felt epic in scale, but we also had to accept that we were a small team. Choosing a very graphical style helped in both of these instances; it looks really striking and gave us the perfect visual language to create a crisp wintery world, and it allowed us to make a lot of content very quickly as it focuses on shape and colour over high detailed textures and asset fidelity. For the characters,” Jones continues, “it also meant their expressions and animations could be exaggerated more, which meant we could imbue them with as much life as possible. The story of Röki rests on your relationship with them, so it was crucial that the player connected with them.”How does Röki play?Röki has Tove busy exploring, solving puzzles, collecting “curiosities,” and conversing with the strange and wonderful creatures found deep in the wilderness. Exploration and puzzle solving are key therefore, with Jones adding, “One of the key gameplay influences for Röki was old school point-and-click adventures like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle. We loved those games as kids, so we were really interested in seeing if we could create a contemporary version of them with Röki, suitable for modern audiences and tastes.” Jones cites films like Labyrinth and The Goonies as further inspiration, and says, “We leaned into creating a dynamic 3D world that you can explore, and whilst objects and puzzles are still key parts of the gameplay, what you do with them is grounded to the world you are in, and the creatures you meet. We also have some more tactile, physics-based puzzles that Tove has to use her smarts to solve.” Röki features non-violent gameplay, and Jones says this was born out of the wish to make a game that anyone of any age could play. “We knew very early on in development that we wanted to make a game that was suitable for all ages, so it was in our minds from the start,” Jones says. “However, once we started researching Scandinavian mythology the idea really solidified. A lot of the tales involved children using their charm and brains to outsmart creatures and monsters, often after an adult has already failed with brawn. We really liked this twist, coupled with the fact that it was often the child’s innocence that allowed them to see the world without prejudice or judgement, and therefore see the good in creatures, rather than react to their appearance with violence.” But don’t let that fool you into thinking that Röki is entirely safe, as Jones adds, “We should also highlight that just because the game is non-violent, it doesn’t mean everything is sanitised and safe, there is still a lot of danger and drama wrapped up in Tove’s adventure!”Any news on the Röki achievements?We already have the Röki achievements, so we decided to ask Jones about their achievement design process. “We decided to add achievements very early in development,” begins Jones. “Conceptually it felt right to us that they would take the form of badges, echoing achievements that The Scouts and Girl Guides get — particularly given our young hero Tove spends the majority of the game outside in nature. Whilst some of the achievements are linked with player progression, others are more secretive and will require further exploration to find.” Jones adds that alongside Tove’s badges, she also has a journal “which she uses to write notes and collect oddities that you discover around the world. Because parts of Röki can be completed in any order, the journal entries are a great way to record player progress and help them with hints for any particularly taxing puzzles. They are also written in Tove’s voice, so give further insight into what she is feeling. On the outside she is a brave, confident daredevil, but like all of us, she has her own insecurities and doubts which she shares in the pages of the journal throughout her adventure.”So, now that Röki is out on Xbox too, what are the devs most excited for new players to experience? “I think the story of Röki is something we’re the most proud of,” says Jones. “It isn’t afraid to ask some tough questions and explore the relationships we have with one another. After our initial launch on Steam, it was incredibly touching to hear back from players who had been genuinely moved by Tove’s adventure, and what ultimately happens to her family and Röki, the monster our game is named after. It’s really exciting knowing that even more players will get to experience and (hopefully) enjoy her story.” What do you think? Will you be playing Röki today? Let us know in the comments!
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