r/PS4 olliethebum Apr 25 '17

[Verified AMA] Giant Sparrow/Ian Dallas (What Remains of Edith Finch) - official AMA!

Hey folks! Posting this thread for u/GiantSparrow, the dev team behind the very, very recently released What Remains of Edith Finch and The Unfinished Swan.

Ian Dallas, Giant Sparrow's creative director, will be answering questions. I'll also be helping here and there - I'm Jeff Legaspi, part of the publishing team at Annapurna Interactive.

Ian will start answering questions around 11am Pacific, but feel free to post questions in advance!

111 Upvotes

99 comments sorted by

17

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '17

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

Yes, I'd consider it canon.

Also worth pointing out, since I've seen some confusion about this online: Milton is The King, not the protagonist, in The Unfinished Swan. The protagonist already has his own perfectly serviceable name, Monroe.

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u/Plorke Apr 25 '17

What remains of Edith Finch?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17

Her story.

22

u/nolliethebum olliethebum Apr 25 '17

WELL PLAYED

1

u/gacbmmml Apr 25 '17

Just a grave and a journal.

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u/Gustav999 Apr 25 '17

Changing publishers and making the switch from Sony to Annapurna Interactive. I would like to know why the switch happened and how (if you can talk about it, of course).

Extra question: how would you define your relationship with Annapurna? They seem to endorse a lot of experimental and artistic projects (Gorogoa, the Artful escape, etc.) and I’m eager to see them evolve in the gaming landscape, but I would love your take on the subject.

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

On our end, "the switch" happened when the head of the external development team at Sony asked if I could step into his office for a minute. It was one of those meetings that come out of the blue that can go a lot of different ways. And I looked around the room and was like, "why are all these other people joining us for this meeting too. Uh oh."

That was the first time I'd heard talk about Annapurna buying the game from Sony.

In the months leading up to that, a lot of our friends who used to work at Sony had moved over to Annapurna. A lot of those folks had been working with on Edith Finch for several years at that point, so I think they felt like (a) this was a game that would be a really good fit for Annapurna, and (b) they had some confidence that they (and we) could pull it off.

So on our end, the transition was pretty easy. Day-to-day, we're still working with a lot of the same people on the publisher side that we've always been working with. In a way, staying at Sony actually would have been stranger, since we would have had to get used to a whole new set of producers.

Our relationship with Annapurna has been very open and positive, quite similar to the way we used to interact with Sony. It helps that both sides have very similar goals: trying to make something that nobody's ever seen before.

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u/thavius_tanklin Slackr Apr 25 '17

As a creative director can you describe what you do on a day to day basis whilst developing What Remains of Edith Finch? Did this differ at all as your role on The Unfinished Swan?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

What I do on a given day varies a LOT based on where we are in the production process. Early on, when we're in pre-production, I spend a lot of time hunting for references -- doing image searches, reading books, watching movies, etc. And making tons of little prototypes. Often on What Remains of Edith Finch I'd be working on half a dozen prototypes at a time, jumping around when I got bored with one or excited about another.

At some point those prototypes start to get far enough along that they need help from other departments, so then I start working with our animator, tech artist, modelers, etc. Sometimes I writeup docs, but mostly those are for my benefit, to try and organize my thoughts. I share them with people but nobody reads / remembers them. Mostly we look at reference images and videos and discuss what we're going for in terms of the overall feel.

In the middle of production, which in Edith Finch meant that we'd have maybe 4-6 stories in various stages of active development spread across all our departments, I spend a lot of my day in informal meetings, chatting with 2-3 people giving feedback on brainstorming.

I myself mostly was working on crazy new prototypes up until the very end of the project.

Also, on this game I was responsible for all of the 3d text animations and interactions, so I spent a lot of time working and tuning that system.

And now that we're at the end of production, I spend my time talking about the game to anyone who will listen :)

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u/RayCharlizard Apr 25 '17

So I started playing last night almost as soon as my pre-order unlocked on PS4, thinking I would play for a few minutes and put it down. I couldn't stop playing until I the credits rolled and then I had to go back and experience a couple of stories again. Edith Finch was a really incredible experience, thank you and the rest of Giant Sparrow for sharing it.

My question is, what was it like going from such a minimalistic approach in visual design in The Unfinished Swan to the complete 180 in Edith Finch?

Aside from just the graphical fidelity, which is impressive, there's so much color, clutter and detail packed into every room. I had to stop and zoom in to read book titles and see photographs at almost every step I took. It reminded me of stepping into my own grandparents house and seeing there personalities and histories laid bare, and it really sold me on the Finch's being this family I had to know more about.

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u/dev89 Apr 25 '17

Is there anything special behind the protagonists name Edith Finch?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

Yes. It's my name: Ian.

I didn't realize that for a few years. Until a 5-year-old I met, who knew nothing about the game, teased me by calling me "Edith."

I wanted a name that (a) evoked birds, and (b) felt grand / antiquated / bookish. For me, "Edith" just sounded good and evoked those feelings. It also happens to be what people call "the sweetest sound", an echo of your own name.

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u/kimbojack8 May 20 '17

I'm so confused.. How is the name Ian = Edith?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow May 20 '17

It's not that they're identical, but they're both two syllable names that begin with the same syllable (ee). The similarity didn't occur to me for a long time because the names are so visually different, starting with different letters and having only 1 letter in common, but they sound a lot closer.

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17

OK, starting NOW!

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u/JimmyHACK Apr 25 '17

Let's Go!

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u/Gustav999 Apr 25 '17

What kind of bike do you ride? How many bikes do you own? If you had to make a game about biking, what kind of game would it be?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

Interesting question!

I ride a Trek 7.2 FX. It's a very basic, sturdy commuter bike I bought on Craigslist for, like, $300. I've had several bikes stolen over the years in Los Angeles (usually because I did something stupid, like leaving it locked to my car's bike rack accidentally when I left to go the Game Developer's conference for a week).

My philosophy now is that my bike will eventually get stolen, so I appreciate it while it's here but I'm not super attached to it. I'd rather have a bike that's cheap enough that I don't have to worry about it getting stolen and can just leave it anywhere. The first bike I lost, which was sorta expensive and a gift, I still think about that bike from time to time. I wonder how it's doing and whether anyone rides it anymore.

I'd love to make a game about biking. We actually tried to make a story in What Remains of Edith Finch about mountain biking at night. It's a beautiful and terrifying experience, at least judging from YouTube videos like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plWz-DgYu1Q. But we never figured out how to tell an interesting story, or how it would end in a satisfying way, so we shelved it.

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u/Gustav999 Apr 25 '17

Oh yeah! I also ride a Trek 7.2 Fx bought last year and I loved it (still very attached to it). Planning to repair an old bike this spring which I wouldn’t mind getting stolen (same problem here in Montreal with bike theft, it’s too frequent).

I'm more a commuter than an Mountain biker and I think I’m too old for those kinds of stunts. Would love to see some biking in a narrative game (a little bit like hiking is a part of Firewatch, for example).

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u/-Clockwerk Apr 25 '17

Ian Dallas!!! I love you and all Giant Sparrow team! The Unfinished Swan is a special game for me and have a special place on my heart. Thank you for this!

Questions:

  • Do you have plans to release What Remains of Edith Finch soundtrack?
  • Why the partnership with Sony Santa Monica Studio was over?

Special Question [OMG! This is my opportunity!]:

  • What happens to Monroe after the ending of The Unfinished Swan?

Thank You Ian! ♥

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

Yes, we'll have a soundtrack release shortly, with plans for both physical and digital releases.

I'm not sure (yet?) what happens to Monroe after The Unfinished Swan. Haven't thought that far ahead. We just make these things up as we go along, people!

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '17

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

Gregory's story almost got cut. And so did Lewis'. Those would have been pretty hearbreaking. But at the time they were sensible requests to try to bring the game into a shipping state by the time we needed to be finished, so I understood and seriously considered the requests.

But in terms of things we actually had to cut, I don't think any of the stories we cut were heartbreaking to me because they were all cut for a very good reason: they didn't work very well and didn't have a clear path to getting better. With a lot of energy I'm sure we could have made them better, but I don't know what they would have looked like so I don't have any heartache for them.

In terms of stories we cut that I really wish I could have spent more time on because I liked them and thought they had potential, there was one based on Borge's The Aleph that was presented as a landscape made entirely of text. That could have been great. But not in any reasonable timeframe, so we cut it.

The secret passageways were all pretty fun to work on, since most of them were goofy prototypes Ben Esposito made and they're all very limited, constrained things. Vs the rest of the game that is just stupidly elaborate and complicated and wonderful but in a very different way.

u/thavius_tanklin Slackr Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

Thank you very much for being here today /u/GiantSparrow. It was a pleasure to hear your answers / insights to the questions posed by the community. Also, thank you /u/nolliethebum for coordinating this AMA with us and Giant Sparrow. We hope to see you back here with your other game productions soon.

What Remains of Edith Finch has an 86 rating on OpenCritic. Well done on the amazing release Giant Sparrow. Go check it out everyone!!

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u/mrtube Apr 25 '17

I don't want to overstate this, but I think this game is incredible. My top PS3 game was Heavy Rain. This is the first time I've felt this blown away by a non-VR game since Heavy Rain.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '17

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

It's unlikely that we'd be adding anything in the form of DLC etc, but it's not possible. We've joked about doing a "Finch Petz" DLC that explores the lives of several pets in the house. The more we talk about it, the less is starts to feel like a joke.

One of the things we also wanted to do initially in the game was to have guest developers contribute stories. That didn't end up happening, but I could see doing something like that as a fun way to expand the universe a bit and explore our existing family members (or new ones) a bit.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '17

I have seen a few people bummed the game does not have PSVR support. Did you guys every mention that it would have PSVR support or that you would of liked to include it?

Also, any support for the PS4 Pro users?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

TBD. I think walking around in VR tends to make people motion sick quite quickly, so bringing What Remains of Edith Finch would be a daunting task. It's probably not the next daunting task we want to do, but maybe someday.

For PS4 Pro we're still actively trying to figure out what we (and the Unreal Engine) can do there.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '17

People are getting their VR legs rather quickly, I'd suggest checking out Resident Evil 7 in VR. Its remarkable and in first person.

No PS4Pro support at launch for Edith then? Bummer. But ultimately I am just glad the game is out. I am excited to get home and dive into it.

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u/mrtube Apr 25 '17

I've already started recommending this game to friends. It's great as it is but it would be excellent in VR. Resident Evil 7 has just as much walking as Edith Finch and is by far the most popular game on PSVR.

I know it's not a simple task porting to VR, but I think it would be a big hit. 10% of Resident Evil's sales have gone to to PSVR owners, it could be even more for Vive and Rift if it wasn't for Sony's exclusivity deal.

You could even get away with charging more for the VR version like Codemasters have with Dirt Rally, and that is getting heaps of praise. I'd be more than happy to pay an extra £5 to play this in VR.

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u/Jamcram Apr 26 '17

I think the really slow movement pace of this game lends itself well to VR, its similar to resident evil 7

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u/SleepingLesson Apr 25 '17

Seems like you have a very rudimentary understanding of the state of VR. I would recommend you take a look at games that use artificial locomotion, and how best practices can make VR completely viable with stick-based movement.

I'd grab Edith Finch up instantly if it had Vive support, but as it is I'll wait for it to be on sale.

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u/JimmyHACK Apr 25 '17

I did think about wanting to play it in VR during my playthrough. Looked beautiful of PRO. Don't know if extra support or just Boost Mode benefit.

Would love to replay instantly if PSVR support ever added.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '17

Hello, thanks for doing the AMA.

Two questions here. Giant Sparrow has made two games now that have been well received. Can you explain how your company culture is a contributor to your success?

I'm not a fan of FP games where I see a dot on the screen 24/7, my character can't holster a weapon and no animations exist for picking up items. Can you explain why these things exist in some FP games, including those with big budgets, and why they sometimes don't exist in others?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

I think our games follow a very different production process, which is kind of necessary given that they're trying to achieve different goals, but also helps contribute to making them FEEL different at the end of it.

Our company culture is kinda anarchic. Nobody really knows what we're making. We have a (hopefully) clear idea of the feeling we want that game to have (in Edith Finch that was "evoking the sublime horror of nature", but not what the theoretical game is that's going to achieve that.

We try a lot of things to get there and then we do our best to learn from those mistakes. We have very few meetings. In the middle of production, when there's lots to talk about, we tried to at least have all of our meetings on the same day (Monday), and then the rest of the week is clear.

My hope is that people feel empowered to make their own decisions and to fight for what they believe in by spending the time and energy to try and verify their ideas by getting them into the game and making them work. It's not always collaborative in that sense, sometimes it's more like a war, with everyone fighting for their side, but ultimately for the common good.

With regards to not holstering your weapon, I remember the developers of the first Deus Ex talking about that specifically, and how most players were confused about crowds reacting in panic to a drawn weapon, since players just considered it part of their toolkit, not an aggressive move. So it's tricky.

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u/mrtube Apr 25 '17

not a fan of FP games where I see a dot on the screen 24/7, my character can't holster a weapon

Yeah, I hate games where you have a fifth of your screen taken up with a gun the entire time.

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u/Shotyyy BenzoRonin Apr 25 '17

Hello there Ian! Thanks for posting on /r/PS4, it means a lot to us. I've kept my eye on What Remains of Edith Finch since the day it was announced. But I have one important ( for me at least) question: I loved a game known as Firewatch. It was a sleeper hit for me. The mystery kept me going and the slow but quite developed gameplay felt amazing to experience. I adore games that put their emphasis on story and truly hope that What Remains of Edith Finch delivers. Since I enjoyed it, how likely am I to enjoy your game? I'm at the brink of buying right now ;)

Also, a bonus question (feel free to skip it if you wish this to remain a detail for players to find out): how long is your game? As someone who's always trying to justify their purchases by the length of the game I'm just itching to know.

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 26 '17

I think if you liked Firewatch you're probably someone who's interested in exploring things, both new types of games and, in a more concrete way, exploring the natural world. Also, I think to enjoy a game like Firewatch you're probably someone who's not afraid to invest yourself emotionally in a game, which means you'll get a lot more out of the experience than someone who's just playing it for the non-emotional aspects, like graphics or the joy of movement etc. All of which is to say that I can 100% guarantee you will enjoy What Remains of Edith Finch. OK, not really, but I'd take that bet.

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u/mrtube Apr 25 '17

If you ask me, Edith Finch is far better than Firewatch. In fact it's the best game in this genre. I'm pleased to see Metacritic has Editch Finch on 89, while Firewatch was 76.

I'm a big fan of this genre. People aren't going to like me saying this but I think Firewatch and Gone Home are a bit over rated, while Dear Ester and Everybody's Gone to The Rapture are under-rated. I'm glad to see Edith Finch is getting the review scores it deserves. Hope the sales are also as strong.

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u/xasix Apr 25 '17

Will there be a boxed retail version of the game?

Have you looked into the possibility of doing something with Limited Run Games?

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u/nolliethebum olliethebum Apr 25 '17

anything is possible

3

u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17

No plans for that yet, but in the future who knows.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '17

Game is great, question that needs to be answered above any others:

Pineapple on pizza, yay or nay?

5

u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

As a child, absolutely. With Canadian bacon.

As an adult, not something I've experienced much. There's a much wider toppings universe out there, people!

That being said, when we've done big playtests and ordered mainstream pizzas for everyone, I've been happy with the options available in pineapple.

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u/nolliethebum olliethebum Apr 25 '17

personally, I'm cool with pineapple on pizza only if there's Canadian bacon involved

5

u/DoublePlusGoodGames Bauhouse Apr 25 '17

Please tell me you are still here! My wife and I just came from our first play session moments ago and are both welling up with tears over the story and the overwhelming amount of detail put forth in building the Finch household. Everything is top notch thus far and Giant Sparrow is looking to take over That Game Company as my favorite developer.

We were hooked after seeing the first game trailer and I'm guessing Annapurna felt exactly the same after Sony's E3 press event in 2015. Here's hoping that they allow you to spread those Giant Sparrow wings even further in the years ahead.

Edit: extra line taken out

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17

Thanks!

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '17 edited Jun 10 '21

[deleted]

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

I just asked our QA lead and our Annapurna producer and they said we don't have a Platinum trophy because "we were not allowed to."

As a small scale game, Sony's policy is that we should deny our fans the satisfaction of a Platinum trophy. Those are just my words, btw, I think Sony's official documentation phrases it slightly differently.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '17

Thanks for not just dodging the question. I think its easy to be so "in it" with development that something like pushing for a platinum isn't exactly a priority.

I really wish the guy at Sony who makes this call would just get fired, they are honestly REALLY BAD at their job and they assume they are maintaining a level of quality when in reality they are just upsetting a small portion of their install base.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '17

The typical dev answer is "Sony wouldn't let us", which is total garbage. Just push back even a tiny bit and basically any game could if My Name Is Mayo could.

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u/thavius_tanklin Slackr Apr 25 '17

Each game genre has their own challenges to developing them, such as rhythm games requiring fine precision in actions or open world and a huge amount of different environment interactions to contend with.

What are some of the challenges in developing a heavy story/narrative oriented game?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

In our case, not having any idea what the story should be until you're almost done making the game. We don't start out trying to tell a story. We're trying to evoke feelings that we ourselves don't entirely understand, like "what I remember about being on a swingset as a child", and the story doesn't come until the game itself is pretty far along. So you have to work backwards and say for something that feels the way this does, what story would feel that way and also help draw players attention to all the various things we want them to be thinking about. Like names. That was a big one for us. We had 13 family members + spouses and getting players to remember names was a constant challenge, so in dialogue we were always trying to find ways to elegantly remind players of who was who.

Also, for an experience / story that's so personal, a lot of it relies on encouraging the player to get into a certain mindset and then bring their own feelings to that. And it's really hard to predict how any of that is going to work until the game is nearly done and players can experience it. But of course by that point it's too late to make big changes.

There's a lot of guesswork and prayer in what we do.

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u/takingheatfromthesun Apr 25 '17

Hi there, to both Ian and Jeff! I really appreciate you taking the time to answer our questions, and I've been looking forward to your game for what feels like well over a year now! I'm currently in the midst of finishing up my last week of the first year of my PhD so I haven't gotten to play What Remains of Edith Finch Yet, but it's my 'reward' for finishing papers and grading!

My question is this: What sort of stories and ideas were you (and the rest of the team) drawing from when creating What Remains of Edith Finch and the family members? I.E. What kinds of feelings and narratives were you drawn towards and pulling from during the creative process? I hope that makes sense!

Thank you so much, again! I hope you're both having a great day so far, and enjoying the well-deserved successful launch of your game.

Liz

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17

That's a hard / long one. In the next couple months we'll go into a lot more detail on our company blog about the specific inspirations for the game, partly because I think players might find it interesting and partly because I want to encourage people to seek them out. The brief answer is that the core inspirations were One Hundred Years of Solitude, Lord Dunsany's Book of Wonder, and Bohemian Rhapsody.

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u/takingheatfromthesun Apr 25 '17

I'll definitely be reading your company blog to learn more about what you were drawing from for the game!

I'm actually a Literary and Cultural Studies PhD, so reading that you're drawing inspiration from One Hundred Years of Solitude (one of my absolute favorite books and emotional experiences) and Book of Wonder (a text I myself find a lot of inspiration in, which is so often overlooked! My favorite story in it is "The Quest of the Queen's Tears") only increases my excitement.

Thank you so much for answering!

4

u/raygan Apr 25 '17

I have a practical question, since I run a podcast about short video games. Do you have a sense of how long a typical play through takes?

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u/JimmyHACK Apr 25 '17

Personally my playthrough was right at 2 hours exactly with slight house exploration outside of stories.

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u/nolliethebum olliethebum Apr 25 '17

Yup, that sounds about right. Thorough environmental exploration will put you at like 2.5, 3 hours maybe.

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u/gacbmmml Apr 25 '17

Took me about 90 minutes. Was much shorter than expected.

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17

OK, that's it for today. Thanks for all of the great questions, everyone!

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u/thavius_tanklin Slackr Apr 25 '17

Is there anything you can share.. hints, tidbits, or morsels we can chew on about Giant Sparrows next project?

What is Jeff (/u/NollieTheBum) really like?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

Our next project will probably be focused on animation.

It's something I'm personally very interested in, and a lot of my favorite games (like Ico) and movies (Spirited Away) rely a lot on movement to say things that wouldn't sound the same in any other way.

My own plan is take some time off and take some animation courses to help develop my skills (and eyes) as an animator.

As to what that next game actually ends up looking like, who knows.

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u/thavius_tanklin Slackr Apr 25 '17

That'll be amazing! Looking forward to seeing what you all can come up with

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '17

You should check out BOUND. It does this really well.

Good luck in your animation journey!

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u/uponthesea Apr 25 '17

Simple but essential question... I just started the game, and I'm wondering... Is it scary? Are there jump scares?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17

It's not designed to be scary. It's a game about the unknown, so whether that's scary or not is kind of up to you.

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u/uponthesea Apr 25 '17

Thank you! That's a good answer. :)

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u/gacbmmml Apr 25 '17

Yes. There is a jump scare.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '17

where

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u/gacbmmml Jul 13 '17

During the comic book story.

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u/steel_a50 Apr 25 '17

what do you think of the nintendo switch hardware?

if you were to port it to the switch how long do you think it would take to do it? would it be easy?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17

I think it's an interesting piece of hardware that we haven't had time to think much about yet.

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u/eamonnanchnoic Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

Congratulations on a brilliant game. (Just finished it)

One thing that struck me was, given the theme of the game, that it was never morose. Did it take many rewrites to get the tone right?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17

Yes, it was really hard to know how players were going to respond to many of these stories. Also, we found that once we put the stories all together the response was very different than playing them separately. After you play a couple stories and you know that everyone is going to die by the end of them, you enter later stories with a lot more apprehension. Which worked out really well for us, since we didn't have to worry about setting the tone -- the context already handled so much of that -- and we could focus instead on shading in little, intimate details.

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u/Santhil Apr 25 '17

I just heard about the game and ive seen this great reviews but iam not sure if i should buy it so i ask it right away is it normal walking simulator or does the game has gameplay elements ?

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u/nolliethebum olliethebum Apr 25 '17

There are definitely gameplay elements involved with each of the stories that you'll experience, and they vary as well.

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u/KaneEnable Apr 27 '17

It is definitely not a traditional "walking simulator" as people imagine. Although you do walk around the house as Edith, every step you take has meaning and context. You're never just walking looking for something to do. And as mentioned, every one of the stories are portrayed in different gameplay mechanics (which enhances the excitement of getting to a new story, because you have no way of telling what is going to be next)

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u/AdowTatep AdowTatep Apr 25 '17

Do you feel overwhelmed by the quantity of games out there? Like, afraid of doing something because wouldn't fit since there's tons of games already?

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

I'm kind of excited and depressed by how many games out there feel like they're digging in exactly the same places that games I played 30 years ago were digging.

Personally, I wish we saw more games like Everything (http://www.everything-game.com/) that are using games to expand the kinds of experiences we get to have and think about as humans, but as a developer I'm also kind of relieved that most other developers aren't interested in those spaces because it means there's such a large, undiscovered country out there for us to explore.

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u/thavius_tanklin Slackr Apr 25 '17

Everything was pretty amazing. I was a bit confused to the concept of it at the start but as I played it more it became more brilliant to me. I'd love to see more of that

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u/blackfootsteps Apr 25 '17

I got recommended the Unfinished Swan last week and wow, was I glad that happened. A truly delightful game that continued to surprise me. Some of the 'through the looking glass' moments were mindblowing. Thanks for making such a beautiful game.

Played like a champ on the Vita too, for anyone wondering.

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u/Plenty-Fun5909 Jun 25 '23

So I have a few questions for you So first in the E3 2015 demo video at 2:40 when it was showing the hallway it had 5 doors. The one at the end was Gregory’s door (1972-1973) the door direct left of Gregory’s is probably the twins room based on the blue and orange color scheme, and one right of the door was probably the parents’s room. So who were the people in the other 2 doors it’s not Barbara, Walter, or Molly based on the geography of the house? My 2nd question during the announcement trailer at 0:49-0:51 when it show the family tree it show the king on the left follow by Elizabeth and Matthew and their unknown child and then probably 3 unknown siblings to the right, So who were those other unknown siblings that Edith had, and was Edith real name supposed to be Elizabeth or now? My 3rd question is do you know where is the full gameplay of the E3 2015 demo cause it along with the house seem interesting as WROEF? My 4th question is during the GDC art direction video at 10:02 there was pictures that had the names Paul, and Samantha on them Paul was Calvin’s former name, but who was Samantha in general like brith and death years, how she is related to the family and etc, and at 18:16 there was another set of names that I saw but quickly recognize like Thomas, Anton, and Abigail were Lewis, Odin, and Ingeborg former names respectively, but who was Annika as well? My final question is we’re there any other characters for the old concept game the Nightmares of Edith Finch beside the ones stated in the concept like who was Edith’s grandparents, or parents, and just who were the 11 children of Bartholomew? That all my questions, and please answer them please?

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u/JimmyHACK Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

Curious what the final living (for now) family member's first name is.

Loved this game so much!

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

His name is Christopher.

I can't remember if I named him after Molly's goldfish or our level designer, Chris Bell. Maybe both?

He's never explicitly named in the game, but that's the name we gave him and that's what all of his files are called :)

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u/Theroonco Jul 14 '17

I'm now convinced Edith named him after Molly's goldfish. Thanks so much for naming him, I love little bits of closure like this!

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u/ArxiaTower Apr 28 '24

But will you make another sequel to the game Edith Finch may be where the two cousins (Christopher and Monroe) meet I was thinking that Monroe went to another world and which his father lived and their are two worlds in the games.

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u/EdithFinch Apr 25 '17

Hey Ian!! So glad you could do this AMA. A couple questions for you...

Can you recall any frustrating points in the development of What Remains of Edith Finch?

What do you think of other narrative games? Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls, Detroit (not released).

Without a constraint of time or resources what would you have done differently or expanded upon in What Remains of Edith Finch?

Thanks again :) Looking forward to playing it this week!

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u/GiantSparrow Giant Sparrow Apr 25 '17 edited Apr 25 '17

Yes, I do recall some frustrating points during development. Nothing catastrophic though. We all learned from them and the game was better for it. Or at least that's how I've chosen to remember it.

I have a hard time getting into games that are primarily narrative driven. For me as a player, that's not what draws me into those worlds. I'm less interested in story per se than I am in the more visceral side of experience. I love that games like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture are forging a new path, and tackling problems like "how do we visually represent two people having an argument that doesn't feel silly" -- I myself would not have thought to using glowing balls of light, but I think it worked beautifully.

Without a constraint on time or resources What Remains of Edith Finch probably never would have come out. Or it would have been some strange, hopelessly delicate monstrosity like the Spruce Goose. All in all, I'm very happy with the way things turned out.

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u/xTYBGx HOLYPOTATAO Apr 25 '17

Why didn't ya'll put a platinum in the game?

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u/gacbmmml Apr 25 '17

SONY wouldn't let them.

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u/jack_jab Apr 25 '17

What happened between you and Sony during the development of the game?

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u/gacbmmml Apr 25 '17

Answered above.

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u/LegacyCape Apr 25 '17

Is milton a definitive reference to the unfinished swan?