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“The problem I ran into was that there’s no way to make a level fun like that because if you can just draw any platform in a platformer, then you can just go anywhere.”Īlternatively, restricting where you can draw platforms or limiting the amount of paint available to the player were also non-starters as it meant “you’re not even drawing anymore, you’re just solving a resource management problem.” This would run counter to the whole point of making a game about simply having fun drawing. “The first thing I tried was drawing platforms,” he explains, as the idea came when he was still finishing up Wandersong, also a 2D platformer. Ultimately, though, it was the mechanic of Chicory's paintbrush that was the key starting point for Lobanov, though it did need a fair few prototypes to implement it properly.
#Chicory a colorful tale developers full
It’s easy to gravitate towards different lovely aspects of Chicory, be it the adorable cast of animal characters designed by Lobanov’s best friend Alexis Dean-Jones (as an animator who had worked on Tom & Jerry, this was the first full video game she worked on), or the wonderful score from Lena Raine of Celeste acclaim.
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I spoke with lead developer/director Greg Lobanov and sound designer Em Halberstadt, who previously worked together on musical platforming adventure Wandersong, about how the project came together from failed prototypes, finding balance with themes and accessibility, and the importance of making the hard work of indie game development fun. A cosy adventure game where you play a little dog wielding an enchanted paintbrush to bring colour back to its picture book world, it’s packed with fun ideas celebrating creative expression - while also being unafraid to tackle issues of mental health and impostor syndrome. Chicory: A Colorful Tale, coming from a group of like-minded friends rather than a more traditional studio, was 2021’s little indie that could. When one of the world’s most respected indie publishers, Devolver Digital, goes public with a value of nearly a billion dollars, and the winner of both Best Indie Game and Best Indie Debut at The Game Awards is a lavish-looking title that could trick you into thinking it’s a Pixar film, you have to wonder whether the term 'indie' does actually mean anything anymore.įortunately, you need only dig a little deeper to learn that the indie spirit is still alive and well, with small teams getting together with tiny budgets - but boundless ideas - to create something very special.