From the concept to the collaborative efforts to the emotional soundtrack, Platonic Partnership's Lydia is a unique and heartfelt game with a powerful message about the hidden realities of substance abuse. Follow the story of the titular character, Lydia, as she struggles to overcome the struggles of her home life, the shame of addiction, and the unique hand-drawn art style that brings her story to life.
In this exclusive interview, we sat down with Jussi Loukiainen, CEO and Co-Founder of Platonic Partnership, and Henri Tervapuro, Co-Founder and Chief Designer, the creative forces behind the creation of the emotionally charged game Lydia. From the creation of the character to the collaboration on the game's emotional soundtrack, Jussi shares the insights and experiences of bringing the game to life. Discover what it takes to create a game that evokes feelings and leaves a lasting impact on its players.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the story of Lydia?
We wanted to make a game that raised emotions and revealed something ugly that is usually hidden behind the façade of a happy family. Platonic Partnership co-founders Henri Tervapuro and Juho Kuorikoski were the first to come up with the idea to make a game about substance abuse. A couple of our co-founders have experienced a similar kind of situation growing up as Lydia. So although the game is not based on real-life events, all the emotions behind the game are real and experienced first-hand.
We wanted to tell the story as raw as we could. We knew from our own experiences that there is a huge amount of shame behind these kinds of experiences. We felt that speaking out loud about it could remove at least some parts of that shame and bring light to the matter. It’s good to know that you are not alone and others are going through the same kind of experiences as you are.
What was the process of creating a character like Lydia?
Lydia is a child, and we wanted to represent her as sort of a fragile leaf spinning in a stormy wind. Most of the elements in the story are based on real-life if only elevated further. For us it was of utmost importance to stay honest, and Lydia´s journey is conflicted, even bitter. We discussed the conclusion over a few evenings, and what is there now feels like the most real approach.
How does the game's unique hand-drawn art style contribute to the emotional impact of the story?
The lack of colors, vague and sketchy surroundings, and ever-present darkness try to capture that feeling of being caught in a toxic environment. There's hardly any joy or hope found in there. A big influence at the time for me, visually, was Manu Larcenet's artwork. I used vivid colors for dramatic effect when it felt necessary. We hope the game succeeds in invoking these feelings.
Can you speak to the decision to make the game a relatively short experience? Henri and Juho wanted to make a 40+ hours-long traditional adventure game, but it soon turned out to be a too-ambitious project. Then they started to talk about the concept of Lydia, and we soon decided to make something short and sweet for our first commercial game. Back then, we were all developing games in our free time as we all had day-to-day jobs elsewhere. That was one of the biggest reasons to make a short game. And at the same time, we wanted to stay true to the story. The story had a certain arc, and we definitely didn’t want to add unnecessary puzzles, etc., to artificially make the game longer. It was risky because we knew that the players might not take it kindly if we didn’t communicate really openly that we were dealing with a short narrative experience.
What were the challenges you faced during the development process, and how they were overcome? We faced a lot of challenges. This was our first commercial game and we pretty much didn’t know what we were doing. But at the same time, we learned a lot. We also treated the game as a test to see whether we have what it takes to develop a commercial game with a strict schedule, in our free time, and without any budget. If we could handle this, then we could handle anything. For example, we discovered one game-stopping bug right after the launch. I was driving with my kids to our summer vacation when I got a phone call that the game is broken. We stopped at the nearest gas station, and I did some fixing in the front seat while my kids were eating ice cream in the back. We didn’t realize that you have to be alert after the release when a large number of players start to play the game and possible game-breaking bugs start to emerge. But, as I said, we have learned a lot from those experiences.
Can you talk about the collaboration with Juhana Lehtiniemi on the game's emotional soundtrack and how it contributes to the overall experience? Juhana is one of the co-founders of Platonic Partnership. He has a degree in movie music composing and lots of experience composing music for TV shows and movies. We wanted the soundtrack to reflect the story, but at the same time, it needed to be warm when needed. Like in the camp scene where music goes from one extreme to the other. And at the same time, we didn’t want to underline the narrative with music. Music needs to support the whole and give tools to the player to interpret the events happening on the screen. It needs to widen the experience rather than just say the exactly same thing as visuals do. What do you hope players will take away from their experience? We hope that players enjoy the game as much as possible. And hopefully reflect the feelings the game might raise. If someone decides to give more attention to their family after playing the game, we have succeeded.
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