Blog Details

Deep in the heart of a wintry woodland, a traveler meets a puppy. This is the start of a beautiful friendship – but also of a journey filled with danger, mystery, and secrets to discover. Koira, developed by Studio Tolima and published by DONTNOD, is much more than a simple walk in the woods. It’s the heartwarming tale of how together, two companions can accomplish anything they set their minds to as they traverse a wintry forest inhabited by sinister figures, magical wildlife, and more. And Koira accomplishes all of this through a combination of beautiful music and eye-catching graphics, without using a single word of text.

Game Rant spoke to Ben Lega, Studio Tolima’s head and Koira’s game director. Koira is Lega and his team’s first game, and the studio has created something truly unique with this poetic, friendship-focused adventure. Lega discussed the highs and lows of making a text-free experience, working with composer Reginald Nowe to develop the game’s soundtrack, and drawing inspiration from children’s storybooks and other low-text or text-free games like Florence and Journey. Koira is currently scheduled for a 2025 release, with a demo planned for Summer 2024. This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Creating And Populating Koira’s Wintry World

Q: Koira’s color scheme is eye-catching. Could you talk about the decision to go with this aesthetic?

Lega: The art style was the first thing I established. In today’s busy video game market, a game with unique visuals has more chances to stand out. To make an image that would attract attention, I wanted it to have a lot of contrast and “pop”.

At the time, I was working by myself on the project, which meant that I had to find a great aesthetic that wouldn’t be too costly to make. I love 2D hand-drawn animations, but I knew that these can be very costly to do, especially for detailed characters. So, at the time, I was exploring animation with characters designed in a single flat shaded color and no outline.

I started by drawing a flat black character on an empty white background. It was a bit out of place, so I erased the base of his feet. And suddenly it felt like he was part of this world ! Lost in the big snowy plane that had become my sheet of paper, only punctuated by a few dead trees and patches of grass that I quickly added. It looked nice, but it felt cold being lonely in this wintry world. So, I added a cute small puppy to cheer him up, and a stick to play fetch.

To embellish these flat shapes, we worked a lot with textures. The addition of paper and watercolor texture creates beautiful scenery, which reminds me of a children’s book.

Q: The puppy is so adorable. Were they inspired by any real-world dogs or pets?

Lega: Not directly. I actually never had a puppy myself! Koira is a magical and metaphorical tale. The puppy is there for what he represents emotionally to the player, more than an actual real animal.

Q: How does Koira’s gameplay utilize cooperation between the puppy and protagonist?

Lega: The gameplay doesn’t focus on complex puzzles, but rather uses the interactions with the world to support the storybeat at hand. This means that the game has a lot of different interactions, but typically each character has some unique abilities they re-use often. For example, the player’s avatar is a bit taller than the dog and can thus use its hands to reach things higher up, as well as manipulating and throwing items. While the dog is able to progress through small passages and dig around. Also, the two characters find melodies that they sing together to communicate and activate magical statues in the forest.

Q: What are some of the powers the protagonist can utilize throughout the game?

Lega: The forest spirit will have powers indeed, that can help her protect the puppy on their journey.

Koira’s Setting: A Forest Filled With Magic And Secrets

Q: Can you discuss the forest biome and what other kinds of creatures players will encounter there?

Lega: In the heart of winter, some places can be very desolate. But, as their friendship grows, the player and the dog encounter a more colorful environment, a mysterious and lush forest filled with purple and reddish tones.

In the forest, they can encounter other creatures that they can interact with to progress or just play. There are a lot of the animals you would expect, like birds, boars, rabbits… But there are also some more magical ones, such as fireflies and mysterious mushrooms!

Q: The trailer features a few dark figures. What can you tell us about them and what they’re up to?

Lega: There is a mysterious group of hunters present in the forest, and they seem to have a particular interest in the player’s puppy. They are the main threat to our main characters and disturb what could have just been a very wholesome walk through the forest.

The Musical And Artistic Inspirations Behind Koira

Q: Can you discuss how you incorporated music into Koira’s story and gameplay?

Lega: The music is composed by the very talented Reginald Nowe. Very early on in the development process, his composition inspired the overall mood and atmosphere of the game. Because the game doesn’t have any text, the emotion is conveyed through art and music. The music is thus an important part of the design.

Also, when the characters speak, they speak not with words but with the help of instrumental sounds. For example, a flute, a harmonica, an accordion, a piano, etc. Their voice creates melodies which blend with the orchestral music. Their singing is used to bond together and to activate certain magical statues.

Q: How would you describe the music of Koira? Is there any specific genres or styles you used for inspiration?

Lega: His compositions can be described as minimalist and melancholic, consisting mainly of waltz melodies with piano and violins. Some inspirations he might cite are Max Richter and Yan Tiersen.

Q: What about artistic inspirations – is there anything you specifically drew on for the game’s art style?

Lega: Some of the main inspirations behind the project are Journey and Florence. Journey for its cinematic approach, and how they make the player intensely feel the story through mechanic progression and staging. Florence for how a simple and poetic story can be told with very few words, as well as how the mechanic keeps evolving to reflect the current moment of the story. For the artstyle, it was a mix of inspirations which drew a lot from children’s books, for its efficient usage of simple and iconic shapes in character design, as well as abstract watercolor textures to enrich and convey volume.

Creating A Story Without Using Text Or Dialogue

Q: How did the team land on a story without any text? What led to this decision?

Lega: This decision was the result of a bunch of factors. I personally don’t really enjoy reading on a screen that much. So I tend to avoid games with long blocks of text, especially if they are not voice acted, which can be incredibly costly to do, especially for indie games!

I really like games and movies which touch me with little to no text. For me, it’s where audio-visual art really shines and becomes immensely universal. Think of movies like the ones of Charlie Chaplin, Disney’s Fantasia, or games like Journey.

And finally, it was a choice that was also dictated by production constraints. Because the project started with just Reginald and myself, it was decided early on to avoid text because it would make the whole development process easier : no dialogues to write, no localization to do.

Q: Did text-free storytelling come with unexpected difficulties or challenges?

Lega: The design philosophy grew very quickly into doing the whole game without a single word of text, not just the storytelling aspect. And the time we gained by not writing dialogues we would have to translate, we lost in scratching our heads on how to convey clear narrative intent and gameplay tutorials without writing a single word. But the challenge was exhilarating!

The story has a clear arc, but the absence of words also makes it mysterious, leaving the player to fill in the gaps with their imagination. For the storytelling, the thing that helped a lot was the way our characters were designed. Because of their flat silhouette and big expressive eyes, we were able to combine frame-by-frame and procedural animation to animate these puppets and give them a lot of expression, hinting a lot about what the characters feel or think. For example, the main character is fully hand-drawn animated, but he is split between his body, his hands, his head, his eyes and his pupils. This allows us to make him act in a lot of ways throughout the game by tweaking his facial expressions, where he looks, what he does with his hands, etc.

Q: Koira is Studio Tolima’s debut game. How does it feel to be at the current stage of development for Koira?

Lega: As we are entering the final phase of the development of the game, the whole team is working very hard but is also incredibly excited to show more of all the beautiful things we are crafting! After the new trailer [released] during Day of the Devs, we will have a first public demo coming this summer, and we can’t wait for you to try it out!

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add about Koira?

Lega: Koira is very special for us and our love letter to the medium, and we’re very excited for what’s next. If you’re reading this, make sure to head over to Steam to wishlist the game, that way you’ll be notified when it comes out!

[END]