After the instant success of "The Coming of Death", Next Studio showcased three new games at GDC: "Rainbow Falls", "The Ghost Story" and "Unheard". Compared with "Death is Coming", the three new games show a more unique and exquisite art style in the trailers, and the game types are also richer. People can't help but pay attention to Next Studio's development capabilities and willingness to innovate. Recently, 17173 conducted a face-to-face interview with Feifei, the creator of "Rainbow Falls". Unlike other game producers, Feifei defines her role as a "concept artist." As an art-led game, "Rainbow Falls" is very bold and unique in visual style. The almost all black and white picture and fairy tale-like Gothic style are eye-catching among many independent games.
8.jpg "Rainbow Falls" main creator Feifei
17173: Why is the game called "Rainbow Falls"?
Feifei: The name of the game is inspired by the movie "Falling" (note: directed by Tarsim Shin). In fact, when we started making the game, we didn't think of this name. The earliest name was "Shadow Theater". At that time, I thought, the name of the protagonist of the game is Iris (the rainbow goddess in Greek mythology), and our game is in black and white. What will it look like when the rainbow falls into the black and white castle? Hence the name "Rainbow Falls".
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17173: What are the difficulties and innovations in the production process of the game?
Feifei: Each stage of production has different difficulties. We are an art project, with no procedures or planning at the beginning. At this stage, the difficult thing is how to make the gameplay stand out. The strength of art is that it can express stories through pictures, but its shortcoming is that there is no way to logically plan the gameplay and length of a level. When we were selecting and collecting materials, we thought that the easiest way to use art is in narrative puzzle games, and then we thought about the gameplay. In the second stage, after planning and programming were added, the realization of real-time light and shadow and its integration with gameplay became the biggest problem we faced. In some traditional games, light and shadow are only for effects and aesthetics, and have little to do with gameplay. In the design of some levels of our game, the angle and distance of light and shadow have become very important factors. In order to meet the needs of planning, we will debate for a long time whether to use parallel light or spotlight for a picture.
The creation of light and shadow in our game is more like a light and shadow installation art. The same object will form different patterns using different lighting methods, and there are many innovations at every point.
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17173: What are the considerations behind using black and white as the color tone of the entire game?
Feifei: When I was at the University of Southern California, Professor Richard (note: the former chief designer of Naughty Dog and the main creator of "Uncharted") said that the kind of game should be considered by the kind of people. I used to do character design, and scenes were a relative weakness. Black, white, and gray are the basic tones of art, which are easier to control. So I might as well make it more straightforward and make it a black-and-white style, which is easier for team members to control. After doing this, the effect is very strange and stylized.
When I was setting up the project, my friends around me encouraged me that even if this style has a small audience and cannot please everyone, as long as you like it, you should stick to it, which strengthened my confidence. At that time, there were many proposed projects, all of which had highly saturated graphics that looked gorgeous and bright. Our purely black and white style game stood out immediately during the proposal meeting.
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17173: As mentioned in some previous news, the main inspiration for the game comes from "Pan's Labyrinth". How is it reflected in the game?
Feifei: I am a person who likes to read fairy tales, and "Pan's Labyrinth" has a great influence on me. Many innovative points in art design were also influenced by the director.
17173: Is it mainly the influence of art? Is there any plot connection?
Feifei: The plot is a story about myself that I have always wanted to say. A story about loss.
During the adventure, you are deprived bit by bit of color, shadow, soul, and even life. What will you see, what will you experience in the process of loss, and what choice will you make in the end? . Like "Inside", it tortures human nature.