RymdResa is probably not what you expect of a typical video game set in space. There’s no commodity trading to be done, no aliens or hostile ships waiting to ambush you, in fact your ship doesn’t have a gun. Instead space is simply a procedurally generated province for you to explore.
The game is largely text based, players will stumble upon collections of art and poetry as they explore the lonely universe before them. If you’re looking to zone out and relax to a smooth soundtrack RymdResa is ready to please.
The game is being brought to you by Morgondag, a two person team consisting of Kim Gunnarsson and Vendela Carlberg who are both located in Stockholm Sweden. The two have been kind enough to let us pick their brains on the process of working together as a couple and just where exactly RymdResa comes from.
(Editor’s Note: With consent from Morgondag we have edited some of their responses for grammar and clarity.)
1. What drew the two of you to work as a team on this title? Working together in the game development industry as a couple is still kind of unique. How has it been working with one another?
So it’s quite simple to work together, no meetings are needed for example, cause we just talk all the time, and use GitHub for organization. We also complement each other in a good way. We both love to create and experiment with different art projects; and developing games together as a team fits us really well.
To work together and having an elaborate plan and not to being afraid of expanding the project helps a lot; we both love to work with iteration and feeling free within the set frames of the project. Furthermore we have no obligations to anyone when it comes to making games. We can do whatever we want to, that’s the good part of being an indie developer.
We both love space, so we decided to make a space game together. We wanted to explore the loneliness of space, and RymdResa grew out from that.
2. What attracted you to game development? Has this become a full time job for both of you?
We met three years ago and have been a couple since then.
We are both creative individuals; and when we met we soon understood that we wanted to create together. We combined our skills and also our way of thinking, and the process of making a game grew from that. We just started to make games together, something neither of us had done before. We began building a couple of prototypes and interactive art experiments together for ourselves, then Morgondag came kind of organically from that. We have released two smaller games on the App Store, but RymdResa is our biggest title to date.
Right now Vendela works full time within the company and Kim works part time. We need to take other jobs to keep the boat floating. We’re striving for it to become a full time job for both of course.
3. How are your roles split up? What is a typical day like for Morgondag?
We’re both jack-of-all trades and we’re working very close together, talking to each other all the time, we currently live with the game, it’s part of our daily life, therefore we influence each other a lot. We have designed the game together and we are taking all design decisions together, working on user experience, balancing, player feedback, gameplay, making cinematics together, iterating and discussing together. We also have a design tool letting us work on spawn rates, zones, bosses, quests and texts in an easy way.
In addition to this we of course also have roles within the studio, even though they’re a bit abstract, Kim does the programming and Vendela has made most of the art, (even though Kim has painted a lot as well). Vendela has also written all text and made the narrative design, and she is also responsible for all marketing and public relations. Kim on the other hand has made the game’s UI. The narrative is voiced by Eric Reed and Tom Croke has worked on sound design and effects. Our soundtrack is made by both Tom Croke and Pat Jacobs.
4. Can you tell us about some of the influences and interests you had in creating this game? Are there any particular works that inspired you?
We are creative people; we like to create on a daily basis. Before we made games we wrote, painted, made music and developed stuff. Vendela even worked in theatre. So one day we just started to make games. It’s like a combination of a lot of other craftsmanships. Creativity is like most skills; something you can get better at and something you can learn by keeping the flow of creative energy and just producing things. So for inspiration, inspiration itself inspired us to create, like a quantum loop of creativity creating creativity.
5. The game implements dialogue that’s almost poetic in nature. What made you decide to go with this style?
In the beginning RymdResa was an experiment about a pilot drifting in a dark space, filled with poetry. And that was it. Floating text and stars and a pilot. We re-worked the concept quite a bit, but we kept a bit of the poetic part. And you can still find some floating poetry-pieces in space.
We wanted an abstract and poetic atmosphere and wrote the narrative from that. We have, for example, diary pods that present themselves now and then, when you play the game, and yes they are a bit poetic in nature. They contain practical information of how many years you’ve been in space. But they are also meant to give the player hints about the pilot’s past present and future. This is the main-narrative in the game, bringing you records of the feelings and thoughts of the lonely pilot as he travels through space. These segments are voiced by Eric Reed.
6. How did you come up with the concept and mechanics for the game? What was the process of designing it like?
We both love space. Space fascinates us a lot. So we knew from the start that we wanted to make a space game someday. When work began on RymdResa we wanted to recreate the feeling of loneliness in space. We used several different tools to create the lonely atmosphere that we wanted: art and poetry that expressed this feeling. RymdResa started out as much as an art-project as a game and we truly want to give the players an experience filled with poetry, pixel art, music and depth.
We believe in simplicity and we love pixelart. With RymdResa we wanted to create a very minimalistic art style. We believe that deliberate art restrictions produce a style that’s much easier to create with. This also makes room for the players own thoughts and emotions, and is the fundamental idea behind the art style.
Developing RymdResa has been an exploratory process and we’ve changed a lot over time. In the beginning RymdResa had only one chapter, and was to be released on iPad, now we have three chapters and plan to release on Mac, Win, Linux, WiiU , Xbox One and iPad. It has been a truly exciting journey.
7. What challenges have you encountered during development? Were there any aspects of the process that were particularly difficult or surprisingly smooth?
The biggest task has been cross-platform features and cross-device UI. Having support for gamepad, keyboard, mouse, and touch has been a hassle. Getting Steam, Xbox One and Windows APIs working on some fundamental level together. We are not there yet, but soon. Another hard thing has been getting the procedural world working the way we wanted.
Furthermore; time estimation has been difficult, along with making sure we are organized enough to handle freelance and other work to keep the boat floating. Since Vendela has begun working full time on RymdResa it has become easier, a full time position allows her to do a more thorough organization and planning of the project.
And also funding is a problem; we are self-funded. The creative tasks, everything from writing stories, programming, making sound and marketing needs its time.
8. How long have you been working on this title and how close is RymdResa to completion? Are there any noteworthy features that you plan to add before the game hits 1.0?
We have been working on RymdResa for about two years now. But none of us have ever been able to work full-time on the game until now. So we’ve never been able to work as intensely as we do at this moment. Right now we’re developing gamepad support and sorting out some bugs. So we’re hoping to release RymdResa on Steam this summer.
9. Do you have any plans for the game after it’s released? Will there be additional content to come later or do you see yourselves moving onto another project?
Firstly we have to release on all intended platforms. We will begin with the Windows and Mac release, then move on to Xbox One and after that it’s time for WiiU, Linux, iPad and possibly a mobile port. Getting the game out on all these platforms will take some time indeed. But yes, we’re planning a few patches and it certainly would be nice to make RymdResa into a full blown franchise, including more chapters and RymdResa mini games like a bounty hunter. We’re also planning to release a RymdResa encyclopedia. We’re dreaming about a RymdResa space were the player can go down on planets and explore a little bit deeper. But we have loads of prototypes and ideas for other games as well. We’ll see where the wind leads us.
10. Lastly, and on a more personal level, what are some of your favorite games?
King Arthur’s Gold, Diablo 2 ad 3, Proteus, Zelda A Link To The Past, Baldur’s Gate, Civilization IV, Final Fantasy IX, Tyrian, Alpha Centauri and The Witcher 3.
RymdResa is currently in closed beta on Steam. If you’d like to read more about the game you can reach its official website here.
