Again in 2018, Dutch indie studio HomeBear — a two-person staff made up of companions Joshua van Kuilenburg and You Miichi — launched NAIRI: Tower Of Shirin, a lovingly-made point-and-click journey recreation which we awarded an 8/10 in our evaluate.
It has been a good previous whereas, however the duo is now gearing up for launch of the sequel, Nairi: Rising Tide. Having final spoken to the staff means again within the mists of time (March 2018), we not too long ago caught up with Joshua van Kuilenburg as soon as extra by way of electronic mail to search out out why it is taken so lengthy to return to Nairi’s world, and what’s modified since these distant days when Change was however a 12 months previous…
Nintendo Life: It’s been a minute since Nairi: Tower of Shirin launched on Change, so for gamers who aren’t acquainted with the primary recreation might you give a little bit background about Nairi as a personality and the place she finds herself after the occasions of the primary recreation?
Joshua van Kuilenburg: In Tower of Shirin, Nairi discovered herself estranged from her household and her dwelling, the rich and comfy, but politically charged, Wealthy District of Shirin. Born right into a household of appreciable stature, Nairi had lived a sheltered expertise underneath the watchful eyes of her mother and father her complete life.
The occasions of the primary recreation largely deal with Nairi’s development as she is compelled to discover the Poor District of Shirin as a way to discover her means again dwelling – with a little bit of sudden thriller on the facet. Nairi finds herself extra assured on the finish of Tower of Shirin whereas additionally going through sudden, grander points.
Did work on Rising Tide start instantly after the Tower of Shirin was wrapped up?
Sure, although we encountered some difficulties, each professionally and privately, which prompted delay. Growth of Rising Tide began in earnest after You, the artist, returned from Japan after offering hospice look after her mom, which she devoted herself to for a few months. There have been additionally some publishing and porting/localisation-related points which postponed launch by fairly a bit. It has been a little bit of a tumultuous interval.
Fortunately, we weren’t depending on crowdfunding this time round and will take our time to develop a extra assured, polished recreation regardless of these setbacks.
How has response and suggestions from Tower of Shirin affected the sequel? Will returning gamers be stunned by any variations, from a mechanical perspective?
We actually took Tower of Shirin’s criticisms to coronary heart and hope that gamers will discover the sooner loading (particularly on the Nintendo Change), new map for simpler navigation, improved trace methods and different such options. Characters and animations look a lot better, as effectively! Tower of Shirin’s ending was a typical sticking level with gamers; we put explicit effort into enhancing Rising Tide’s pacing and crafting a much less abrupt, extra satisfying ending.
The artwork type of the primary recreation was one among its nice strengths. Has your method to the presentation of the world and its characters modified in any respect with the brand new recreation? Or is it extra of a continuation?
Rising Tide represents a simple improve of what got here earlier than – the identical artwork type, world, and characters, besides the whole lot appears quite a bit higher. Proportions look a lot better, characters are extra expressive; animations look extra pure. When evaluating each video games side-by-side, the visible variations are fairly stark.
In fact, Rising Tide additionally takes place in a special district of Shirin, which does have a really totally different sense of fashion and ambiance in comparison with the slums featured in Tower of Shirin. Gamers can count on extra diversified and plush environments in Rising Tide!
Initially Rising Tide was introduced for 2021, we consider. As with so many video games, we think about the pandemic was a big consider its extended growth, however might you speak about how the dev timeline ended up panning out?
we roughly made ‘double the sport’ in comparison with Tower of Shirin. It was fairly a bit of labor for a staff of two.
In fact, the pandemic didn’t have an effect on us a lot; me and my spouse — the sport’s artist — reside and work inside the identical house. And we didn’t get sick, fortunately. Other than the problems I discussed earlier, Rising Tide took so long as it did just because we made little to no concessions. Not like Tower of Shirin, no content material was lower; the truth is, we added greater than initially deliberate to enhance the sport’s pacing. We wished to lift NAIRI’s degree of high quality to a typical we had been proud of, each for the sequel and future chapters.
For these questioning what that truly means, permit me to offer a number of specifics. Nearly all recreation methods have been cleaned up or completely reprogrammed. The sequel has roughly 25% extra hand-drawn backgrounds, all of that are extra detailed than the primary recreation (Tower of Shirin had fairly a number of ‘modular’ backgrounds designed to save lots of us time). Rising Tide has 100% (!) extra dialogue — plenty of it optionally available — because of the bigger variety of scenes, characters, and optionally available lore. The puzzle dungeons are simply twice as advanced and twice as giant as these featured in Tower of Shirin.
In brief, we roughly made ‘double the sport’ in comparison with Tower of Shirin. It was fairly a bit of labor for a staff of two. Now that we’ve lastly constructed a stable basis that we’re proud of, we count on future chapters to roll out in a timelier trend. Hopefully.
Tower of Shirin is just a few {dollars}/kilos/euro on the eShop and effectively value choosing up, however for gamers who missed it and could be eager about Rising Tide, how a lot do you assume they’ll ‘miss’ by way of callbacks with the characters and worldbuilding?
Thanks for the sort phrases. We did embrace an illustrated abstract in Rising Tide which sums up Tower of Shirin, and are assured new gamers will discover enjoyment within the sequel’s story, exploration and puzzles. Nevertheless, Rising Tide does certainly embrace plenty of returning characters and references. These acquainted with Tower of Shirin will probably be higher in a position to recognize sure surprises and character arcs – in addition to all of the visible and gameplay enhancements.
In fact, we’re biased, however for one of the best expertise we advocate first getting acquainted with the world, lore and characters in Tower of Shirin earlier than beginning Rising Tide.
Since 2018 the Change eShop has been flooded with all types of storybook-style, cute, cosy-looking video games and many glorious point-and-click titles — it’s more and more arduous to face out within the crowd. Is that this one thing that considerations you, and what do you assume units Rising Tide aside?
We do fear about our recreation succeeding in a crowded market, after all, which is why we’ve centered on sharpening Rising Tide. Our main concern has been to supply one of the best recreation we will make, since that’s what we have now essentially the most management over.
By way of standing out, we really feel our artwork type stays eye-catching and our explicit method to gameplay — a mix of visible novels, point-and-clicks, and Zelda-esque dungeons — is sort of distinctive. Every part thought of, Tower of Shirin did fairly effectively; we hope Rising Tide will seize the curiosity of gamers much more so!
Do you could have additional chapters in Nairi’s story deliberate? What’s subsequent for HomeBear?
For now, we’re 100% dedicated to giving NAIRI essentially the most satisfying ending we probably can. We all know the place we wish issues to go; what the ending appears like. All chapters being roughly equal in size, we count on there to be 4 chapters in complete. We would go for a single bigger third chapter, nevertheless; we’re not completely certain at this level, however we’re going to do no matter serves the narrative greatest. What I can say with certainty is that we’re already engaged on the third chapter.
Pretty! Lastly, what video games have you ever been taking part in and having fun with not too long ago – on Change or in any other case?
Maybe considerably unexpectedly, we actually get pleasure from taking part in survival-horror video games collectively – my spouse factors out vital loot, which I inevitably miss, whereas I deal with the monsters. We’re presently taking part in by the Resident Evil 4 remake. On Change, I’ve been having fun with The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Knowledge (dungeons!) in addition to Hyper Mild Drifter.
Our due to Joshua. Nairi: Rising Tide launches on Change on 14th November and is on the market for pre-order now with a 25% low cost which places it at $11.99 / £9.75 / €10.79.
