I’m full-time on The Distillery and a new project now, being half-time on GYLT and “the other one.” What’s the secret for double-full-time? Sleep deprivation and a grain of lawful chaos, that’s it.With titles such as The Sexy Brutale, Rime, and The Invisible Hours under their belt, Tequila Works have quite the hefty amount of experience in developing strong narrative-based games. That means you can expect new directors in future projects. New generations of talent slowly blending with hardened veterans to keep evolving is key for the studio to grow without diluting our culture. I provide constant advice and feedback, but I serve more like a counselor and “keeper of the mojo.” I’m involved in all our projects, but we truly believe in career development inside the studio and that’s why David Canela is leading the GYLT project, with me as editor, creative supervisor, or executive producer, choose yourself. The only requisite is answering the questions: “Where is the beautiful?” “Where is the crazy?” That’s how GYLT entered our lives it was the project the team believed in. Everyone is welcome, no matter their background (financial and accounting have dreams, too!) and all ideas are voted on by everyone. Also proper R&D like new tech or tools, but mostly new future concepts with gusto.Ĭoncepts come from the Tequila Shots (regular internal Game Jams) where people propose personal ideas. RR: Tequila Shots and The Distillery, of course! They operate on a Game Jam basis and are responsible for the boldest, craziest stuff playable. GS: With that in mind, how does Tequila Works determine where they’re going next with their projects and why is GYLT the right game to make now for your studio? We try not to oversize because big teams require not only more “bureaucracy” but it’s harder for the creativity and spontaneity we’re prideful of to flow in a less agile working environment. Our team sizes change a lot, the smallest being one, strike teams are typically three, each Distillery “cask” is five, Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son was 18 at its peak, GYLT is around 35. We are very flexible, and we have never put all the staff on a single project because that would be AAA territory, and we have been there, done that. We just finished Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son and that team has moved to either GYLT, two new undisclosed projects or The Distillery, our small R&D team. Now, we are around 85 people in the studio, currently split in four teams. That’s why we always aimed for Tequila Works to be a boutique studio. That would be pretty hard if you only make the same game over and over again I guess. We are pretty genre-agnostic, just like we are platform-agnostic.Įach creation tries to raise a question or answer one of our own. RR: I guess you can only expect the unexpected from Tequila Works, because we love to play with what audiences take for granted. How many teams do you typically have working on different projects and what sizes are these teams? It’s impressive that one studio is responsible for an eclectic mix of games like Deadlight, The Invisible Hours, RiME, and upcoming projects like Groundhog Day 2 and GYLT. GS: Tequila Works’ history is consistently unpredictable. In a sense, GYLT is not about judging or indoctrinating, but putting all those elements under the spotlight, and letting the player decide with their actions. Sometimes it’s hard to differentiate the victim from the aggressor sometimes they can be both. Just like RiME was about grief, or Deadlight about solitude, or The Invisible Hours about exposure… GYLT is about blame. We embrace the interactivity of our medium we don’t telegraph a narrative and tell you how you should feel, but lay a structure with slots so players can develop their own emotional response. We believe in telling stories worth being told, not excuses to justify fancy graphics or cerebral gameplay. As such, the kind of experiences we create are intimate, not epic. We decided many years ago that our stories would be interactive stories, a vehicle to touch the player, driven by their own feelings. We have been working on narrative structure for a long, long time. What is the process like inside Tequila Works to ensure the player remains emotionally present? Behind its own symbolism, GYLT looks like it’ll have a lot of emotional weight, too. Your previous work, RiME, is the most personally affecting video game I’ve ever played.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |