The California-based studio is set to bring a compelling and touching story that revolves around a young boy named Ash who loves to draw and paint. He’s bullied constantly, however, and his drawings are what helps him cope. His hometown is a shell of its former self when he comes across a magic paintbrush that brings life to the town and his drawings, the Genies.
The environments, characters and art style of Concrete Genie was reminiscent of films like Kubo and the Two Strings. Its gameplay takes from various other genres, from platformers to action. But as Dominic Robilliard Creative Director and Jeff Sangalli, Art Director, told us during a recent demo, each gameplay mechanic is used to push the narrative forward. Even a twist in the story was created to shape Ash’s journey.
Newsweek spoke to both Robilliard and Sangalli about Concrete Genie’s story, its development and inspirations.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Start from the beginning. What was your visions of this game and what inspired you?
Dominic Robilliard: When we finished our first game we had a window of time to concept what we were going to do next. One of the things Jeff and I like about having a small team is that the hierarchy is very flat and it’s very collaborative. And we had a chance to share a vision for the games we make. We told the team that anybody can come up with an idea for our next game. We came up with about seven ideas or so and did a bit of development.
Concrete Genie came from our VFX artist whose name is Ashwin, which is why the hero is called Ash. He, right from the beginning, the first image that was created - his pitch - was a painting of a kid being bullied and painting these huge characters on the wall and he was imagining that they were sticking up for him. From the beginning, we had these two things, the bullying was there and also this idea of an artist who was using art to cope with the situation. When he shared that with the team, it absolutely inspired everyone. The theme of bullying we felt was relatable not just for kids, but for adults as well. This gameplay aspect of making the player feel like an artist, we thought how do we do that.
Jeff Sangalli: Right from the start Dom talked about working collaboratively. I’m really lucky that our entire art department can wear a lot of hats. They have the ability to work as just visual development artists. During that period of time, it’s some of the most exciting time being an artist, because your illustration can inspire other people on the team, like engineering team or design team and spur on new ideas. As we created that artwork, the one common theme was that we were inspired by an artwork that looked handcrafted and at the same time, we were exploring a new game engine that optimized the use of physically-based lighting. It was a huge jump technically for us, from [our first game] Entwined, so it was in parallel. We started to look at stop-motion animation and how powerful that was. It was an inspiration to the whole team because everything in stop-motion is incredibly handcrafted. It’s beautifully made with love and attention to detail. And we felt that it was something that we would try to achieve with our games. Our games are about heart and we want the artwork to have the same feel. We started to use keyframe animation, no motion capture, so all the animation in the game is done by hand. And we used all hand-drawn animations for the characters’ faces. So those are more visual frames. It’s similar to stop-motion that they have face replacement per shot, but we do it with hand animation. We have two sisters, Becky and Lucy Roberts, who do all that animation with a lot of care. And for the artwork on the walls, the 2D artwork touching on the theme the team was inspired by, it’s just drawings by hand. Children’s book illustrations are a big influence. And also urban artwork because in urban illustration you have this scale that you can put on a billboard or building. The way you use the building yourself to have your painting live in the real world. We felt that medium was pushed and explored by a lot of different artists, who were inspirations also.
When playing the stop-motion felt like something out of Rudolph or Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Are there any inspirations specifically from stop-motion?
JS: I think all of those projects. Hopefully a little bit of all that, you mention Rankin/Bass, who made all those projects. Some of the amazing work that Laika studios is working on. I’d even say Tim Burton and Jim Henson. The art department is definitely inspired by the world that hasn’t been seen before. And give you the opportunity to step into that world. Games are an incredible medium because it gives you a chance to actually create the artwork interactively. And with the VR project it takes it to another level.
Towns or settings can be a big part of the story. What were the inspirations of the town?
DR: There are two parts to that question. The look and feel of the world. There’s some nostalgia in there, some 80s kids movies. Towns located in the west coast of the United States. There’s Monterrey, Astoria, other places like that. There’s a teeny bit of San Francisco in there as well.
In terms of that story of the world, we wanted to have something that was going through the story and what you do really acknowledges that power of creativity. And one of those breakthroughs that we had in developing the painting mechanics was being allowed to paint anywhere. Suddenly we realized that everyone’s version of the game was going to look totally different. We wanted to make sure the story of the world would acknowledge that in a meaningful way. So there’s this symmetry of what’s been happening to the world and to Ash. They are both being oppressed and bullied, but his creativity and the power of self-expression are the things that push them back and move the narrative forward. So that was one of those threads that helped bring it to the world. The development of the location and this idea that he was going to go around and start painting it back to life.
JS: We tried to initially, in early prototyping, to build a larger city. And it became apparent that the city would dwarf the story, which is about the kids from the neighborhood. So getting the scale right was very important to us.
Speaking of the kids, how do the secondary characters affect the story?
DR: All of the characteristics from the bullies came from research. Research of the team and personal experiences. One of the things you’ll see when the game comes out is that through the course of the narrative you’ll see the story of the bullies and it was very apparent early on, to tackle this topic you need to show things that happen to [the] kids that turn into bullies. So you’ll see some of those backstories and that comes from the research the team did. Some of the kids in there who are not comfortable with it. And that’s another aspect of that. One of the kids is along for the ride and they are glad they aren’t picking on him. That was something that was a personal experience from someone on the team that we built into it.
What kind of research?
DR: Mostly it was driven by the team through researching online. We did talk to some consultants as well, which was really helpful to talk to experts in that area. But it always came back to the things that inspired us and connected, and affected us when we were doing our own research.
The early part of the game has a lot of platforming, stealth and puzzle-solving in the gameplay. But the shift to action is stark. How did you balance it all?
DR: We spent a lot of time getting it right. We sometimes call that plate spinning. You have all of these threads going at the same time and you’re trying to develop them all in tandem so they can influence and affect each other. And then one will click and something will get solidified in a good way and it’ll start making the decisions in other areas that much simpler. One of those things was getting the painting mechanics the way that you currently see them. We had other versions of that, and the painting mechanic you have now is the third version. So we kept iterating them, kept trying again and again, and it wasn’t until we had [the Genies] acknowledging what you were doing and marking on the world that everything started to fall into place. It was about that accessibility, it was about making anyone feel like an artist. Those are the things that made you feel connected to your artwork.
The moment that we had that hook, that you could make someone care about what they painted, suddenly we had the door opened for the thematic, narrative expression in the game. When the bullies are ruining your artwork, it’s your artwork as the player. And so you understand how that character feels like in a way that only a game can deliver. Suddenly, all of these decisions happened very quickly. The platforming mechanics, where Ash is being pushed around, and essentially powerless in the hands of the bullies so what do we do to give him power in the gameplay is give him an agile moveset. Being able to escape on rooftops, the ability to skate and paint and get away from the bullies, but you still have the dangers on the street level. These are the sorts of things that fall into place once the painting mechanic started working and affecting the story. So you have this dangerous balancing act to keep everything going and then suddenly they fall like dominoes and you can change the pace to get it to where you want it and the story beats to come in when they need to. The themes and the moment to moment gameplay.
JS: It took so much time to get to the point to explore that loop. We are lucky that the team believed in it and to keep pushing forward. When we saw each one of those things start to click it was inspiration for us all to keep going. To give you an idea. The bulk of the entire world that you see is done by two people. The environment artist and our team is so small, but we run on each other’s inspiration and problem solving and that’s what’s kept us going.
What were the other two iterations of the painting mechanic?
DR: Painting Mak 1 was like filling in stencils. And you have to also remember when we began four and a half years ago the team was less experienced and smaller than it is now. We started off with something like that and you could see the potential in this idea that you can paint. We knew it wasn’t going far enough. So the next version is chucking and paint splats and it allowed you to more freely chuck paint splats, Pollock style. It didn’t go far enough for the personal authorship, but it did show you that if you could paint anywhere in the world that would be incredibly powerful. That third version when we went at it again, we really really tried to acknowledge every mark that you make, to create something beautiful. It was the amazing 2D animation when we knew we had something.
JS: Keep in mind we had to develop proprietary tool sets to achieve that. Each time we would crack one of those things. First, it was painting on any wall then we started to develop the Genies. And then can we get a Genie to walk around a corner to another wall. I’ll never forget that, the whole team cheered when a Genie walked around a corner. That’s what we talk about, those small successes. Then we started to run with it, now the details and attachments you put on a Genie affect their entire animation set. They have different personalities. And because of our incredible relationship with Media Molecule, it gave us the code to give our Genies physics in the wall. So they have 2D physics, they use ballistic tracking in some of the 2D world also. And they interact with the world, like pulling plants from the ground and keep themselves out of the rain. You’ll see a lot more interactions, because there are quite a few different worlds you can paint for them.
Is there significance to the title of Concrete Genie? It could have been called Concrete Spirit or Concrete Monster.
DR: Concrete Genie was the name from very early on. It was kind of a working title, but we fell in love with it. Originally it was because [Ash] touches the wall to bring his creations to life like Aladdin touching the lamp. That’s why we have that, the genie is in the walls.
JS: Even at the paint splat stage he could touch the paint splat and have them come alive. There was some beauty in that, to be honest, it didn’t explore enough of the 2D world. But it was still interesting to see this giant paint splat come alive.
DR: The interesting thing about that is that it’s another example of not fulfilling this narrative need, which was the genies he makes are supposed to be the friends he wishes he had in real life. And so until they became more realized, with their own AI, the ability to interact with Ash in a more meaningful way, solve puzzles, all of that. It wasn’t until those things that fell into place and started acknowledging that they have to fulfill emotionally for him.
What do you hope gamers get from Concrete Genie?
DR: We hope that people enjoy the game as a fun, story-driven experience with this interesting mechanic that can make anyone feel like an artist. And hopefully the story themes in there can allow people to understand that topic in a way they never considered before.
JS: I’m hoping that the effort we put into the painting and creativity part of it would make an adult remember back to what it’s like to draw or paint for the first time. Even if it’s finger painting or drawing in the back of the classroom. Just remember the joy that imagination can bring.
