Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Waking The Glares’

Review Fix chats with Ruggero Aricò, lead developer for “Waking The Glares,” who discusses the development process for the mysterious exploration title on Windows PC and Steam, currently set for a March 15 release.

About Waking The Glares:

The title, built on the Unreal Engine 4 and compatible with the Oculus Rift, will unfold through seven chapters, each with its own setting and gameplay.

You’ll be playing as Dawnfall, a lost wanderer traveling in a fragmented universe where time and space are twisted. Read the book that messed your life, follow a mysterious voice, step into fabulous places, meet unexpected challenges and try to find the way back home and the answers you are looking for.

Review Fix: How was the game born?

Ruggero Aricò: The core design has been my idea, and I can’t say exactly where it came from. The team liked it and we started working on it immediately. Of course, like all collective works, everybody has contributed with ideas and suggestions, but the most important thing is that we have not betrayed the game’s main themes: a quest for knowledge, a book that changes the universe (and that players can actually read!), a journey. This is what Waking the Glares is about.

Review Fix: What was development like?

Aricò: It’s been hard, of course. We are four guys, we have made several classic mistakes indie developers make, but we managed to take the best out of them. Also, we funded the game with our small jobs, with no external funding.

But it has also been very, very inspiring and now that the release date is set we are so excited and proud of what we have done. We are a small team so every single one of us had to take care of two or more elements. Every day a new problem could come out and through the years we have realized that most of the times it was up to us to make an opportunity out of it. We believe this is one of the main challenges of indie development. There are things you can predict, if you have enough experience, and things you can’t predict. The latter, managed correctly, will turn you in a true game developer.

In its main stage game development, on the design side, is more about selection than anything else. Everyone can have “good ideas”, but consistency is the key. When all the elements in the game fall into place then you are doing it right. Sometimes it can be hard to put a good idea aside, because it looks so nice, but it is the right thing to do.

Review Fix: What games did you play as a kid? How did they inspire this one?

Aricò: Well, we all started very early and we all played all kind of games. We are all born between 1983 and 1986 and those were the years when videogames entered people’s houses without “asking for permission” (me, I started with the Amiga 500).

During our childhood we played so many games that we can’t exactly say for sure which one has inspired Waking the Glares. Also, game design is inspired different art forms.

Think about the main themes of Waking the Glares we mentioned before. Literature, painting, cinema, music, and even human history itself, have talked about that. We like to think that every art and every experience in our lives have inspired us.

It is also true that there have been some games that hit the market in the months we started working together, like Dear Ester and Gone Home. We have immediately loved the way these games tell their stories and this has surely influenced Waking the Glares’ development.

Review Fix: The game has a cool art style. How did you decide on going in that direction?

Aricò: As I already said consistency is very important. We have looked for the right style for what we wanted to say. I think that if people like what they see in the screens and the trailer, that is not only for the great technical work made by Marco, Vittorio and Gabriele, but also because of their style choices.

Many things can be “beautiful” but they all have to communicate the same thing. Again, consistency first.

Review Fix: With so much competition on the PS4 and Steam, how hard was it for you guys to make something that stood out?

Aricò: Well this question makes me feel a bit uneasy because I don’t like to compare our work with other games. What I can say, though, is that Waking the Glares tells a story we wanted to tell. We have not tried to follow a particular “wave”, to find out what “people like today”. Being original is a lot more about open yourself to the others than anything else, and this is what “making a game” means for us.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this game?

Aricò: Our main goal is to have the necessary success to fund the other chapters. Let us say something about it: we made everything we could to avoid splitting Waking the Glares in different releases, but we had to. Luckily, every single Chapter will carry its own message, so people will not be left hanging (though we really like Chapter II ending!). We chose quality over quantity and we hope players will appreciate it.

Review Fix: Why should someone play it?

Aricò: Waking the Glares talks about questions and feelings we all pass through in our lives. Both the game and the e-book included in the game tell a story about wandering. We all have lived, or will live in the future, a moment where we have asked ourselves if we were following the right path for us. This could be about studying, about a career, even about a relationship. Doubts are precious, questions and difficulties are fundamental to mature. Waking the Glares talks to everyone and, as we’ve already seen during playtesting, every single person has his or her own perception of the little messages the game whispers. I really like to hear how people have read the meaning between the lines, because it means that we have established a communication with them.

Review Fix: How do you want the game to be remembered?

Aricò: I want the game to be remembered as an experience that has made people think, wonder and discuss about it for days after playing. And, of course as the beginning of a great story we hope to complete.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Aricò: First of all we will follow players’ feedback on the game and make the best out of them. As I have said before, I hope for the game to be successful enough to let us work on the other chapters.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Aricò: I will never try to hide how hard it has been to create Waking the Glares for a small team as we are. It comes naturally to think now about all those teams that have not made it through. I respect all those who have tried and succeeded, but most of all I respect those whose difficulties have overwhelmed their projects. Most of the players don’t know how hard it is to develop a game, which of course doesn’t mean that they can’t criticize games. Feedbacks are vital for life. But game development teaches you to distinguish free design choices from forced design choices, which sometimes can nevertheless be brilliant! For indie developers time, funding and skills are very hardly negotiable. All we can do is be humble, keep learning and love what we are doing.