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environments to explore and challenging combat. Indeed, the combat is not for the faint of heart, and it should give more experienced gamers some exciting and memorable moments.” That desire to create a story driven adventure game meant a fast transition for the team, away from the creation of animation for external clients in other industries, and into a game development firm in its own right. Thankfully, the team possessed a great deal of passion for games that could be harnessed to drive towards their goal. “The studio’s original background was in commercials and VFX, but we’ve always wanted to tell our own unique stories,” explains Grier. “The team is full of gamers, so we were naturally attracted to games because they allow for such an immersive experience. We originally considered making Kena’s story a short film, or an animated short, but as we started to develop the characters and the storyline we began to envision gameplay mechanics that could work really well with the story we were telling. “Making a game was a new challenge for us but we felt that we could leverage our skills in animation and VFX to create a prototype to pitch. It’s fair to say, though, we never in a million years dared to dream it would become this popular. We found inspiration in many things along the way, including eastern philosophy and art, themes of finding balance, letting go, and traditional Balinese music called Gamelan. “On the games front, we were always drawn to adventure games such as Legend of Zelda, but we have gained a lot of inspiration from the world


around us as well,” says Grier. “Mike, the creative director on Kena, drew on his experiences of living in Japan and exploring the countryside, which is evident in the lush, detailed environments. Our diverse team brings


a variety of influences, and you can see aspects of many cultures in our character designs and music.”


A NOT-SO TERRIBLE FATE It’s probably unsurprising for a company that started out as an animation studio, that popular films, cartoons and anime were also key touchstones during development.


“Outside of games, we were always drawn to heavily art-directed films like Lord of the Rings and Blade Runner, and the unique and often whimsical animated worlds of Studio Ghibli,” adds Grier. “Also, personally speaking, growing up with a father who worked for the Walt Disney Company meant that not only was I immersed in fantasy, storytelling, and creative engineering from a young age, but also living abroad gave insights into different cultures, environments, and stories. I’d definitely put Disney animated films from the 90’s as another big influence.”


In its earlier days, Ember Lab was also behind a The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask fan film called


February/March 2024 MCV/DEVELOP | 55


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