Last week (via twitter and facebook) we asked for your questions for a Year Walk QA post here on the blog. A few of you accepted our humble request, so without further ado, let us peek into the question bag!

This game is an adventure, correct?
That is correct. We had long suspected that we were missing out on some serious fat cash by not making adventure games so this is our attempt to make up for this.

Is it a standard point-and-click style adventure or something more experimental?
It is not a standard point-and-click style adventure!
The movement controls in Year Walk began as an experiment in how to make a first person game in a 2D perspective, and to make those controls feel really good. In “standard” adventure games, sometimes it can be pretty bothersome to move around. We want it to be enjoyable, intuitive and fast to just move around in the world, and we want interaction with different objects to feel good and tactile too.

Whilst making Year Walk, have you had any premonitions or visions of your future?
Yes, of course. We can see it all very clear now. But the mysterious future of Simogo must always remain a secret.

From who/where/what are you drawing your inspiration for this game?
Mainly Swedish “mythology” and folk lore.
Other things include Robert Wilson’s version of the play Woyzeck, Matti Bye’s music, David Lynch, Japanese Horror, New Age, the occult, Yuri Norstein’s great stop motion art, swiping and navigating in safari for iOS, Zelda games, Cing‘s great adventure games… to name a few.
Our collaborators are also really great inspiration for us!

Can we expect a Spotify Playlist with inspirational music that you listen to while creating the game?
Why yes, yes you can! Here is what we are listening to while creating Year Walk:
YEAR WALK – THE SPOTIFY PLAYLIST!

Who do you play as?
We’d like that to remain a mystery for now.

Is there a hero/main character in the game? Can you describe him/her/it?
Yes, but the game is played in first person perspective so you never see him/her/it! But, early on in the game you will encounter a human being, so you’ll get a more clear picture of what is going on then.

What is the main characters name, and will you be able to choose his hat?
The name will be a secret for now. As you view the game from the protagonists perspective a hat change might not be very useful. But you are of course free to imagine the hat of your choice – In fact, we strongly encourage imaginary hat options.

It’s a collaboration game this time. When/if there is a discussion in game design, how do you resolve the issue? Real life Smash Bros.? Rock, paper, scissors?
All game design is done by Simogo. The collaborations are within other fields.

The game is directed and produced by Simogo, so in the end, we are the evil dictators that decide everything. But it has not been necessary to play the evil dictator card quite yet, because our collaborators are great at what they do, so we just give them a light spank to steer them into the right Year Walk mind if they start to stray away from the vision.

How much caffeinated fuel does Gordon run on per day?
Actually, we have both stopped drinking coffee during the days!
Gordon now runs on small mints purchased in Germany.

What’s been your favorite moment making year walk so far?
There has been a lot of really good moments, because every phase of this game is different in its interaction, so it is always a great pleasure to see these new “mechanics” come alive.
That said its also a very tough game to make, maybe even our toughest. Not technically, but design wise and spritually this feels very different to our previous games that were very much built around one single mechanic. That is not the case here.

We think getting new materials from our collaborators is always a great joy. One big moment was finising the movement and perspective prototype. That proved that it could be done to make a game in first person view in 2D with natural, fast and fun controls.

Describe Year Walk in 120 words.
That is not a question! But, since we are nice people we can give you a 11 word description:
Year Walk is a first person mystery puzzle story picture book.

Will there be blood?
Yes, a little.

Are the watchers bad guys or good guys?
The watchers are above earthly concepts such as “bad” or “good”.

What is the main mechanic of the game?
Year Walk does not revolve around a single mechanic, there are loads of differents way you’ll be able to touch and move stuff in a lot of ways! But, the main interaction is moving in the world, or walking if you will. The main mechanic will be thinking, hopefully that is something you’ll be doing a lot of in Year Walk – We will not be holding your hand or telling you how to do things. We have the highest respect for your intelligence!

No cartoony graphics games? ;(
Sorry. Not this time. But please have a look at this picture of piglet boars they are positively the cutest things that ever walked on this earth.

That was all the questions for now!
As a bonus, here’s some links to some sites that wrote about Year Walk last week, some even contain some info not provided so get clicketyclicking!

Hookshot Inc!
Gamezebo!
Kotaku!
Edge!
Toucharcade!
Killscreen!

Let us know if we missed any cool links!
Hope you enjoyed this little QA thingy – We might even do it again if you have more questions!