Nevais a gorgeous new adventure game that tells the tale of Alba and her titular pet wolf as they go on a journey through a cursed, quickly-decaying world. The title comes from Nomada Studios, which previously released thecritically-acclaimedGrisin 2018, and indie darling publisher Devolver Digital. Instead of focusing on grief like its predecessor,Nevais all about the parental relationship between the duo and the meaningful bond they share.
This time, instead of Alba gaining more abilities over time like the protagonist ofGris,Neva is the character who evolves over the course of the game as they grow older. The title also incorporates combat, pitting the pair against mysterious dark entities that lurk in the wilderness. Though players don’t control Neva directly, they have many ways to interact with the wolf, like calling her, petting her, and incorporating her more and more into fights as the game progresses through its approximately-four-hour story.
Screen Rantinterviewed the game’s lead producer Roger Mendoza to discuss the game’s unique art style, lessons learned fromGris, andwhat players can expect fromNeva.
Developers Knew They Wanted To “Do Something Different” With Neva
The Title’s Design Inspirations & Gameplay Evolution
Screen Rant: First, I would love to talk more about the art style ofNeva, because it’s really interesting how it’s both similar in a few ways to the style ofGris, but it also carves its own identity with a more painterly style. Can you talk about the aesthetic vision for this game?
Roger Mendoza: We knew we wanted to do something different; we don’t want to be the watercolor guys. We knew we wanted the art style to be different, but still recognizable. I think the biggest change for this game is that we don’t have a line, like a contour, for everything. Gris, everything had a black edge, and here everything is more colors.
Though the fact that, obviously,Conrad [Roset] is still the director and the animation team is still the same, it still has this recognizable Gris vibe. When talking with Conrad about inspirations, he always mentioned Monet, the impressionist painter, and a Japanese painter called Masayoshi, who also works a lot with flat colors and things like that. That’s where most of the ideas came from for the game - and Ghibli, obviously.
What would you say are the biggest differences betweenGrisandNevawhen it comes to gameplay? How has your approach to platforming changed sinceGris?
Roger Mendoza: This game has more depth in terms of gameplay. Not only added combat, which is already a big change from Gris, but also the skill set of the character has more variety and has more options. We wanted to expand a bit on the idea of Gris. I would say it’s a more complex game, but we still have the story mode, which you can switch at any time. That has gameplay assistance, and you cannot die, and makes the combat easier.We know that a lot of our players that are going to be coming from Gris are maybe not someone who plays a lot of games, and we also want them to enjoy the game.
I’d love to hear a little bit more about how the gameplay and skill set of the main character evolves over the course of the game. Is it similar toGriswhere she’s getting more abilities over time?
Roger Mendoza: No, something that we put a lot of focus on is that it’s not the character who evolves, it’s actually Neva, the wolf. All the new gameplay opportunities come from Neva and not from the character, becausewe want this idea that the wolf grows with you when you start protecting her, and she ends up protecting you. That’s why all the gameplay opportunities come from the wolf, the character pretty much stays the same during the whole game.
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Was there a concerted effort to setNevaapart fromGrisin any major way, or were you not really focusing on those comparisons and just focusing on what your vision for the new game was?
Roger Mendoza: We didn’t have that in mind a lot, at least at the beginning. I know I felt a bit of pressure when thinking about the next game after Gris, because it went really well. But no, at the end of the day,we decided we wanted to make a game that we like to play, and we just went along with that.
I know a lot of people are going to compare it. As I said, the animation style is very unique, the music is from the same team also. We do a lot of things from Gris, but we still try to make it stand out.
Were there any particularly big ways in which the game changed from the original idea you had for it to now, what the final product is?
Roger Mendoza: Yeah, the initial idea when Conrad told us that he wanted to go again with two characters, and more on the programming and production side, and I remember that we said, “Conrad, it’s fine, but no animals, no nothing. Please don’t do this.” [Laughs] I worked with these kinds of characters before, and they are painful in terms of animations and slopes and things like that, buthe made a really good case about why it needed to be an animal,a wolf, and that we could do this. The fact that she’s a bit magical, too, also played in our favor, and we all agreed in the end, I think it worked out well. I’m happy we actually took the risk to go for that.
Were there things that you had wanted to try inGristhat didn’t work for whatever reason, that you were able to incorporate intoNevainstead?
Roger Mendoza: In terms of art, I would say production for sure. We learned a lot from Gris in terms of how to build scenarios and backgrounds and stuff like that, andnow the whole world feels more alive and more dense. Gris, for technical reasons, there was a point that we had to stop, and now we decided first to split the game in chapters, which allowed us to have more art and more assets in each chapter.
Gris was pretty much like a linear experience. There was no loading zones, which was cool, but it was also quite painful on the technical side. Since we have Neva that grows up, the fact that we have chapters played in our favor, both [on the] technical side and also on the narrative side, to allow us to do all these jobs and make our growth.
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Lessons Learned From Gris & Comparing The Title To Neva
Going even further backwards to the conception ofGris, can you talk a little bit about when that first started and where that initial idea came from?
Roger Mendoza: Conrad had this idea a long time ago to do a game that starts in pencil, no colors; the longer you play, the more colors you have there. One day at a party, we didn’t know each other at all, and we happened to sit next to each other. I was a programmer, he was an artist; he didn’t know how to program, I don’t know how to draw. We just started talking, and we thought it would be a cool idea.
At the beginning, it was supposed to be like an infinite runner for mobile, but the more we started working on it, the more we realized that this needed to be seen on a bigger screen. We just kept evolving the design itself and ended up with what Gris ended up being.
There’s a lot of reasons thatGrisis beloved, but part of it is itsdepiction of mental healthand grief. Can you talk a bit about the process of bringing that difficult and intimate subject into the game?
Roger Mendoza: Yeah, that was one of the ideas we had at the beginning, to tie it up with the color. The fact that you’re able to go through this process and the more color you have or when you lose the color, it was a way to relate it.We talked with a psychologist that’s actually also a designer, and he gave us tips on how to tackle that. He worked with us for, I think it was three months, and he did a bit of consultation to make sure that we tackle the subject properly.
Are you incorporating any of the similar themes fromGrisintoNevain that way?
Roger Mendoza: This one is more focused on parenthood, I would say, is the core thing of the game. It has a bit more of a direct narrative,it’s a bit less open up for interpretation. Although there’s some stuff, especially in the world itself and the enemies and what happens around it, but I wouldn’t say it goes in the same direction of Gris. It’s a bit different. This one talks more about, as I said, parenthood, taking care of someone.
Especially if you’ve had a kid, I think you’ll make a very different connection than the one you made with Gris. I think people are going to enjoy that. - Roger Mendoza
What were the biggest difficulties coming off ofGriswhen it came to makingNeva? Were there any particular things that the team struggled with?
Roger Mendoza: I guess the first struggle was thinking about how Gris went really well, and expectations of people. We took a bit of time; after Gris, we were really burnt out and we needed a break. During that break we started thinking about what would be next, and, that was the first struggle we found is:can we live up to the expectations of people?At the end of the day, the conclusion was not to worry about this. Hopefully people will enjoy the game, obviously, but let’s make a game we are proud of.
The second one was introduction of combat, because we never worked on that before. We hired a combat designer to help us with this at the beginning, at the early conception. It was especially hard finding the balance between combat, but forming narrative sequences to make sure that the pacing is good and it’s not super oppressive with combat all the time. That was something that we learned a bit from Gris also, the timings and pacing of things. Since combat was a big, important part of the game, maybe at the beginning we put too much focus on it, so we had to keep removing, removing, removing until I hope we struck the right balance.
What would you say would probably surprise fans ofGristhe most aboutNeva, when they’re coming into it?
Roger Mendoza: The fact that there’s two characters. I think Gris at times felt lonely, and it was intended, and now, from the very beginning, you already have two characters. I think that you make a connection, but a different one. With Gris, you kind of projected yourself into the character.
You make connection with the animal;especially if you’ve had a kid,I think you’ll make a very different connection than the one you made with Gris. I think people are going to enjoy that.
You talked a little bit about artistic style inspirations, but did you find yourself, in terms of other games, taking inspiration from any other media that way?
Roger Mendoza: For sure. Last Guardian, Ico, two games from GenDesign. We love Last Guardian and Ico, both in a way are big inspiration for us.We took a lot of ideas from Gris, obviously, and from Ori and the Blind Forest, how they play with combat.
In terms of the overall size and scale of the game and the undertaking of the project, how didGrisandNevacompare to one another in that way?
Roger Mendoza: Well, Neva I would say is about twice the size of Gris. I thinkit takes about four and a half, five hours to complete.The big difference, especially with Gris, I think it was 18 months of production. There were three factors here. One was we ran out of money and we did a lot of overtime, the programmers. Also, we were younger, and I didn’t have a kid, so I cannot do overtime anymore. Most of our programmers are older now also, so we don’t ask them because we know they can’t do it.
I think that was one of the biggest differences, that we took a bit more time, which was in many ways thanks to the Devolver. We had to delay the game a couple of times to be able to be more polished, and they never gave us any problem.They just said, “Be happy, don’t stress too much and just finish the game,“and we have to be thankful for that with them, for sure.
In terms of the new things that you’ve been trying inNevathat players are going to get to experience, is there anything in particular you are especially excited to see players react to or that you’re just especially proud of that’s in this game?
Roger Mendoza: I think the whole narrative of the game is interesting. It’s very cool. I’m not going to spoil the ending, obviously, but it’s something I’m looking forward to when the game releases,start opening Twitch and YouTube and see how people react to the whole story and how they feel about the ending.
The whole story of Neva, this is something I’m really looking forward to. We’ll see. I’m sure there’s going to be people who connect more and people who connect less; that happened with Gris, also. A lot of people didn’t like it and that’s perfectly fine, but I’m curious to see how people take it.
