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Spirittea
EarthBound is a reference
point for Beckerton, which
you can certainly see in the
lead character’s design.
ith movies like My Neighbor
Totoro and Spirited Away
behind it, Studio Ghibli is
among the most respected
animation houses in the world.
But its cultural influence has extended far
beyond the realms of hand-drawn animation
or even cinema; its fingerprints can be seen
in video games, too, from the distinctly Ghibli-
esque Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to indie
studio Paralune’s Mythic Ocean.
“I think Studio Ghibli
films are so influential
because they’re the
product of people
who were born and
raised in a completely
different culture from
the west,” says developer Dan Beckerton. “If you
tell two people from two completely different
cultures to imagine something and write or draw
it, you’re likely to get two very different results.
I think the shock of Studio Ghibli’s different-ness
really stays with people.”
Spirited Away is a clear influence on Dan
Beckerton’s current project, Spirittea. Like a
celebrated sequence from that Oscar-winning
film, the game’s partly set in a traditional Far-
Eastern bath house, where the surroundingcountryside’s ghosts come to relax and ease
the stresses of the afterlife. Spirttea, then, is
what happens when you mix the social sim
mechanics of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing
with the fantastical storytelling of animator
Hayao Miyazaki; rather than spending your time
growing and harvesting crops, you’ll be taking
care of your spooky customers at the bath house- handing out towels, guiding them to a hot tub,
and so forth – and roaming the countryside for
more ghosts to coax into your establishment.
“The whole bath
house management
aspect of Spirittea has
a sort of puzzle game
feel to it,” Beckerton
explains. “Players
can engage with this
mechanic as much as they want. If they want to
maximise their profits for the day, then great
care will be needed when considering spirit
placement. But if players just want a more
relaxed management approach, then they can
simply place spirits wherever they want. They’ll
still earn money, just not as much.”
Spirittea’s whimsical management loop was
inspired by Beckerton’s own visits to the Far
East. Now based in Vancouver, Beckerton
originally spent four years as an English teacher
W
Stardew Valley meets Spirited Away in developer
Dan Beckerton’s bath house management sim“I was really enjoying
life as a full-time indie
game developer and was
reluctant to let it go”