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”We call it a
poke-and-grab
game instead of a
point-and-click,”
Klaus Lyngeled,
Zoink’s CEO and
co-founder, tells us when we get
talking about the adventure game
inspirations behindGhostGiant.The
studio’s first foray
into PS VR has you
taking on the role
of a massive body
that only a young
cat named Louis
can see.
Essentially, you
become this cat’s
invisible friend, andhelphimwithhis
quest to get his family’s sunflower
farm back on track, assisting the
citizens of Sancourt as you go.
The studio’s put out some
excellent, very stylised indie gamesin the past – the vibrant concept art
for the likes of Fe, Flipping Death,
and Stick It To The Man decorate the
walls of its Swedish office in
Gothenburg where we’re chatting.
So why did Zoink decide to tackle a
PS VR game at all? “It’s really
because I became a little bit of a VR
nerdontheside of everything else,”
Lyngeled chuckles.
“I was looking into
all these games
because I thought
it was something
new. You know,
when you work in
games for over 20
years and it’s
alwaysona flat screen, it’s kind of
cool when something new comes like
this – a totally new medium that is
kind of exciting, it’s kind of new, it’s a
new way to think of it. So I thought it
would be cool to do it.” The resultwas knocking together a “simple, but
actually quite good prototype” and
pitching it to Sony. To cut a long
story short, the company liked it.GIANT ADVENTURE
The way you tackle problems in
Ghost Giant always feels intuitive.
You just reach out and either grab or
poke the environment, flipping open
the fronts of buildings and grabbing
scenery. “You don’t have an
inventory, you don’t have all that
stuff that’s usually quite complicated
for people to keep track of. And you
don’t get stuck as much. But it is the
same mindset you go into – solving
puzzles the way you do with all those
other games,” says Lyngeled. The
philosophy of old-school adventure
games is there, but you experience it
on a much more personal level.
Sancourt and its surroundings
are created in a lovely style, veryI THINK A
LOT OF PEOPLE
HAVEN’T TRIED
THE GOOD VR
TITLES YET.A Giant source
of inspiration
Zoink’s Klaus Lyngeled touches on PS VR’s massive potential
Does that style make you
wish you could reach out
and touch it? Thanks to
PS VR, you can!dev talk
“That was sort of the
premise, kind of a
buddy movie in a way- that you really want
to try to see if you
could really become
friends with this little
character on the
screen and help him
solve these puzzles
and these problems.”
Klaus Lyngeled
CEO and co-founder, Zoink