wfmag.cc \ 09InterviewAttract Mode
How important was it to have a child
protagonist in El Hijo? Not just to
establish a sense of vulnerability, but
also to eliminate any possibility of
violence. In many stealth games, you
can at least fight back to a degree if
you’re caught; that doesn’t appear to be
an option in El Hijo.
Putting a child in the central role was
pivotal in allowing us to naturally
extract the violence that has become
synonymous with the stealth genre.
We feel that this allows us to place more
importance on the environment and
characters. Allowing the player to explore
and go on an adventure at a human level
rather than living out power fantasies.Finally, what’s your overall aim for El
Hijo? Is there an emotion or theme that
you want players to walk away with?
In our story, the protagonist El Hijo does
not accept his fate – he sets off to find
his mother even if this means a long
arduous journey, because this is what he
wants to pursue. Over the course of his
journey, El Hijo will come across many
children who have passively accepted
their fate. He will inspire these children
who will evolve throughout the different
environments, becoming progressively
more active and revolutionary in response
to El Hijo’s interaction with them.
We would like to pass a bit of El Hijo’s
attitude on to the player. If you believe
in something, don’t accept that it might
seem impossible. Be proactive about it.
Be [courageous], as your positive drive
might be inspirational for others.El Hijo is due for release later in 2019
for PC, Mac, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.The biggest challenge was in the pre-
production – finding the right tools that
helped us translate our vision into a game.
Is the stealth genre a relatively untapped
one for indie developers, do you think?
Stealth games are surprisingly sparse in the
indie scene, although there are of course
some brilliant examples. We definitely see a
lot of potential and would love to see what
other developers could come up with.
There’s a strong sense of light and
shade in El Hijo’s visual style, which
feels just right for a stealth game. Did it
take a while to hit on the right style and
colour palette for the game?
Oh yes, the first ten levels play mainly
indoors in the monastery, which was fairly
easy in regards to using light and shade.
However, once we hit the desert, where
shadows are rather rare, we had to come
up with a new idea. Our logic switches
though: once the player is out in the
desert and shadows are scarce, he/she
will need to find other ways to distract
the foes to make his/her way through
the environment.
Did you need to do a lot of real-world
research as you were coming up with
the game’s locations?
We did a lot of research and collected
a lot of different moods on possible
locations, in order to find the right style
and the right tools to get the exact look of
the environment we wanted.
wfmag.cc \ 09MISSION:
IMPOSSIBLE
El Hijo isn’t the only game in the works
at Honig Studios: one of its other works-
in-progress is Impossible Bottles – a
rhythm game that takes in electronic
music, robots, and a curious storyline
that involves a scientist’s efforts to fuse
machines and organic life to create a
new kind of renewable energy. Like El
Hijo, its visuals are immediately striking,
with the entire game built around the
surreal animated loops of Berlin-based
artist Rafael Varona. Cut to an evolving
score by Phivos-Angelos Kollias and due
out this year for Nintendo Switch and
mobile, Impossible Bottles could well
become the most offbeat rhythm game
since PaRappa The Rapper. El Hijo isn’t the only video game
inspired by Jodorowsky, fact fans –
Suda51 also had El Topo in mind when
he made his cult gem, No More Heroes. Honig Studios have described
El Hijo as a coming-of-age tale,
with the boy growing more
heroic as he goes on his journey. El Hijo uses subtle visual cues
to guide the player along. A handheld rhythm game,
Impossible Bottles showcases
Rafael Varona’s animation.