To tackle the subject of grief
the team had some professional
help. “We’ve been working with
the Wellcome Trust charity on how
we tackle grief and how we inform
people,” explains Sketchbook Games
founder, Mark Backler. “Wellcome don’t
really want it to be a preachy thing, or
a self-help game, they want it to be
a great piece of entertainment that’s
informed by science and research.”Visions of grief
This narrative is being crafted by
Rhianna Pratchett. “I thought there
was a lot of potential to tell quite an
emotionally engaging story,” she says.
“I wanted to take someone on the
journey of grief and of grief being an
echo of love, and how we as humans
deal with grief. Also, the intersection
of grief and memory, and that grief is
not always completely dark. There are
light moments within that and holding
onto those memories.
“Loss was something I felt was
universal, something everyone goes
through at some point,” continues
Pratchett. “I remember losing my
grandmother and that first time when
you realise that life is unfair and life is
going to deal you shitty cards, and the
realisation that people die and you’re
going to die. I wanted that sort of loss
of innocence.”
To do that convincingly it’s vital to
look to personal experiences. “I drew
upon my relationship with my
paternal grandmother, who I spent a
lot of time with until I was about 12,”
says Pratchett. “I think there’s a
particular relationship you have with
your grandparents, if you’re lucky
enough to have them around, that’s
different to your actual parents.
I remember all my grandmother’s
sayings and all her stories, and how
she would tell me all about Greek
myths and legends, which I think she
used to do with my father as well.
I kind of wanted to capture some
of that, the relationship between
children and grandparents that is
based on it being more relaxed and
open and kind of ‘teacherly’, and the
passing on of wisdom in little sayings
and things like that.”
Lost Words seems to be hiding a lot
between its lines, and we look forward
to exploring Izzy’s story when the
game releases this year. QOn the surface, Lost Words seems like
a standard 2D puzzle platformer, but
look beneath its bright colour palette
and charming character design and
you’ll find a thoughtful story about
the exploration of grief. But it’s not
just the juxtaposition between theme
and visuals that makes this game so
intriguing, it’s also how you play it.
You take on the role of Izzy, a young
woman who dreams of being a writer,
who is also coming to terms with the
sudden illness of her grandmother.
Your time is spent both exploring the
pages of Izzy’s journal and venturing
through the fantasy world that she’s
created, called Estoria.
The Journal section introduces you
to the core mechanic of the game:
using words in a sentence to solve
puzzles. The Estoria section is a fully
rendered fantasy world which Izzy’s
in-game protagonist can explore.
Here you can collect words which you
use to change the environment. One
example we saw had Izzy’s protagonist
using the word ‘rise’ to raise a
platform for us to reach higher ground.
The gameplay is cleverly intertwined
with the story. At one point, the pages
of Izzy’s journal flip when she finds out
about the news of her grandmother, a
clear metaphor for both her life turning
upside down and her stomach turning
due to the shock she’s experiencing.Lost Words:
Beyond The
Page
An emotional story-led puzzle
platformer with a twist
Adam Bryant
PUBLISHER MODUS GAMES DEVELOPER SKETCHBOOK GAMES
ETA 2019MIND
TRAVEL
Caitlin Hitchcock, a
psychologist and
researcher at
Cambridge University,
spoke to Rhianna
Pratchett about a
technique in which
she’d get children to
mentally send
themselves back to a
moment of trauma to
talk to themselves in
that moment. “It was
like using the older,
wiser child to council
the younger,
frightened child
inside,” says
Pratchett. “She
described it as a
‘compassionate
image’, which I found
fascinating. It’s like
mental time travel. We
have a little hidden
element of that within
the game.”“Loss was something I felt
was universal, something
everyone goes though”
The whale shark seen in the game is a reflection of Pratchett’s desire to one day swim with oneMore Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 029
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