#Limbo playdead full

I remember showing Dino one of those budgets at some point, and he was really nice about it, but ultimately he said, “If you want it to be at this level, you’re going to have to look at that again. Some publishers would have me do a budget. Olsen: It’s also naivete about project planning, not knowing about the industry I was venturing into. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and come up with something good, but in many cases it’s hard to protect good IP. You tend to strike a bad deal, because you need money. If you’re a seasoned developer, maybe, you know this is important, but if you don’t have two or three games under your belt yet you may not know how important it is. It’s one of the big problems people face when they go out to get money early in a project. But his reasoning was, “I think the public would like to see this in color.” The guy who suggested color, I don’t know why he wanted that. The guy who suggested multiplayer is into multiplayer games. One guy suggested networking, doing a multiplayer game. I gave an example in there, where we asked for suggestions about Limbo. You could take any group here and ask them what we should do with this game, and they’d all suggest different directions. There’s a board of people, all with their opinions - it’s not really a problem with publishers specifically, but with any group of people. If you talk to anyone who takes a project to a publisher early, it gets ruined. They all think they know how the public will react. The problem with publishers - I don’t mind publishers, but if you take their money and follow their whims, in the end it’s a group of people who need to decide and agree on the best direction for the game, and they all have aspirations in different directions. GamesBeat: So he has an idea that you want to foster. And then Dino came along and said, “Just ask me how it goes.” Olsen: It’s almost like I was the newbie in a prison block and I hadn’t found my gang. But I thought it needed the proper treatment, a proper period of creativity. When I saw this project, I think - if Chris were to go to any ordinary publisher, especially this early, it would have just been shredded. That’s all there’s been so far.ĭino Patti: A lot of concepts get killed because of money and interest.

#Limbo playdead full

Olsen: It’s just me and Dino full time, with three contractors on preproduction concept art. GamesBeat: How many people are onboard right now? We founded the company a while ago, but we just moved into Guildford and announced on Tuesday – mostly to get interest from potential collaborators. But I was always doing that indie thing, gathering followers, and eventually he got word of it and said, “What’s going on?” After about six months of talking, we came to the conclusion that it would be in our best interests to start a studio and collaborate. Can you talk about that?Ĭhris Olsen: I spent two and a half years, in my spare time, developing projects while working as an animator in the feature film industry. Limbo really is worth a player's time if they're looking for a quick gaming fix and an experience that will stay with them long after they've put down their controller.GamesBeat: I wanted to hear about your new thing. Its puzzles are innovative, and each one feels fresh and different, while its story is straightforward but effective. Limbo may be twelve years old now, but its simplicity helps it hold up even against more sophisticated modern game design. The upcoming Silt has tonal similarities and surreal yet lethal environments that feel straight out of Limbo's playbook, showing how it's still influencing titles to this day. More thoughtful, stylistic games followed in its footsteps, providing players with releases like the simple but breathtaking platform-adventure Gris, or the equally atmospheric and disturbing Little Nightmares. Before it came along, the classic idea of an artful, creatively focused indie title was much more elusive, but Limbo showed how less flashy or bombastic indies could still make a huge impact and achieve success. Limbo was foundational for a whole sub-genre of the indie movement.