[Interview] Nifflas Games talks Knytt Underground, teases KnapNok collaboration

NE: What’s the general gist of Knytt Underground? What should players know about the experience?

NN: In Knytt Underground, I wanted to create a large and beautiful world with a lot of life. Behind the world is a quirky but internally consistent story that’s told in a fragmented way that the player can (but does not have to) figure out by adding the pieces together.

Knytt Underground definitely has a unique look and feel, but was there anything you drew inspiration from when making the game?

The game is inspired by me trying to make sense out of our own world. I’m raised in a religious family and went to church, and was until my 20’s fully convinced of my beliefs. Since then, I’ve come to change almost everything I believe in. Turning one’s belief system entirely upside and down is heavy stuff, and I figured that a nice idea to process this would be to make a game about it.

The game has a very different visual style compared to the other Knytt titles. Why did you decide to go with the new direction?

With this style that’s based on photographs, I get to go out capturing photos of many objects I want in my games instead of sitting in front of my computer and drawing them. With a computer job, I get this awesome excuse to be outdoors a lot more. Also, if I only made pixel graphics, I wouldn’t really learn anything outside that, and I like to try many different things and get better at them.

There’s very little guidance in Knytt Underground – the third section of the game in particular gives you a massive area to explore and allows players to figure things out for themselves. Why did you decide to design the game in this less restrictive way?

If I could communicate all game mechanics instantly, I’d have opened the entire game like that, but Chapter 1 and 2 was designed in a linear way so that it could teach the player all the important mechanics before “setting the player free” in this world. Knytt Stories was designed in a similar way – the first level I created in it was “A Strange Dream” with is completely open. Then, I designed a more linear level (“The Machine”) that would be easier to begin and learn the game with. I’m a huge fan of games that are open and lets me choose my own path, and though I don’t design every game like that, I think I’ll come back to them very often. After all, I design the kind of games I would love to play.

You tend to compose most of the music for your games yourself. Could you tell us a bit about the process of creating compositions that matched the specific mood you were going for in Knytt Underground?

This process is completely random. I do want the mood of the locations, stories, and music to match, but how it happens is different every time. Sometimes, I have an area where I need music that fits. In this case, I just compose some random stuff I think may fit, until I find something I like. In other cases, I compose the music first, then listen to it and think about what kind of location I imagine myself being in. In this game, I’ve tried to be more varied in the way I compose. “Mattebos Mandolin” for example is built around a recording of my friend Jonas Mattebo playing the mandolin. “Ride The Train to Denmark” was composed on a train where I had connected my iPad to my laptop, using my Zoom H2 microphone as an audio interface since my soundcard was dead. I must have looked insane with all the devices and cables, and the massive headphones, just on a single seat. In “Fire Resistance”, one percussion sound is a lamp that I loved the sound of. In order to compose around 75% of the music in an almost five hour soundtrack, my way to stay inspired has been testing lots of different ways to compose and create sound.

Have you considered releasing any additional content for Knytt Underground such as a level editor like the one in Knytt Stories?

I’d like to, but it’s a lot of work. The level format is much more advanced than the Knytt Stories one and has scripting. If I can find the time to do this, I would still like to.

It was recently revealed that Nifflas is working with KnapNok Games on a new project for Wii U. Can you say anything about the game? A tease, perhaps?

Something KnapNok does really well is create games for specific hardware, and really taking advantage of its unique set of features. This game is no exception, there’s a reason the game needs to be for the Wii U. It’s built around the need for a bigger screen and a smaller touchscreen with a built in controller, and will feel absolutely great on this.

Knytt Underground – not to mention Pure Chess – will be out on the Wii U eShop at the end of 2013/early 2014. We may have even more on the game in the near future…