You know in a weird coincidence we had actually already decided to start working remotely with the team literally a month before the initial lockdown happened, but before that time we were all working in an office space together and it would range in company size between five to six people and then down to two or three. Simon Paquette: I mean honestly I think we are really fortunate as game developers because so many of our teams are based around online collaborations, to begin with. So taking a step back two decades obviously people still have relationships, and but when you get cut off you’re stuck so to speak.Īs a game developer, how has the pandemic affected the way you create games? It was never intended as we didn’t have any idea about a pandemic happening― but it was really intended to just shine a light on how we are privileged to have all the technology we need to communicate is such a game-changer. I think we are so fortunate that we have the technology to communicate. Simon Paquette: Oh it would be a completely different thing. How would you feel if you were in that position? It would be a lot harder to stay in touch with loved ones compared to today where we have Skype, Zoom, cellphones, and text messaging to use while we wait for this thing to improve or end. Fire Tonight made me step back into the 90s and made me imagine what we would’ve done if a pandemic occurred back then. There’s some story content that felt like it was trying to get from point A to point B and that would really be your story motivation and then the actual vibe of the song itself had contrast and the urgency about what’s implied by a city being on fire and being separated so that sort of set the tone for the type of game where we wanted it to be a very important setting but we didn’t want to give that sense of panic and urgency that you might feel in a real life-situation like that.Īs someone in a long-distance relationship, I can relate to the feelings of separation and wanting nothing more than to reunite with your loved one. It’s kind of a reminiscent song but at the same time it’s a little bit laid back and it’s not really intense, aggressive, or scary.
In the ideas that we were tossing around, he had mentioned to me “Hey there’s a song I love and I always wanted to make a game based around this song.” While reading through the actual lyrics of the song I saw a bunch of story elements that were interesting such as there’s clearly a couple that is separated, they don’t know what the other is doing, the singer is stuck at home waiting and wondering what is going on, you can tell there’s fire, there’s police out ― there’s something going on but they don’t know what. Simon Paquette: So the choice of the song came from Rajen in that he grew up as a teenager in the 90s and Information Society has always been one of his all-time favorite bands and he had always loved this song in particular. What was it about that song in particular that made you guys want to create a narrative puzzle game? The idea for Fire Tonight from what I read and understood was inspired by Information Society’s song of the same name. So it wasn’t until the beginning of 2019 that we actually started production on the game. We had a great meeting and hit it off and over the course of a few months of emailing back-and-forth, we hit on this idea. Simon Paquette: So the initial concept of the game started in 2018 and I met up with our publisher and co-creator Rajen Savjani of Way Down Deep and he was looking to team up with a developer to make a little passion project. How long was Fire Tonight in development for when you take the pandemic into account? Despite the shakeups, to day-to-day life, and to the world this game is well thought out, very beautiful and the quality doesn’t seem to be impacted by the slowdown that you encountered. In this interview, we chat with Game Developer Simon Paquette from Reptoid Games, and Kurt Larson from Information Society. Fire Tonight is a short but heartfelt narrative puzzle game that focuses on the loving bond between Devin and Maya while they are separated by a city on fire.
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