Beautiful platformer will put a spring in your step
Got a favourite fictional fox? Does he happen to be fantastic, by any chance? There aren’t many vulpine heroes in gaming these days, but this nature-loving platformer from French dev team Swing Swing Submarine is planning on changing all that.
Seasons After Fall is the side-scrolling adventure of a fox who somehow has the ability to control the seasons. Something that, as we gaze out of the window at the British ‘summer’, we often wish we could do too.
“At this point, we can’t say too much about the story of Seasons After Fall. But don’t worry, there is one,” teases designer William David. “The main character of the game is a fox. It’s just a fox, a wild fox. We don’t know if it’s a he or a she. Its past is not important. What’s important is that, for a reason, the fox will have to travel the world of Seasons After Fall, meet the guardians of the seasons, gather them and use them to explore the world even more.”
Summer loving
The game is a feast for the eyeballs. Influenced by UbiArts’ painterly style, the colourful 2D visuals make everything look hand-drawn, beautiful both static and in motion. We watch as the fox bounces through an autumnal woodland, oranges and browns filling the screen and leaves fluttering in the foreground. As it leaps across platforms, the fox’s charming animation even has echoes of old-school Disney flicks.
“Because exploration is our first intention, we want the game to deliver a sense of discovery,” explains David. “We want the player to be curious. That’s why we wanted to build a beautiful world that looks like a painting, and sometimes a half-finished painting. We want Seasons After Fall to be a game that people can play serenely, enjoying the world and the power of the seasons and the story.”
Switching between those seasons is a fascinating mechanic. With a speed that would induce a fit for even the hardiest Game Of Thrones characters, autumn becomes winter with the press of a button. Trees are immediately stripped bare, flowers that you could previously use as bouncing platforms shrivel up, and new routes are unlocked through the now snowy forest.
“Once you’ve collected one of the seasons, you can use its power whenever you want, wherever you want. By switching between seasons, you’ll be able to change the appearance and behaviour of the world around you, freezing lakes, growing trees, spreading mushrooms…” says David. “By changing the world, you’ll be able to explore the world. And by exploring the world, you’ll be able to gather more seasons, discover new areas, and understand more about what’s happening.”
Fox love
There are some rogue fantastical elements thrown in. A mysterious blue substance glows along tree roots, and a jellyfish that floats in mid-air helps you unlock secret areas. And we thought a season-changing fox would be grounded in reality… “The world of Seasons After Fall is a mix between things you know, things that seem quite natural, like forests, caves, swamps, and some alien elements that look like plants, trees, bugs, but that work weirdly,” teases David. “You’ll have to experiment to understand how everything works.”
You aren’t just a lone wolf – wait, fox – either. There are plenty of other creatures scattered across the levels for you to interact with. “The guardians of the seasons are important characters. You’ll meet them all. They’ll give you the power to change the seasons, and you’ll have to help them in return,” reveals David. “The only character you’ll be able to control is the fox, but of course by running, jumping, yapping, and changing the seasons, you’ll be able to have some indirect control of many other entities.” When it comes to influences, the team has an eclectic mix in mind. “A lot of games inspired us, like Soul Reaver, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Tomb Raider, Blueberry Garden, the Knytt series, and many others, but they are more design inspirations than visual inspirations,” ponders David.
The game isn’t about challenging us with the same mind-gymnastics as the team’s previous puzzlers, but it’s filled with a sense of discovery. It sounds like we’ve gone full hipster, but the atmosphere is beautifully unique.
“Seasons After Fall is not a challenging game in term of controls, and the puzzles it will contain will be clearly more accessible than in our previous games,” says David. “Our focus is atmosphere, and the story. We don’t want Seasons After Fall to feel like work.”
Another key part of development has been the soundtrack. A full score has been recorded with a string quartet, giving each season its own musical flavour. “Music is an important part of our creative process, that’s one of the reasons why our studio is called Swing Swing Submarine,” explains David. “For Seasons After Fall, music is another great tool that helps us create a sense of exploration and discovery. It won’t be heard all the time: we use it to highlight important scenes and create memorable moments. What’s interesting with the string quartet is that it’s a small musical ensemble, but a powerful one: we can illustrate moments and accompany the player in their journey with it.”
Now that the team has a publisher, Seasons After Fall will be coming to current-gen consoles as well as PC. You can keep your Island, Mr Grylls – this is how we’re getting back to nature.