Mervik: Our chosen themes inform everything we do, and this is no different here. How do the story, setting, and characters play into that theme? For this game, we became hooked on the theme of escapism and the terrible things that come from living in a world with that at its core. ThereвЂ™s something immensely gratifying in taking these things you see and experience in life, reducing them to their essence, and then twisting that into unfamiliar and grotesque shapes. How would you define the themes and symbolism found in Little Nightmares II and how were they shaped by all that came before it in the franchise?Дave Mervik, Narrative Director: While originally born in the claustrophobic setting of The Maw, this idea of the worst of humanity being left to rot informed our approach to the entire Little Nightmares universe. The end result is an uncomfortably nightmarish landscape seen through the eyes of a child. Little Nightmares explored the wild extremes of childhood through the surrealistic setting of The Maw - a place where the worst things in the world are left to rot. I think that opens up for a larger audience more so than a traditional horror game. WeвЂ™ve tried to stay away from jump scares and gore and instead, we focused on the atmosphere, gameplay, scenes, and characters allowing the player to always be at the edge of their seat. And lastly, we designed the game to be filled with tension, not horror per se.

I also think the art style in itself is really tantalizing, you wanna dive into the world when you see a screenshot. I think the reason why people like Little Nightmares is partly the contrast between a dark, grim nightmarish world and the cute iconic and playful kids. Lucky enough, Bandai Namco was really invested in the world and took on that idea from the start. But at the end of the day, it is really up to the publisher to decide if such a venture is worth it, and of course, it depends on the success of the first game. Johnsson: From the very beginning, we did imagine Little Nightmares turning into a franchise, a world bigger than just a game. What is it about the concept that you think has struck such a chord with people? The original Little Nightmares lead not just to a sequel this year, but a prequel for mobile, a comic book run, and a potential television series. Imagination, visual narrative, strong tone, and atmosphere are a big part of our DNA. He looks like a doctor, but why is his face covered? Is he bad? What is he doing to me? Little Nightmares has a strong visual narrative, but we never actually tell the player what to feel or what is happening, we leave a lot up to the player to fill in the blanks. In Statik, Dr.В Ingen looks and acts like a normal doctor, but since his face is censored, it immediately creates tension and a narrative without actually saying anything.

They are about suspense and tension created in scenes where we purposefully leave out a lot so the players can use their imagination. But both The Stretchers (Nintendo) and Statik (PSVR) showed different ambitions for the studio, and it did really create these huge questions for us like вЂњWho are we? What are we about?вЂќ Statik and Little Nightmares might look and play very differently, but they both have common attributes that are part of the studioвЂ™s DNA.

Little Nightmares was definitely a strong part of us, as it is a sort of spiritual cousin to City of Metronome, the game we founded the studio on back in 2005. How have the intervening years and the release of Little Nightmares II helped to solidify the studioвЂ™s identity?ДЄndreas Johnsson, CEO: So we did get into a sort of identity crisis after we split with Sony. The studioвЂ™s first two original titles were Little Nightmares and Statik, two wildly different sorts of games. Tarsier Studios created a number of titles for Sony Computer Entertainment in its formative years, but more recently has transitioned into a fully independent studio.

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