Interview with the Creator of Plum Road Tea Dream
It’s that time of year again! The Six One Indie Showcase is in full swing and that means loads of amazing indies being shown off and, of course, we’ve got more developer interviews for you. We sent some questions over Samuel Baidoo, the developer of the story-driven walking simulator, Plum Road Tea Dream, who was kind enough to answer them.
A huge thank you to Samuel for being a part of our September showcase and for allowing us to show off Plum Road Tea Dream.
Can you tell me about yourself and how you got started working on Plum Road Tea Dream?
My name is Samuel Baidoo, I’m an Antwerp-based theater maker, dancer and game designer. Plum Road Tea Dream actually started in the first lockdown. I started playing Minecraft for the first time in my life and very fast I found myself using the books you can make in the game as diaries. I noticed that the distance the virtual space created from real life enabled me to write about a traumatic event in my life for the first time, even before being able to speak about it with friend or family members. I kept on writing in Minecraft, memories, observations, dream logging and I made monuments and temples in which I left the book behind. When I look at what I did at a certain moment I realized I had to share it with people. The best to share seemed to me the creation of my own videogame. The temples with the diaries from Minecraft became the sanctuaries you can soon visit in Plum Road Tea Dream.
Plum Road Tea Dream is a very personal and autobiographical story. What inspired you to tell this story and share your personal experiences with players?
To be honest, when I was writing in Minecraft I didn’t originally think I would be sharing any of it. It’s more realizing afterwards that being open and vulnerable about my experience as a queer person of colour would make others feel seen and heard. I carefully started sharing bits and pieces and realised that my stories might be valuable to other people because of would people would react. That inspired and keeps on inspiring me to share Plum Road Tea Dream: people that come and tell me they feel seen, that text me afterwards to let me know they started journaling, people that wipe away a few tears because they have been through something similar.
You mention on your steam page that the game features seven unique chapters each offering distinct gameplay styles. Can you elaborate on what players can expect from a few of these different gameplay styles?
In Lullaby AKA My Fairy Fountain the player will be able to journal themselves. The game also occasionally poses you questions that are logged in this book.
A Mausoleum stays very true to the walking simulator genre and here you go on a walk through a park accompanied by a voice-over that tells you the painful story of case of gaybashing we had in Belgium. At the end of the path you arrive to a mausoleum. A space designated for queer grief.
In New Gods Generator 3000 you get to collect tablet with various symbols on them: a snake, a tooth, a mouth etc. You can input these tablet in a futuristic looking machine that will translate them to 2D images. Through interacting with the machine you can make a collage out of these images and eventually generate an animistic god figure. We also have a mini-game called The Sword of Sadness were you engage in early Pokémon-like battles. In stead of defeating your opponent though the goal is to empathize and tune in to their needs. Rather then attacks like ‘scratch’ or ‘fireball’ you have to choose between ‘lean in for a hug’ or ‘cook dinner’. There are few more interaction in other games but I don’t want to spoil everything.What made you decide to use different graphics styles for the game?
In the game there are indeed 7 sanctuaries to visit and we see these sanctuaries as 7 autonomous games. That’s why they each have a different art style depending on the atmosphere we wanted to create. The collection of these sanctuaries together makes Plum Road Tea Dream. I think it is mainly the result of not trying to take any game design step for granted. So quite early on we realized: if these are separate space we may as well take the freedom to figure out which art-style evokes the right vibe. The result of this now is that Plum Road Tea Dream also feels a bit like walking through game design history. Sunrise Monument has the low-poly and pixelate style that brings in the nostalgia of PS1 era games? On the other side of the spectrum we have a Mausoleum that’s quite realistic. In between you’ll find variation and quite an eclectic approach. We combined 3D scanned sculpture with low and high poly models, pink skies and the mini-game is even in 2D whereas the rest of the game is 3D, first person.
Plum Road Tea Dream encourages players to slow down. On your quieter days, how do you like to relax and unwind?
I love taking naps in the afternoon and making ramen noodles with a creamy broth and lots of veggies. You’ll find me at coffee bars with friends or playing boardgames. When I need to clear my head I take late-evening walks or lie down on my carpet. On days where I really need to rest and come back to myself I’ll be on my couch binge-watching anime or working with my hands (for example making some clay sculptures).
What is something you hope players might take away from the unique experience in Plum Road Tea Dream?
I hope for many things with Plum Road Tea Dream, I hope it reaches a lot of fellow queer and POC people, as I think for many of them the story might be relatable. I hope it contributes more and complex representation of black and queer characters in videogames. I hope more artists get inspire to collaborate with a team of game designer. I hope to help lift up taboo around gaming as something solely violent. I hope to get people gaming for the first time. I hope to touch people just like I do when I make make a theater piece or dance on stage.
Plum Road Tea Dream does not yet have a release date but you can wishlist the game on Steam to stay up to date on future news.