Interview with Developer of CARIMARA: Beneath the Forlorn Limbs

Ever since we included TRIP from Bastinus Rex in last year’s showcase, we’ve been huge fans and have been patiently waiting to play the full version. As if one game wasn’t enough, Bastinus has also been working on CARIMARA: Beneath the Forlorn Limbs and we were stoked to include it in this month’s showcase.

Huge thank you to Bastien for being a part of another one of our showcases and for answering my questions about CARIMARA!

• Can you tell me more about yourself and how you got started working on CARIMARA: Beneath the Forlorn Limbs?

Hi! I'm Bastien (Bastinus Rex) and I'm 27. I've been a solo game dev for 2 years now.

Before that, I worked 4 years as a tech artist on hypercasual mobile games at a french studio named Dual Cat.

It was really great, it was the best school for learning almost every aspect of game dev. We used to make lots of little games, test marketing them to see if they were popular, and then do it all over again until we were lucky enough to come up with a concept that worked. It was also great for learning how to create intuitive games, which should be understandable in 1 second and which don't need a tutorial!

The problem was that it wasn't much fun creatively. The main game design question we were trying to solve was: “How can we keep the player playing for as long as possible?”
So I ended up becoming a solo dev to apply everything I'd learnt there, but to make games that are important to me, with original aesthetics, deeper stories and themes!

• What inspired the unique art style of the game? (I’ve never seen anything quite like it!)

There's a big psx-style base, but I take a lot of freedom with the lighting, for example, or the characters. 

Regarding the aesthetics and the characters, I'm not sure it's really noticeable, but I love the “medieval retro strange” vibe, inspired by lots of artists like Plastiboo, Gobli_prin or Gage Lindsten. I also love old cartoon characters, like the ones in “The Last Unicorn”, which I discovered recently.

For the plants in the background, I took photos and applied them to simple 3D objects, which was a great way of saving time and making things more optimized, as well as making the game more personal!

For the setting and the story, as a child I was fascinated by the world of ‘The spook's apprentice’. And I've always wanted to make a game in this kind of low dark fantasy universe.

I also took inspiration from stories in Normandy folklore, the region where I grew up in France!

I think the first time I discovered the psx revival was when I was wandering around itch io and came across Hypinett game “Bleakshore”. I didn't play it, but I remember being impressed by the aesthetics. I then discovered the Haunted PS1 community, and took part in a few of their game jams.

I was born in 1998, and I've never played a single ps1 or ps2 game!

I think my nostalgia for this aesthetic must come from Nintendo consoles. When you think about it, the buildings in pokémon diamond and pearl were 3D objects with pixel textures!

I love the blurry aspect of the pixelated screen, and the movement of the ps1-style vertexes gives a disturbing aspect to the image, as if the game were organic, never static, I love it when everything moves on the screen!

• In the game you collect cards as you discover different people and objects. Can you explain more of how players will use the cards in the game? 

You can use the cards on characters and on certain objects.

A card on a character unlocks a new dialogue, and potentially a clue to the investigation.

Some objects require specific cards, for example, the chest will require the “key” card!

Finally, you'll need to use these cards to answer the ghost's questions and win the game!

• CARIMARA will only take players 30 minutes to 1 hour to finish. What do you think is the key to making a great one-sitting game like this? 

I don't know if I really have the key to this, but what I've tried to aim for is a game that feels generous! Because it's so short, I've been able to allow myself to do a higher level of polish, to hide a few secrets and to spend a lot of time on the details and the atmosphere.

I'd like to do more, and I don't want the game to be too expensive. I like the idea of having lots of small, inexpensive episodes that take advantage of each other's marketing, rather than one big, more expensive game.

• Can you tell me more about how you used hand made sounds in the game? 

The sounds are a mixture of sounds I recorded with my phone and sounds created with Garage Band software.

The sound of the wind, for example. I've always loved the sound of the wind in old Japanese anime like Nausicaa! I tried to reproduce that feeling a bit by experimenting with Garage Band!

Otherwise, I went out into nature to record the sounds of crows, rivers, frogs, etc. It's so nice to incorporate familiar sounds that I love to hear when I'm wandering around, into my game! 

I also did a bit of DIY for some of the sounds, for example, for the fireplace, I moved a packet of chips around and blew into the microphone!

• You are also currently working on TRIP, what’s an important lesson you’ve learned while working on both titles? 

I've learnt that I'm terrible at estimating production time!

Originally, I just wanted to take a 2-week break from TRIP to make a game for Halloween. In the end, it took me 6 months! 

I've learnt that TRIP is a really tricky project. I'm having a lot of trouble turning TRIP into the game I have in mind. For CARIMARA, it was super simple, I hardly changed anything I'd planned to do the first day I thought about it! It just flowed.

It's also a bit complicated at the moment to juggle the two at the same time. I've got to prepare TRIP for the A-MAZE festival in Berlin, but I've also got to finish CARIMARA, talk to publishers and so on. It's all so cool and I'm not complaining, but it's a lot to think about all at once.

• I know we’ve featured TRIP in a previous showcase so we’ve asked you this question before but I wanted to ask it again in case anything has changed since you last answered it. What does “indie” mean to you?

Hmmm I think for me it means audacious and authentic !

CARIMARA: Beneath the Forlorn Limbs is available to wishlist on Steam now.