Annapurna Interactive
It was a random day in March when I get a surprising email . The PR squad for Annapurna Interactive had get to out to send over apreview build ofLorelei and the Laser Eyes . I was n’t told when the plot was come out or even when I could write stamp on it . I ’d end up even more nonplused when I downloaded it to my Steam account and realized that I ’d been sent the full game despite the fact that no departure date had been announced yet . I quite literally had no idea what I was in for at that present moment . calendar week later , I was wrapping credits on one of the most noteworthy games I ’d ever play .
Lorelei and the Laser Eyesis 2024 ’s big surprisal . rise by Simogo , the puzzle - based adventure game is a remarkable design feat occupy with incredibly cagey mental challenges . It ’s the sort of project that leaves one wonder how a mathematical group of developers could even come up with such a bold originative vision , let alone execute it as well as this . Weeks after finish its concluding puzzler , I was desperate to acquire everything I could about one of my new , all - clip favourite game .
Annapurna Interactive
I ’d get some of the answers I was so desperately looking for in an email interview with Simogo carbon monoxide gas - beginner Simon Flesser . While he was careful to keep the mystifying game ’s symbolism under wraps , Flesser gave me some insight into how the impressive task came together . What in the beginning begin as a modest follow - up toSayonara Wild Heartssoon became Simogo ’s freehanded and boldest game yet thanks to the power of iteration and creativeness .
Building the maze
BeforeLorelei and the Laser Eyes , Simogo ’s last labor was the critically acclaimedSayonara Wild Hearts . In that brusk rhythm method of birth control game , players blow through a fashionable , emotional floor to the musical rhythm of some gamey - energy music . Rather than take advantage on that success with a subsequence or something similar , the squad at Simogo want to do something entirely unlike . Flesser calls the studio ’s thinking a “ counterreaction in creativity , ” noting that it want to make something slow and more driven by the learning ability than the heart . It did n’t have much of an estimate for what that signify originally , but it did have a claim .
“ We only knew that we want to make a game that was black and - white-hot because I had fight so much with color duringSayonara Wild Hearts , and we knew what the plot would be called , ” Flesser tell Digital Trends . “ We had the title before the game . We had written down a page of imaginary ring names we could use for theSayonara Wild Heartssoundtrack release , and one of them was Lorelei and the Laser Humans , which somehow along the way was turned into the initial rhyme , almost rhymey title . ”
That title would finally bloom into an challenging puzzle game that was more in the vein of Simogo titles likeDevice 6thanSayonara Wild Hearts . The final version plays like a Riffian onResident EvilorAlone in the Dark , minus any armed combat . It ’s a brainy exploration game where player solve a serial publication of interlocking puzzles distribute throughout a moody star sign . That was n’t the original vision for the game , though . In fact , the original imagination was surprisingly small compare to the final one .
No teaser is created in a vacuity .
“ The entire project was very iterative , and what we released was maybe the third loop of the game , ” Flesser say . “ It always had puzzle components , but it was more conceptual , relying on specific mechanics , most related to switch of camera perspective . These influenced some of the puzzles that ended up in the game . We had planned for it to be modest thanSayonara Wild Hearts , but as we made so many tool and had so many different ideas along the way , the project grew naturally . You never really get it on in the end what the project want to be itself , and I conceive that is the only way you may create something that feels true . If you know what the total thing is before create it , then there really is no point in piddle it . ”
What ’s specially notable about the final termination is how rich it is with references to other media . It see like a1990s horror video gameand even calls back to that earned run average with one set of retro puzzles . That meld with computer address to games likePac - Manand avant - garde films likeLast Year at Marienbad . Those rich book of facts became an crucial piece of the puzzler for Simogo as it aimed to build a mankind that felt up much bigger than what players see in its central hotel setting .
“ We wanted this game to feel like it was aware of it being a piece of medium , and like you were exploring it like a large archive of things , ” Flesser says . “ We desire to create a good sense of the things you find in the plot exist as real piece of media as well , to make the game ’s world finger fertile , suggest an entire creation outside the hotel . It was also a reflective project as a whole . There is a pile of Simogo history in there as well . ”
Perplexing puzzles
What ’s most impressive about all of this is thebrilliant teaser designat the warmness of the experience . Lorelei and the Laser Eyescontains a immense array of creative puzzler that are n’t just iterating on one idea . Some are simple keypad solutions build around riddles . Others are far more complex , weave together hint from Federal Reserve note , environmental observation , and hidden goose egg . A pot of brain is required to break it all , but the solutions are always rewarding to find thanks to saucy internal logic .
For instance , one key puzzle chain revolve around an art expo housed within the hotel . Midway through the adventure , histrion unlock rooms occupy with odd installations . Each of them is border as a part of art dally with the concept of position . It turns out each of them houses a secret teaser with its own jaw - dropping solution . In one room , housed behind a door with the year 1938 emblazoned across it , players need to habituate a stationary camera to measure number statues and compare them to other objects in the room . It ’s a brain - flex solution , and I can hardly see how one would even make something like it . Flesser explain how that elbow room came to be when discussing Simogo ’s teaser philosophy .
“ No puzzle is make in a vacuum . They all have melodic theme informing each other , ” Flesser says . “ For the hotel way puzzles , the melodic theme was always about how we could run with 3D tv camera perspectives , without using any ‘ fake ’ magic digital portion . They ’re created very mechanically and practically as if they could exist physically . We ’d sit down and conceive about the unlike things a 3D photographic camera could do , and the differences between rotation , pans , zoom , tilts and construct like that . With the hotel rooms , there was also such an constitute framework to work within , since they all have the same type of decode phase , of translating a 3D space to inputs on buttons . For 1938 specifically , it ’s base around rapid growth and size and perspective distorted shape . much , it was just very manual employment of forever moving around target and re - exporting painting until the perspective fits . ”
teaser like that can makeLorelei and the Laser Eyesa hard secret plan , specially for those who are n’t as well - verse in the musical genre . It ’s a in high spirits - level puzzle plot that demand a mass of mental vigor . Simogo does n’t hold players ’ hands either ; there ’s no hint system here . While that may make the adventure find a small daunting , Flesser observe that the secret plan is n’t exactly meant to be played entirely alone .
“ We desire to receive people to intercommunicate with each other , ” Flesser say . “ We had similar ideas in other games . LikeSPL - Tnot stimulate an online leaderboard , so they ’d rather liken scores and talk about scheme and technique . ”
Those who are brave enough to step into the maze wo n’t be disappointed . Lorelei and the Laser Eyesis a remarkaby creative vision that like an expert sew ingenious puzzles and sensitive source together . It ’s a crowning accomplishment for Simogo , but it ’s a encompassing exploit too . It ’s a glow example of why sometimes the best originative decisiveness is to zig when everyone expects you to zag . Lorelei and the Laser Eyesis nothing likeSayonara Wild Hearts , and that ’s exactly why it ’s so special .
Lorelei and the Laser Eyesis out now on Nintendo Switch and PC .
