GRIS is a game that caught our attention when it was revealed, so I got in touch with Nomada Studio to talk a bit its development for the Nintendo Switch. Come check it out!
PS4Blog: Good morning! Thank you for joining us today. Could you please get us started by telling our readers a bit about yourself and your work?
We are Nomada Studio, a small team of developers and artists in Barcelona working on our debut title, GRIS. We’ve been drawing from our experience within AAA game development and the distinctly vivid illustrations of our colleague, Conrad Roset, to create what feels to us like that the perfect way to tell a story we’ve wanted to make interactive and personal. Though we’ve faced new challenges while creating the game, we’re elated with how GRIS has come together and can’t wait to bring players along on this journey.
PS4B: GRIS is set to release on Nintendo Switch on Dec. 13. How would you describe the game to someone who’s never heard about it?
GRIS is an artistic 2D platformer that tells a tragic story, and we’re striving to accomplish this mostly through surreal imagery and visual themes. We didn’t want to rely on a spoken narrative, and instead pushed ourselves to build a world filled with environments, scenarios, and creatures evocative enough to tell a tale without exposition.
PS4B: How long did it take to develop the game for its Nintendo Switch release? Where there any particular hurdles or challenges you had to overcome during development?
The game has been in production for 18 months and out of those, three months have been dedicated to porting the game to Switch. There wasn’t any huge challenge, as thanks to using Unity most of the involved heavy work was already done. We just had to take care of specific things like the process for game saves or the game’s video player.
PS4B: Are you considering working on additional content for the game?
No. GRIS feels complete to us as is; we feel it accomplishes our creative goals as a team and don’t believe that additional scenes or moments would improve on what’s already there in a meaningful way.
PS4B: And now it’s time for us to go. Would you like to add anything else before we end this one?
Thank you to everyone who has taken time during shows like PAX to try our game and those who have shared their excitement for it over social media. The reception thus far has been humbling, and we look forward to introducing the full experience to the world soon!
