We’ll be working on a review for Sizeable, so I got in touch with Business Goose Studios to talk a bit about the game and its development. Come check it out!
PS4Blog: Good morning! Thank you for joining us. Could you please help us get started by telling our readers a bit about yourself and your work?
Hi! I’m Sander Ambroos, 1/3 of Business Goose Studios (my colleagues being Beau Vankemenade and Jonathan Wolfs). We are a studio of 3 friends based in Hasselt, Belgium. We met during our Game Design course, and started the studio in 2021!
We have since released a couple of games: Sizeable in 2021 (which has now just launched on consoles as well!), 30 Birds in 2024 together with RamRam Games, and our latest release being Swan Song. We focus on cozy puzzle, adventure,… games with heart, that make you feel things hahaha! I myself am big into retro games and arcade collecting, turtles and tortoises, and The Lord of the Rings!
PS4B: On that note, Sizeable is out now on consoles. How would you describe the game to someone who’s new to it?
Sizeable is a cozy and relaxing puzzle/exploration game that takes place inside little dioramas. You get the power to shrink and grow almost everything in these little dioramas. For example, making the sun grow makes it summer, or shrinking the moon lowers the tide so you can grab a sunken treasure chest. You’re tasked with finding 3 hidden obelisks in each level through these resizing powers, while also keeping an eye out for a secret little tortoise! Fun fact: the secret tortoise you can find in-game is called Pippin, and he is based on my own pet Hermann’s Tortoise!
PS4B: How long did it take to develop the game? Were there any big changes between its original concept phase and the game we now get to play?
I started Sizeable as my Masters Degree project at the end of 2019. When we began talking about starting an indie game studio with the 3 of us, we thought Sizeable could be the perfect debut game, since it was almost finished by the time we would start the studio. So it took around 1.5 years of actual work to get the game ready for launch, since there were a few breaks in between development because of other schoolwork. After launching in March 2021, we kept updating the game for another 2 years with free level packs, bug fixes, and the diorama building mode!
PS4B: How much time is needed on average to complete all levels? Does finding all secret turtles unlock anything extra?
The game takes around 2 hours to complete. Some people finish it a bit faster, some take closer to 3 hours. The game isn’t hard, and it wasn’t meant to be hard. It’s meant to be a very relaxing and fun experience where you have some light puzzles, but mostly spend your time exploring these little dioramas. And finding all of the secret turtles unlocks some more secret levels! They all have their own way to unlock them, so this adds that extra layer of exploration to the whole Sizeable experience!
PS4B: And that’s all the time we have for today. Is there something else you’d like to add before we go?
Thanks for the interview! And hopefully you can give Sizeable – and maybe Swan Song – a try in the future!
