Hello, we’re Total Mayhem Games, a group of students turning into an indie game studio, creators of the We Were Here series. We Were Here Forever, our 4th game, recently released! Ask us anything!

Hi team! I’ve been a fan for years and I gotta to know from each of you:

First We Were Here game - who of you escaped and who got left behind? 👀

Unfortunately, I was the bad friend and left my partner behind...

I'm still being reminded of it today, since I got the "Worst Friend" hoodie and my partner the "Best Friend" hoodie.

~ Nena, Community Manager

I always start out thinking I'm really clever ... than I hear my friend on the other end screaming for help ... I run towards them, only to find out that they've just passed the gate ...

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

Hey :) This has to be a long time ago for me since I have played the first game. I believe I let my friend unknowingly leave me behind, but I'm not 100% sure ^^

~ Christian, Gamedesigner | Co-founder

When's the next game?

The team is now seeing some sunlight for the first time in months. We are actually scared about developers getting sun burned. Of course there are still some veterans left to support the community and further improve the game.

As soon as everybody has a tan and we feel more alive again, we will start gathering our thoughts on what's next.

So please bear with us :)

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

why my brain hurt when play?

Communication + Patience + Difficult puzzles + Screaming friend + Amazing graphics + Ticking clock = brain hurt

~ Nena, Community Manager

I don't blame you. Some of these puzzles are really tough, and we've heard plenty of less-than-flattering nicknames for the more difficult ones during internal testing.

~Thijs, Game Designer

Oh spicy nicknames do share! (if they're not very bad haahahah)

One was consistently referred to as the 'huilpuzzel' (puzzle of tears).

Another one prompted immediate questions "can I get a walkthrough for this?!" whenever someone had to test it.

The good news is the versions that ended up in the final game are a lot more fair and less frustrating. Especially early prototypes can be brutal sometimes.

~Thijs, Game designer

Thanks for the answer! My friend and i have completed all of them and she wants to know how to get onto listings for testing of upcoming games?

Just join our Discord server and you will be the first to hear about it, for sure!

Our Discord server:
https://discord.gg/TxRYRAz

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

[deleted]

Are legumes part of your diet? How do you deal with the gases?

We have a lot of vegetarians here, so global warming here we come!

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

Do you think about VR for the next WWR opus or a spin off ? Maybe not as long as the last ones but a VR game based on similar puzzles. I love the world and your puzzles and there are not many VR games in this genre that can be played by two players.

Can't say we haven't thought about it, but what we definitely do not want is to cripple a WWH experience because it has to be compatible with VR. So if we ever make anything, it needs to be something specially designed for VR.

That being said, it's pretty tough to make a financially viable product that is a co-op VR game. But rest assured, it's not due to a lack of ideas ;)

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

Why is it tough to make a financially viable coop VR game? Just curious.

Edit: whoever downvoted for asking a question: you suck

Well it is already really hard to bring out a successful game. 9 out of 10 Indie games have a hard time to actually make break-even. And this is on platforms that a lot of people own, with millions of players.

Now with VR, you automatically limit yourself to a limited market and if you try to make a co-op VR experience, this limited market becomes even smaller. Now you have to understand, in order to make a good experience, a studio has to invest a lot of money at their own risk. And if it doesn't turn out the way you have hoped, the studio run into financial issues.

All that being said ... VR is cool, co-op is cool ... co-op in VR could be extremely cool. I don't know if you have ever played Fairpoint co-op on the PSVR (with the aim controller), but it's really cool!

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

Pro question here - who gets to make the business decisions once you guys hit mainstream?

Fortunately, there are six of the original students (co-founders) on the board of directors and they all have different areas of expertise (Game Design, Tech, Art & Creative). They make the final decision of what it is the studio produces.

On a more day-to-day point of view, Managing Director Lucia (one of the co-founders) & myself (Geoff - Executive Producer) run the studio and make decisions.

~ Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

Might be a bit of an odd question, but I remember hearing that WWH was inspired by other games including Amnesia: The Dark Decent, so I was wondering what are your thoughts on Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and their most recent addition Amnesia: Rebirth?

No questions odd enough! I've played a bit of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and it was one of the first horror games I played. I really liked it although it really scared me lol! I've only watched a friend play the second game, I think it was nice but not as good as the first one. I honestly haven't seen anything about Amnesia: Rebirth, I know what I'll be doing this weekend! Going to convince my friend to play this one so I can watch (definitely not because I'm too scared to play myself).

~ Nena, Community Manager

Anything new you can share on the console release of Forever? Will literally be counting the days to launch. Thanks for creating arguably the best co-op puzzler out there!

We're working very hard on polishing the game and making the experience for console as smooth as possible. So hopefully we will be able to share a date with you guys soon! Once we have more information, you guys will be the first ones to know. :)

~ Nena, Community Manager

What inspired the team to make a puzzle game? Were there any video games or movies that inspired the game in any way? And if you didn't make a puzzle game, what different type of game would you have made alternatively?

Hey there!

First of all, that's a lot of questions! haha.

The idea of We Were Here started at the Rotterdam University of applied sciences as part of an assignment for a minor program. The assignment was to create a truly unique 3D game experience, with (well implemented) multiplayer being one of the additional challenges to score bonus points.

Within the team, we had a few fans of games that you play together while being really dependent on each other. Like ‘Keeping Talking and Nobody Explodes’, for example. The fact that these roles are so asymmetrical and you need to rely on one another was something we really liked. That’s why we started to prototype that gameplay, with just one simple goal: Try to escape together.

Once we saw the prototype was fun to play and people felt chemistry with other players while playing the game, we started to come up with a background story of a dark, sinister Castle (Castle Rock) in a snowy area, being a reference to an actually existing place in Antarctica. It somehow all fitted well and brought us the initial version of the series: We Were Here.

So we weren't exactly looking for a puzzle game, more an experience.

People often compare our games with ‘Portal 2’, ‘Left 4 Dead’ and ‘Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes’ because of the same sense of cooperativeness. And it is exactly these games that we love and have inspired us to do things with We Were Here.

I wouldn't know what we would make; we grew into We Were Here. But maybe something multiplayer (teams).

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

I believe back in the days, our first main focus was to create an asymmetrical communication game. We thought of things to combine with this gameplay mechanic and got inspiration from games such as: Myst, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Runescape, Portal.

When working as a group of students we had more ideas like a party game, vehicle building game, a horror game, but in the end it was the communication aspect that we found the most interesting. The idea of We Were Here grew organically.

~ Christian, Gamedesigner | Co-founder

I joined after the first three games, but for me a lot of games I enjoy have something puzzly to them. I'm a huge boardgame fan, and a lot of those can be described as multiplayer puzzles at their core.

I really enjoy exploring those systems, building an intuition for how they work together and figuring out how to achieve something with them. Sometimes that's "how to fit all these pieces in these slots?", other times it's "how can I change my build to do more damage?"

What attracted me to join the team is that We Were Here is basically what you get when you blend that type of gameplay with a cooperative experience, another favourite feature of mine.

~ Thijs, Game Designer

So I know being a full time devs leave little time for gaming, but what are the team's favorite personal games/game's they're into right now?

Oh boy here I go plugging these again...

• Zelda: Ocarina of Time was my formative, first real game. I've been a huge fan of Zelda games ever since and how they manage to combine that sense of adventure and mystery with dungeon delving gameplay.
• Outer Wilds is an incredible experience I wish I could forget and play again sometime.
• Any Soulslike, but most recently Elden Ring.
• On the boardgames front: On Mars is about all I could wish for. It's like it was custom designed for my preferences!

~Thijs, Game Designer

I've been playing World of Warcraft since 2005. I must say it's a bit boring at the moment, I'm waiting for the new expansion. But I like to fill in the moments when I don't feel like playing WoW with games like Skyrim, Minecraft, Final Fantasy XIV, and every now and then I try out some random indie games!

~ Nena, Community Manager

I have just finished every single ending of Twelve Minutes and I need to say ... my brain may be hurts even more then when playing We Were Here ;)

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

Hi, have been looking forward for the release for We Were Here Forever!
I'm just curious when the Xbox version of the game will be released and have you considered to implement crossplay between console and PC?

We're working very hard on polishing the game and making the experience for console as smooth as possible. So hopefully we will be able to share a date with you guys soon! Once we have more information, you guys will be the first ones to know. :)

~ Nena, Community Manager

Ohhey! My friend just introduced me to We Were Here a few weeks ago. We just played through We Were Here Too. Thanks for making these!

Why do you think you've stuck with the same theming for 4 games now?

Honestly, when We Were Here (the first game) was created we had this immense backstory that we didn't have the (budget or capacity in the) team for to really tell it properly. With every iteration of We Were Here we got a little bit closer to tell the story of Castle Rock the way we wanted to.

In We Were Here Forever, you will actually notice that a lot of the story comes together. However, if you look really closely in We Were Here Too, you can already find a lot of the story hidden in it.

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

Ain't that how it always is... If you don't mind me asking a follow up, where'd that backstory come from?

Not so much in the fiction, who came up with it and what was the inspiration? It feels like something out of Dark Souls or Warhammer fantasy.

With a few people brainstorming somewhere after hours in a class room, it's really hard to say where stuff is coming from.

Lucia de Visser (our current Managing Director) and Benjamin van Hemert (co-founder) have been working really hard with the help of Jessica (our 2D Artist) in the early days to setup and expand the lore. At a later stage our Creative Director Ruud Renting picked up the backstory and worked on it some more with Gerben Grave (our Narrative Designer).

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

Hi, how does one submit an idea to you? I have a board game that has been published and would be a massively good fit for tablet gaming.

Don't be shy ... join our Discord and share what is on your mind. If it's really any good, one of the devs will sure contact you. We are at the Discord all the time.

Our Discord:
https://discord.gg/TxRYRAz

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

My best friend and I loved the We Were Here trilogy, as soon as Forever drops on PS4 it'll be an instant purchase! We binged the series across four days hoovering up as many of the trophies as we could with multiple playthroughs, as big fans of escape rooms they scratched an itch we didn't even know we had. The disappearing staircase puzzle in the second game had us absolutely crying with laughter from the sheer panic.

I guess my question would be: who came up with the coloured gas and pipes puzzle in the third game, and why do they hate me so much?

Slightly more serious question, with the phenomenal success of It Takes Two last year are there any plans to try the co-op model with any other genres?

Haha! I might have had a hand in the staircase puzzle, but also in the coloured gas and pipes puzzles (I'm sorry :p)

Total Mayhem Games is definitely a co-op game studio, so you can expect more co-op from us in the future ^^

~ Christian, Gamedesigner | Co-founder

Any chance for Linux support?

Currently not unfortunately.

~ Nena, Community Manager

Hello! Huge OST nerd and loved the soundtracks for the first three games in the We Were Here series. Playing We Were Here Forever, I could not help but notice the music felt different. I loved the motif that was carried from We Were Here Together, but the style felt different. I am not saying it was bad at all! The tracks are much more subtle and still fit the scenes I have played so far (We are 50% into the 2nd chapter) very well! But when looking up the composer, I noticed it was different from the person who composed the previous games (more notably, We Were Here Together). If it is not too personal/confidential, is there a reason why Leon van der Stel did not compose this game? I am not saying Tom Wolkers did a bad job, his work is incredible, and making 40+ compelling tracks for the game is incredible! I was mainly curious as to why there was a change in composers is all. Have a great day all of you and thank you for holding this AMA!

Hey there, that is impressive you have noticed the difference in style! We Were Here Forever does have a different composer than the previous three installments. And we are so happy with ALL the OSTs!

What actually happened was, we asked Leon van der Stel to start working on We Were Here Forever with us, but pretty early in development he expressed that due to private reasons he wouldn't be able to work on this project. This was quite a shock for us, because we have been so happy with all his work and of course we wanted to support him and respect his decision in every way we could.

So this left us with a giant gap in the identity of We Were Here Forever and we had to find someone that could fill this up and help us find the feel of We Were Here Forever. We have asked several composers to come up with ideas and short demos and immediately one composer stood out from the crowd: Tom Wolkers. His first demos really grasped a new fresh take on the sound of We Were Here.

Now there is also another reason why Forever sounds different. At the start of the project, a few people at the studio, among them being Lead Artist Victor, Creative Director Ruud Renting, Managing Director Lucia de Visser and myself (Geoff, Executive Producer), had a meeting about how We Were Here Forever would be a different take on the franchise. It had to be a bit darker, more eerie and gain its own identity. We wanted the fans to notice, this time things are different and I'm so glad you noticed it and love the soundtrack. :)

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

What are your thoughts on the competition?

WWH seems to have spawned a few competitors in the co-op escape room genre but I've found the majority to be lacking in polish.

Have you taken inspiration or pointers from any of these games? eg. Could we possibly see a workshop function similar to what Escape Simulator has?

ps. great job on the games! y'all are basically leading the genre in terms of asymmetric puzzle right now

I have to admit I've been so busy I've barely played anything else lately. I look forward to sitting down and trying out some of these new entries :)

Generally I'm of the opinion that more competition also means more attention for the genre and potentially more players who discover it. I can only see that as a good thing!

~Thijs, Game Designer

Can't say we really have been (conciously) taken inspiration from the competition. We did however notice that streaming a game has been becoming really popular. So whenever we make something new for We Were Here, we really think about how it will be when streamers play this game with their community chat.

Also, we notice that people want more content all the time and ask us for a workshop function. We really put a lot of effort in balancing out the experience, make very fresh unique puzzles and make them challenging according to our methodology. In order to bring support for workshop, we feel we would have to revert to more generic and simple mechanics, hence conflicting with our vision for We Were Here.

Of course, never say never ...

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

Nena, do you have a YouTube channel called Chaeri asmr? If not you two look very similar and are both from the Netherlands.

Yep that's me haha!

~ Nena, Community Manager

I don't really have any questions to ask but I'm thinking you'd appreciate this interaction I had with my friend playing the game.

Me: Okay I have a piano, what do you have?

Friend: Oh no, oh no... I don't do music! I'm not good with this, I don't even know how to read music!

Me: It's okay, it's not real music. It's just the theme of the clueset... probably.

Friend: No it's real music! They have notes and everything.

Me: Describe what you see.

Friend: There's music sheets! I don't know what any of this means.

Me: Describe the sheets to me.

Friend: There's these symbols on them and arrows pointing to different notes.

Me: Wait arrows...? Music sheets don't have arrows, that's probably a clue.

Friend: HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?! I TOLD YOU I'M NOT GOOD WITH MUSIC!

--

I'm still working my way through it, I'm having a good time. I've played all the other games too so I was quite looking forward to it. I keep trying to find ways to break the game though, weird instinct for a first play through. I haven't been able to find a single hole in the invisible walls or messed up collision on any of the objects. I guess to keep in theme, here's a question. Are there any easter eggs that you think have so far been missed by the playerbase?

Hahahahaha, we really like that story! It reminds me of the first game, We Were Here, where you had to solve a game of chess. We got a lot of comments from players not knowing how to play chess... But you'll make it through xD

Easter eggs?
The name of the Jester is named in the 'Story Construction Puzzle', a puzzle that appears before you enter the chapel. The name of the Jester is 'Rudolf', which is directly named after 'Ruud', our creative director. He does the voice actor of the Jester, but actually looks a lot like him too... character wise...

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

If I have a deep history in sound for films, producing bands etc etc but want to get into game sound design where would you suggest I start?

If I have a deep history in sound for films, producing bands etc etc but want to get into game sound design where would you suggest I start?

I suggest you make a portfolio (Soundcloud or whatever) with music that fits a theme. Most game music is made as a foundation for the experience, so that's what, for example, we were looking for. Also, creating 'fan' music for existing games helps. People love to see a different perspective on something they know. Gives a refreshing insight.
I hope this helps!

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

Hey! Love your games, my friend and I have beaten all the previous ones and will be getting the new one soon. Where do you see the future of puzzle games going in video gaming? It's a timeless genre, but of course you have to continue to innovate and intrigue in order to garner interest. What you've made thus far is certainly unique and successful, just wondering if you have any thoughts about the future of the video game puzzle genre as a whole!

That is a tough question!

One thing I've observed is that the genre is splitting into more well-defined subgenres, aimed at offering different kinds of puzzle fun. Nowadays you can choose whether you want Zachtronics kind of puzzling, or Jonathan Blow kind of puzzling, or Myst kind of puzzling, or The Room kind of puzzling, or We Were Here kind of puzzling, etc. These subgenres keep being more forward with what kind of fun they offer and really leaning into it, instead of trying to fit the general AAA gaming mold or please everyone.

I think - and hope - that this trend of diversification and focusing will continue, as more and more players find their specific niche.

~Thijs, Game Designer

I would say that there is a lot in the puzzle genre to explore and combine. Taking inspiration and mechanics from other genres, mixing it with new or existing puzzle mechanics would mean an almost endless amount of possible new and innovative puzzle games. The hard part is to filter out the combinations that work and haven't been done before, and actually developing those games correctly. But I believe there will always be new and innovative combinations that will surface from the gaming industry.

New technology could also make it possible to innovate in puzzle design and interaction with the world, say VR, blockchain etc.

~ Christian, Gamedesigner | Co-founder

Hi, A friend of mine and I have played all of your previous games, which we love, and are close to finishing our first play through of We Were Here Forever. I'm so impressed by how you guys keep outdoing yourselves, and I can't wait to see what else is in store.

I was wondering: what are your favorite puzzles from the games? And how did you come up with them?

Thank you for the kind words :)

I think one of my favourites is the Greenhouse puzzle in Together. It feels like a sandbox where you have all kinds of exciting tools and only a vague idea of what you're supposed to do. Then part of the puzzle is having to experiment to figure it out and learn more.

I enjoy that type of experience and the freedom to screw around.

~Thijs, Game Designer

That's awesome to hear! :D

I can't speak for how I came up with them (because I wasn't a part of this), but in terms of my favorite puzzles... I really loved the Cuckoo Clock in We Were Here Together as well as the puzzle with the Kraken in We Were Here Forever. These puzzles where you need to describe sounds are just hilarious! I also really love the Illusion Room puzzles (WWHF) and the bridge (WWHTG). These are just so aesthetically pleasing.

~ Nena, Community Manager

On the 1.0.22 patch notes, one of the potential fixes is the black screen when loading/resuming a journey, but I am still getting a black screen every time I try to play. Any plans to fix this soon?

You can join our Discord server to report any bugs you're experiencing! https://discord.gg/WeWereHereSeries

~ Nena, Community Manager

Will the next game be in the same universe or will it have an entirely new storyline?

What would you prefer?

We have not decided anything yet, we are first looking forward to some sunlight and after that get the creative juices flowing again :)

But we always love to hear the thoughts from our community!

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

Care to share any sales numbers (either for past games or your most recent one)

I.e. what kind of gross revenue or net profits you made on Steam vs Epic vs PlayStation etc.

I'm guessing on Steam so far you've made about 1.5mil gross for We Were Here Forever? Steam Revenue Calculator was pretty on point for our game (at least as far as gross revenue went) so I'm curious to see how it holds up for others.

I understand if it's too early to feel comfortable talking sales for WWHF, but maybe you could discuss your past titles?

We are really humbled to see so many people pick up We Were Here.
Just last month we did pass 1.000.000 copies sold for We Were Here Together, an immense achievement for a small studio like ours!

We haven't been checking the Steam Revenue Calculator, so not really sure how accurate it is. Currently we are more focused on the (user) reviews and bringing out patches :)

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

Only 12 more millions to go to pass Elden Ring then. :P

Barney Stinson be like: Challenge accepted! ;P

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

Are you planning on doing more in the We Were Here series, or are you considering branching out to other "worlds" with the same gameplay style?

I've loved playing your games with my husband and working on our communication skills together, and I have eagerly been awaiting We Were Here Forever and have enjoyed the first 15% or so lots so far!

To be honest, we are still recovering from the development of We Were Here Forever. It has been quite a ride. First the team will need some time off to get the creative juices flowing again and then we will gather our ideas for anything next.

What really helps is knowing that you really like the games though! Comments like that, gives us the energy to carry on and come up with new stuff :D

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

When is We Were Here Forever releasing on the Xbox?

We're working very hard on polishing the game and making the experience for console as smooth as possible. So hopefully we will be able to share a date with you guys soon! Once we have more information, you guys will be the first ones to know. :)

~ Nena, Community Manager

Hello! The WWH series has consistently been one of my favs since discovering them a couple years ago, so thank you for making great games! It is awesome to see the improvements and growth in the team with each new game.

That said, how do you guys come up with the puzzles for the levels?

Hey! We mostly don't have a set in stone way to come up with puzzles. Some puzzles come directly from ideas that float around in the team, we have brainstorm sessions, we also just come up with an idea then sketch it and make a prototype of that. There are times where we take inspiration from other games too. So there are many ways for us to come up with puzzles, it's basically an organical process.

~ Christian, Gamedesigner | Co-founder

This is different for every designer and every puzzle, so all I can give you is my perspective :)

Often we have a general idea for what an area is about (story/setting wise). Maybe it is a factory. So what themes and things would you expect in a factory? This is often a starting point, so we can gather ideas or tweak them to fit these themes.

Other puzzles start as an idea that has to be given a purpose and theme in the world. They might start off in one area and end up in another, completely redesigned because it fits better there.

Personally I like to use my own interests, hobbies and obsessions as the inspiration for puzzle ideas. I'm a big fan of M.C. Escher's artwork, I'm sure you can figure out which puzzles in Forever were the result of that ;)

Another fun one: the (spoilers for Chapter 5) Guardian puzzle where you have to speak with the underwater creature started off as an in-game drum computer where you had to recreate a rhythm, due to my interest in synthesizers and music making. As we explored those ideas and prototypes, it slowly became what it is now. We just keep searching for what is fun about a certain idea and leaning more into it.

~Thijs, Game designer

[removed]

We do, occasionally.

Please keep an eye out on our website:

https://totalmayhemgames.com/join/

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

Unity or Unreal?

Unity all the way!

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

Before embarking on the development of the game how do you guys figure out that it’s worth building from a business perspective? Any forecasting techniques or models you guys use?

Hey hey,

At this very moment, we of course treat the company with a better business perspective. It not just us six anymore, we need to be a dependable company for our amazing team. But back in the days, when we developed We Were Here and wanted to start a company, we did not really have a solid plan. We launched the game without any marketing and just relied on the fans when building We Were Here Too.

Nowadays we of course have a more professional approach, but the development still comes from the heart!

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

Hello!

Big fan of the series, a myself and a friend have gone through the first 3 and are looking to pick up the 4th.

I’ve always wondered while playing whether the push to talk cutoff behaviour is a technical limitation or something intended for gameplays sake? We’ve often found ourselves talking to ourselves because the audio cutoff when the other tried and wouldn’t let us speak, resulting in us becoming much less chatty and very specific when chatting and at one point resorting to saying over.

hey hey!

The push to talk mechanic is very much a design choice, but indeed also to limit the communication of the players. We of course had the choice not to, but it fit really well with the characters and the position you're in as a player. It's an extra hazard you have to overcome. You can choose to use for example discord if you're really disturbed, but it is part of the experience.

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

Random question: Why would needing the game reach 1000 downloads on steam be a requirement for the project? That seems pretty arbitrary, and the downloads reached aren't always due to the quality of the game.

So I was kinda looking around in the studio and everybody looked back at me, telling me that I needed to answer this question, since I am actually responsible for this.

So, We Were Here was created during a minor program that is called: Game Design & Development. During this program, students from all different professional areas would come together with no knowledge of creating game, but all with different sets of expertise. Together with my colleagues Bob & Rob, I initially designed this course in 2006, and it went through a lot of iterations.

One goal that we had with this minor program was to have students really experience what it is to run your own indie game studio. So they got there own office, a small budget for office supplies and the task to come up with a 3D game that could become a big hit. We really wanted to let the students see this challenge was for real and that why there were a few additional requirements like: Organize a launch party, Make a business plan and reach a 1.000 downloads.

So the 1.000 downloads was actually more to emphasize how serious this assignment was. Please bear in mind that 5 or 10 years ago, it was actually a lot harder to successfully self-publish a game. We Were Here for example, had to go through Steam Greenlight and get enough followers to actually get published.

The 1.000 downloads requirement has worked with students for a long time and really gave them a sense of trying to achieve a 'real world'-achievement rather than just finishing a school assignment. Every new semester students were fearing this requirement the most and yet it made them go the extra mile.

Really hope this help you see why! Thanks for your question!

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

I love the games! My friend and I have played through the first 3 and just started the new one this week. We are thoroughly enjoying it and I can't wait to jump back in when we have time.

My question is: How do you start the process of building one of the complex puzzles in these games? And do you ever get halfway into making a puzzle and realize that you've already done something too similar in the past?

Thanks again for the great times and please keep them coming as fast as you can without compromising quality!

We mostly start with an idea for a puzzle or mechanic, those ideas can come from different sources, brainstorm sessions, random inspiration in the world, ideas that float around in the team etc.

If we have the feeling that there is potential in that idea, we will mostly start making a prototype. We make use of methods like Paper prototyping and other forms of prototypes to quickly create a playable test environment for us to playtest.

The prototype has to contain the most basic elements of the puzzle concept/idea, and will mostly be a co-op prototype. We then test it with random people inside the company, friends, family or people we know. We use that as a sort of validation to know if the puzzle has actual potential to be put into the game.

Thats the short and easy version of the story haha, and yes we have had an instance (maybe a few) where we realised that it was actually kind of the same concept as we did before, sometimes it evolved to something else, other times it got discarded.

P.s. thanks for the kind words. happy to serve you games :D

~ Christian, Gamedesigner | Co-founder

I'm curious, was the plot that is now being told to is in WWHF the original plan? Was the story told in we were here originally supposed to be a one and done? Either way, I'm in love with the series!

hey there!

This is kind of a tough question to answer. Once, 5 years ago, I wrote a narritve for the game to give a sense of meaning to for the player: where are we? Why are we here? What it this caslte? Why are we in the Antactics? Why are we together/explorers?

I made a foundation for the narrative: a story about a king with no heirs, a devious jester, a pact with a demon, rebellious daughters, lost sons, mistresses, a lover and a broken hearted queen.

Ruud Renting was starting his journey with the story since We Were Here Together, and he became the Creative Director since We Were Here Forever. He did an absoluty great job to turn this simple foundation into a lively narrrative with depth and intrigue.

The plot never changes, just the way you experience the story.

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

Hi there, I absolutely adore your games but I play them on Xbox and I was wondering when the Xbox version would be coming out? We've had no timescale since it was announced and it would be good to know

Hey there!

We're still working very very hard on the console launch. We'll post it on socials and in the newsletter as soon as we have news. Stay tuned explorer!

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

Hey there!

We're still working very very hard on the console launch. We'll post it on socials and in the newsletter as soon as we have news. Stay tuned explorer!

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

love it that I answered my own reply

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

Are PS4 and PS5 versions coming soon?

Hey there!

We're still working very very hard on the console launch. We'll post it on socials and in the newsletter as soon as we have news. Stay tuned explorer!

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

Any problems building game for ps or xbox? As a unity user never have gotten to build to those devices.

Well, from a technical standpoint, it's nice to develop for consoles like PS and Xbox, because it's a limited set of devices and you can really test how the exact experience is going to be for players (compared to making something for PC). Yes, you have some limited raw processing power, so it requires a lot of extra polishing.

However, the most difficult part is all the requirements that come with these platforms in order to go through certification. It kinda feels like you need to do an extra PHD in XDK or PS Dev kit, in order to become compliant. But once you are through certification .... happy times!

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

How are you guys? What was your day like? 😄

Hey there!

We're doing just fine :) Little tired from launch, but that's part of the game (no pun intended). We actually had a good day. Saw a lot of lovely colleagues again today at the office and had some good talks, good stuff coming soon!

And of course, thanks for asking :D!

How was your day?

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

Well, it was nice! I have my final exams next week, so I have started studying, and I've ridden my "new" scooter to the nearest city for the first time (it's about 18km away), so it was quite exciting! Thanks to you for asking too!

of course! love to hear it. I actually have a scooter myself, as you call it in Dutch, but it's more a moped I guess? It's a broken mess, but it brings me to the office and back, so I'm happy!

Good luck with your exams, I'm rooting for you!!! Sending support <3!

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

Did you develop the art style with minimalism in mind? As a programmer I love the look because it seems doable by a small group, but still has a nice aesthetic to it.

Hey hey,

No, we did not exactly keep minimalism in mind. We were looking for an artstile that was timeless, so we chose for stylized. The stylized artstyle is also the expertise of our founder Victor. I am still very in love with the style. We made all the textures and models ourselvers, and I think it shows! Thanks for the compliment, have a lovely day!

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder

Love the series! My favorite character is the Jester and I love the way they were animated in the latest game.

Which scene, in any of the games, was the most fun/interesting to animate and see come to life?

So I'd really have to pass this question on to our animators, because my contribution to character animation is (thankfully) very small. In general it was really cool to see them working their magic and turning formerly boring and empty rooms into incredible cutscenes.

One that I had more of a hand in and really enjoyed seeing come to life is the

(spoilers for We Were Here Forever chapter 5!!)

inhabitant of the underwater caves. I worked on that puzzle a lot and for a long time that whole creature was nothing more than a little colored box floating in the water, making odd sounds at you. Seeing it come to life and how it adds to that experience was really awesome. There are a lot of little details we were able to add to bring that creature to life: it flicking its eye back and forth, the different expressions it can do with its eyelids, the movements of the tentacles, etc.

~Thijs, Game Designer

We don't have any of the animators here current in the studio with us, they are taking a break, but I have been involved with a lot of the animations and cutscenes.

SPOILER:
Two animations that have been a real milestone for the production of this game have been:
- Contract room - Where you and your partner have to sit on the chair and the puppet tells the tale of King Bartholomeus. This cutscene is rather bizar and has a really creative and off feeling. It was especially fun to see it come to life, since we had this idea for a long time and it wasn't easy to put it all in one cutscene, making it feel small at first with a grand finale at the end. It took a lot of disciplines (Creative, Animation, Tech & VFX) to get it just right.

- Meeting the Guardian - You slowly sink down deep, you hear the music turn really eerie and then all of sudden the Guardian grabs your pod. This was a really fun animation to work on because during the cutscene and the puzzle, the Guardian must really feel like a living organism, which has been a really challenge for the animators. But the result feels really satisfying

NON-SPOILER:

Go play We Were Here Forever and tell us what you liked most!

~Geoff, Executive Producer (and I was the Mentor / Professor of the original student team)

what are your thoughts on roe v wade? what do you think can be done about it?

We will not answer political questions, the only I will comment, is:

In my opinion, people should always deserve the right to decide about own bodily autonomy.

~ Lucia, Managing Director | Co-founder