How Koira Encourages Players to Pet the Dog Instead of Focusing on Completion

Studio Tolima seeks to endear players with its first artistically-driven game Koira sometime next year. It stars a forest spirit and a puppy they find in the wintry woods, as they seek to find a place of refuge from malicious hunters. As part of Gamescom, a demo for Koira was released where fans can experience a small piece of this particular indie game to understand the general feeling the developers wish to instill in players.

After the demo's release, Game Rant was given a chance to sit down with Koira‘s creative director Ben Lega and lead game developer Sander Vanhove to discuss their decisions and important questions like whether the dog dies or not. In regard to that, there was no clear answer given (but it is likely to be okay), so fans of puppies may need to remain cautious with Koira. Ultimately, it may be worth sticking around to see how bonding with a puppy is the most important aspect of progression in this adventure though.

Koira Doesn't Want Its Theme About Connections to Get Lost Along the Way

Gamers might blitz through a number of titles for the sake of completion or seeing the story it offers to the end. Koira, in many aspects of its artistic direction and gameplay design, wants to be a chill game completed over a weekend rather than something fans will rush through. The bond between the player and the puppy they find is such an integral part of Koira that bonding with it is inherently tied to progression by encouraging attachment, as Vanhove explained:

I think that the game is full of these little moments where you can play with the dog and just bond with it. For example, in the demo, you look at clouds together, you can play fetch with a stick, you can throw a snowball at them… We really like to pepper those moments in because those are the meat and bones of having a friendship with a dog, right? It's not just that the dog is there to help you solve puzzles because then the dog would only be utilitarian in purpose. You also need to have fun with them and have these little moments just you and the dog, and project your own kind of story onto that.

Even if its bittersweet aspirations and inspirations such as Princess Mononoke and King of the Mockingbird are worn on its sleeve, Koira is still a game about befriending a dog at its core. As part of Studio Tolima's decision to have Koira remain as a textless game, it makes sense that these themes would be conveyed more by actions than words. Through the conversation with Lega and Vanhove, it became clear that the most important aspect of Koira is contrast. Playing fetch with the dog works against the dangers of the hunters, all wrapped up in a mysterious forest with a landscape that's known to be beautiful yet unforgiving. Koira is meant to offer a world and story players can explore themselves with rather than watch, which is a big reason as to why it's designed to invite the player in through personal interpretation.

How Koira Invites the Player to Be the Main Character in a Mysterious, Musical World

One of the unique aspects of video games as an art medium is how it is inherently interactive, and Koira seems to run after that like the excited puppy it features. It's an important aspect to video games that many developers keep in mind when it comes to sharing a story with the player and including them. As Studio Tolima may have run into difficulties with the specific choices it made with the lack of text for things such as tutorials or Koira‘s UI, being able to allow players to shape the story they play to be personal to them is why it stuck all the way through.

That's one of the reasons we also chose to not have text in the game – it was a design choice from the start, but it allows the player to fill in the blanks and project what they want to see in the relationship with the dog.

If the sound of a game where fans interact with music rather than words in a wilderness that is neither safe nor threatening with a cute puppy by their side, then they should check out the demo that's currently available. They should also keep in mind that the point is to take their time, see everything there is to see, and of course, play with the puppy while they explore. Koira‘s demo is just a sample of its larger story, and if players enjoy that, then there's more waiting for them come release next year.

Koira is in development.