How Nomada Studio made Neva, one of the most emotional games of the year

Of the many great games that launched this year, Neva is perhaps the most hard-hitting.

The sophomore effort from Nomada Studio, the Spanish developer behind 2018’s acclaimed platform-adventure title Gris, Neva follows a young woman named Alba and her eponymous wolf companion on a journey across a world ravaged by darkness. The game, which is set across four seasons through a stunning minimalist art style without dialogue, received rave reviews for the emotional weight of the tender relationship between Alba and Neva, moving many players to tears. Neva also received three nominations at The Game Awards, Best Independent Game, Best Art Direction and Games for Impact, and won the last award.

Ahead of The Game Awards, MobileSyrup sat down with Adrian Cuevas, Nomada co-founder and technical director, to learn more about the making of this beautiful game.

Congrats on the launch and the great reception. It’s one of my favourite games of the year. It really impacted me. I lost my dog last year, so it really hit close to home for that. But obviously, you designed it so if you’re a parent, it can appeal to you or even if you’re just a fan of games in general. Now that the game is out in the world, what are some of the responses from players that have resonated the most with you?

Adrian Cuevas: I think probably most of the people that play the game are younger, so not all of them have kids. So for a lot of people, it resonates, like you, [because they have] a pet. That was my case as well. I had two pets. Both of them are dead now, so it was easier for me to resonate in that way. But we receive a lot of emails from parents that they also feel that connection that we try to share. But I think a lot of people are just receiving it because of the pets they have, or maybe it’s too old when maybe they haven’t died yet, but they see it’s old and they can imagine what it’s gonna be. But in general, I think people are understanding, even if they have a pet and they perceive that part of the game, they can understand that there’s something more, and they can see how the growth of Neva transmits this change in the relationship with a kid. So in general, I think both of them are being received.

Nothing made me cry more this year than this game, so thank you for that [laughs]. Part of what I love about this game is that there are so many games about dads, whether it’s The Witcher or God of War or The Last of Us. And even recently, on the indie front, we’ve seen games like Venba or 1000xResist focus on mothers. But of course, these are between human parents and children. Neva is different. When you set out to make a game about parenthood, how did you ultimately settle on an animal and human pairing versus a traditional “father-son/mother-daughter” sort of thing?
Cuevas: It’s interesting because at the very beginning when we were starting to plan and design the game, there were two humans. And at some point, we thought a lot of people are not going to have kids that play our game. So we thought that we could try to bring the same meaning in a slightly more abstract way, and that that could also make other people relate to the same kind of story. So that’s what we thought it was going to be, trying to abstract a bit more this relationship. It could bring more people along on this path. So that’s why we removed these two human characters and tried to make this connection with an animal. We also think a lot of people can connect quickly with animals, especially dogs. Obviously, there’s cat persons as well, but there’s dog persons, but in general, I think people can project to any kind of pet. And we thought it was going to be easier to transmit to more people this kind of relationship with an animal.

When you settled on a wolf, from a technical side — because I know that’s a big part of your background — what work went into making an AI-controlled animal companion feel lifelike instead of robotic?

Cuevas: It is really hard, especially for a small company like us. Funny thing is, for example: When we were starting to develop the game, it was these two characters, these humans. And then we said, ‘How about an animal?’ Programmers and technical [artists] were saying, ‘Why don’t we do a bird?’ Because it flies, that is much easier just to move around. But obviously, it doesn’t relate that well for players, so we ended up having a wolf. And it’s much harder, not just because of the AI, of course, you have to do the NavMesh [AI] and try to make it feel alive. At the same time, it’s traditional animation, so it’s really hard to interpolate movements. So you have to do a lot of animation so it feels smooth in all the transitions, all the movements.

So between the AI navigation and the animation, the whole package, it’s been quite hard. Luckily, we had one guy working on the wolf since the very beginning — the first day, he’s been doing just AI and navigation for it. And then we have a quite a big team of animators for the studio that we are. So we were capable of putting a lot of effort in the wolf. But that was the main thing: the game is called Neva, even though you control Alba. Neva is the protagonist of the game, so it deserves all the work that we could give.

Note: This is where the conversation shifts to significant Neva spoilers. 

One of the many beautiful things about this game, and it’s so poetic, is that it begins and ends in a full circle. How did you decide that was the complete arc of the story that you wanted to tell?
Cuevas: Our basic idea was having the relationship of a full life in a short game. And we thought at the end of the day, it’s okay if you feel like it’s a cycle, because at the end of the day, it is a cycle. I mean, you are the kid of your parents, you will have kids, and it repeats all the time. But at the same time, we throw a couple of hints there that this is really not a cycle. If you pay attention to some details, it’s not a cycle, per se. In reality, what you are seeing at the beginning — this is spoiler — is really what you are going to see at the end, But it is okay if it feels like a cycle. We knew that it could happen, because it’s very subtle, and it is okay for us. We don’t mind it because that’s what we think about life. And probably, your parents have the same feelings that you have with your kids. They’re gonna feel threatened by the world. They’re gonna be super scared and anxious what happens to you, or when you leave and you are not with them, they are going to be very worried about what’s happening to you. That’s going to be in every generation — that doesn’t change. So it’s ok if it feels like a cycle, because I think that’s what it is.

One of my favourite parts from a gameplay perspective was towards the end of the game, where it’s the moonlight sky and you’re platforming, but there are multiple Albas that you’re controlling at once. There’s this beautiful imagery, but then it’s also a little more challenging with the platforming. How did you come up with that sort of setpiece, and from a technical perspective, how difficult is it to get those multiple characters going at the same time?

Cuevas: To be honest, it’s my favourite part of the game as well. It looks beautiful. And also, I’m more of a puzzle guy — playing with the platforming, but at the same time, it feels like a puzzle. And so technically, basically, when we had the idea that was the first thing that I tried to do. I did it myself. We have the idea of these kinds of mirrors and playing a lot with different characters. And I attacked it right away. I would say it was easier than I thought it was going to be okay. It wasn’t that hard. Obviously, when you are the programmer. I just talked with [director and co-founder] Conrad [Roget], and I just put some limitations that we were going to have, so it was going to make it much easier to develop. And the good thing is that the technical part of the platforming in that section is so simple that it makes it easier to make the world. Because it’s a simple scene. You see this mirror, you see the characters, but it’s much easier. You don’t have to feel out of parallax. And for a lot of things — for example, in the forest at the beginning — there’s a lot of work assembling the levels. So it’s like a balance. You put a lot more effort in the technical part, but then you save a lot of time for the artist and the levels.

And other than that, the idea just came about thinking about what we could do next with the abilities that we have and what could be interesting. We have something. We had something similar in Gris, we have some areas that you could see the reflection, but it was not exactly the same. We have some areas that it was kind of invisible. So it feels more like a progression of something that we had in Gris. It’s different, and the mechanics are different. And also you have the combat, which makes it very interesting, all these reflections, but I think it’s kind of a progression of something that we had there.”

Note: Major spoilers end here.

I was reading a Rolling Stone interview you did. You were talking about the villainous Dark Queen and looking forward to seeing what players interpret about her and the different sorts of darknesses she maybe represents. I’m not going to ask for your ‘canon’ interpretation, but I’m curious — piggybacking off that interview, have you seen any sorts of interesting interpretations from players that have stood out to you since the game has come out?

Cuevas: Probably, they are more or less what we could have imagined. In general, people will understand. Now, one of the main topics in the world is climate change, so a lot of people are going to think about that. A lot of people are thinking about wars also. They also kind of have a human shape, all of them. So at the same time, you can feel that there is something there, like maybe the humans that are the culprits of whatever is happening around here, even if it’s worse or climate change, I think we have a responsibility. So there’s a lot of that there as well, but mostly it’s been these things. Some people may have some weird interpretations, but I think most of the time, it’s this.

Now that we’re weeks removed from the game and you’re up for awards and the reception has been really positive, what are you most proud of having accomplished with Neva?
Cuevas: First of all, finishing the development of a game [makes us] happy. It’s really hard. A lot of people working for so many years — in our case, almost four years — and finishing the game and being proud of what you did is really amazing. We are very lucky, because we have [publisher] Devolver [Digital] having our back, and they support us. They give us a lot of creativity and freedom.

At some point in the development, we had some doubts about the game. We told them, ‘We are not so sure if this is the way, we’re going to reboot a little bit.’ They were completely okay with that. They gave us time. We are very happy that we could do this. And it’s very important for us to when we finish the game, be proud of where it is. And for example, there’s a lot of people, because I’ve been in the industry for quite a long time now, and a lot of people, after so many years working on a game, they don’t want to play, they don’t want to touch it, they’re so tired of it. And personally, I’m really happy because I can play Gris and Neva all over again all the time, because I’m so proud of [them]. I like [them] a lot. [Neva] is the game we wanted to make. It’s not perfect, by any means, but I just feel like it’s a really good game, and I wouldn’t change much. Obviously, we are only several people, there are small details that for us we would change, but in general, I wouldn’t change anything. I’m very proud of it.

You mentioned you had a reboot — was that when the game was focused on two humans and you pivoted?
Cuevas: No, we had already pivoted from humans. It was more about the focus of the gameplay. So basically, we put a little bit too much combat, I would say. It wasn’t that big of a change, but it was a bit of a reboot, because we needed a little less combat, so the flow of the game was smoother. As I said, we don’t like to extend the mechanics or the games or the combat much; we want it to feel fresh every five minutes [….] And maybe [we] balanced it out a bit more with puzzles or more platforming. So I call it a reboot, but it’s not really a big reboot. It was like a redesign of the levels. But before finishing the full production, we had to make these adjustments, and we needed a few months for that.

Reading some of the interviews for Neva, you went into it with that sort of pressure that Gris was beloved, and now Neva is arguably even more beloved. I’m not going to ask what your next project is, of course, but in a larger sense, now coming out of both of these projects — how do you feel going forward? What are your big takeaways from those experiences?

Cuevas: Between the first game and the second game, it was much harder than it is now. At that point, we really felt the pressure. But to be honest, we didn’t expect much of Gris. We just wanted to make a video game. We knew it was going to be good for us, because we wanted to make it. But when it was a success, and we had to start the second one, it was like, ‘Wow!’ I remember, especially Conrad, [producer and co-founder] Roger [Mendoza] and I, we were having the discussion what to do next, and it was really hard to like, ‘Oh, but if we do the same, they’re gonna complain. If we do too much gameplay, they’re gonna say that it’s not what you should do.’ And one day we decided, ‘Okay, you know what? Forget about the people completely — don’t think about what they want. And let’s just think about what we want to make. Let’s start developing a game that we want to make, and we will evolve it into whatever we want to be in the end. Just because who we are, who founded this company, we knew that the art is going to be important, the music is going to be important, the narrative or having some kind of meaning behind it has to be there.

And we want a super well-rounded experience that’s going to be there. It doesn’t matter what people want, but that’s who we are. So no matter what happens, that’s going to be there, but we are not going to try to think about what people expect. Because otherwise, you will drive yourself crazy, and you might end up with a game that you don’t like. And that’s the worst, because you might end up being miserable during the development. You have to be proud of what you’re making. So for this one, I think we learned that lesson. We are starting with the next one already, but we are not thinking about that anymore. It’s just like, ‘Okay, what, what would we want?’ We are especially thinking about what we want to tell, what’s the story we want to show on our next game. And that’s where we are right now.”

You’re thinking about new ways to make us cry? [laughs]
Cuevas: [laughs] Hopefully!

This interview has been edited for language and clarity.

Neva is now available on PS4, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PC and Mac.

Image credit: Devolver Digital

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