Sleeping aid

Bedtime Digital plucks another dreamy game from the imagination

Bedtime Digital plucks another game from the imagination

Figment’s beautiful hand-painted artwork clothes what developer Bedtime Digital Games describes as a “musical action-adventure”. Like the studio’s previous game, Back To Bed, Figment’s world is a dreamscape manifested by the subconscious, and combines a whimsical art style with a story that touches on darker themes – in this case, trauma, disease and death. Creatures within it represent the voices you might hear in your head as well as emotions, and protagonist Dusty is the mind’s courage. This wooden-sword-wielding, fearless grump must fight off a number of nightmarish – but vocally talented – creatures who sing while they go about corrupting the place.

“It was a clear goal for us from the start to build a connected world for the player to adventure through, a world that also existed before the game starts with depth and details to explore and discover during gameplay,” lead game designer Jonas Byrresen tells us. “This also led us to a huge focus on music, since music can help set the mood and thereby create depth in the game world. Where it really shines, though, is when narrative and gameplay is tied into the music – such as when objects change the music when you’re near them. As a result, puzzles and enemies are tied to the beat of the music, and the main villains actually sing.”

The look of the game was inspired by a wide range of influences, including Back To Bed and the work of Studio Ghibli, and the decision to hand-paint the world was partly down to the team’s previous experience with the technique.

“We wanted to utilise our artists who have all worked with analog art before, and this allowed us to bring their experience and styles from that into the digital world,” Byrresen explains. “But we also have a fondness for looking at a screen as if it were a picture frame – what you put in that frame must be able to grab attention and make people wonder. The hand-painted style is a great approach to that.”

While no firm release date has been set, Bedtime is aiming for a summer release.