Dreamfeel

A distinctive, intensely personal coming-of-age story about a trans teenager growing up on Ireland’s Achill island, the award-winning If Found (pictured) was 2020’s most memorable breakthrough. “It’s been a hell of a journey,” Llaura McGee

– who wrote, designed, directed and produced the game – tells us. After a whirlwind final year of development, McGee has taken away one valuable lesson. “We learned about the value of having a tight script – of knowing the full picture – as soon as possible.”

Dreamfeel’s next game, she says, will be very different: “It’s partly a response to If Found in that we’re trying to create something that is as unlike it as possible.” Yet if expectations of the studio have shifted in light of If Found’s critical acclaim, McGee isn’t daunted by them. “It’s often the case – say, like, you made Antichamber and it’s like, ‘Oh, shit, I’ve been working on this for seven years – how do I follow it up?’ Whereas this is, like, a sevenyear overnight success. So I’ve got all these other game [ideas], and they’re all ready to go.”

In the meantime, Dreamfeel’s Breogán Hackett has developed Unity plugin Flatgame Maker, which is designed to encourage budding creators to make their own personal tales. The concept of flatgames goes back to 2016, when McGee was teaching a class of students to make games using physical materials. She wanted to bring a little spontaneity to game design, she says, and created a six-minute game called The Isle Full Of Noises, in which all the art was made using marker pens, within a self-imposed time limit that encouraged her to repurpose and reuse those handdrawn assets. “I wanted to show that these were intentional choices,” she explains. “I was using markers as a decision and an expression rather than a limitation.”

She released it alongside a manifesto. A flatgame was a handmade game created in limited time with simple mechanics, designed to evoke a place or a memory – typically one personal to its creator. Hackett asked if she could create something along similar lines, and the first Flatgame Jam was born, with Dreamfeel running it every year since (apart from 2019, when If Found was at a crucial stage of development). “Flatgames are so accessible,” Hackett says. “Yeah, it’s like punk music,” McGee adds. “It’s shitty guitars and shitty amps, and that encourages other people – they’re like, ‘Well, fuck, if they can do it, I can do it too.’” Whether or not it results in other creators making their own industry breakthrough, it’s more evidence that Dreamfeel sees the fuller picture with greater clarity than most.