Meet ‘Pine Hearts’, the cosy indie game set in a “Souls-like” caravan park

nme.com:

Pine Hearts nears launch, NME sat down with Scottish developer Hyper Luminal Games to discuss the game’s accessibility support, themes of loss, and “Souls-like level design”.An isometric adventure game set in Pine Hearts Caravan Park, Pine Hearts follows protagonist Tyke as they fill out their hillwalking journal, solve puzzles, and reminisce on their childhood memories of the area.Speaking to NME, creative director Rob Madden shared that Pine Hearts was made following the loss of his father, who passed away from cancer in 2019.“I wanted to make a game about that experience, but it was important that the game told this story in a positive and hopeful way, and didn’t dwell too long on the actual component of loss,” shared Madden. “I think we’ve managed to strike a nice balance between those things in the game.”Besides Madden’s own experiences, Pine Hearts also draws on the likes of The Legend Of Zelda and FromSoftware‘s Dark Souls series for inspiration – the former for its puzzles, the latter for their interconnected areas and levels.

Pine Hearts‘ Steam page describes it as having “Souls-like level design,” though Madden clarified that the game “uses this design philosophy in a very light and user-friendly way”.“We think of the world layout as a little layered puzzle box,” Madden explained. “You’ll start out with limited navigation options, but it’s clear that there are things you will be able to interact with at some point down the line.

As the player gains new tools and abilities they can start to peel back the layers and create new routes and shortcuts for themselves, to access areas that they couldn’t before.”Behind the scenes, Pine Hearts has been made with a different approach to many games.