Glowpop interview: Finnish indie studio blends cute aesthetics with hardcore gameplay

pcgamesinsider.biz:

Glowpop, a cute but challenging platformer from indie studio Punnu Games, launched on Steam at the weekend. 

Punnu Games is based in Turku, Finland, and the developers highlight the supportive Finnish game industry community as crucial to their success. 

With PGC Helsinki on our mind (including its new Big Screen Gaming Summit area for PC content), we caught up with the team's Tipi Ilmonen to ask about their inspirations, design choices and indie experiences. 

PC Games Insider: Can you please describe Glowpop to us in your own words. What sort of game is it?

Tipi Ilmonen: Glowpop is an adventure that combines cuteness, challenging gameplay and narrative. It is a platformer mainly, but the maps leave space for exploration and uncovering the mystery that surrounds the green Punnu who our little hero, yellow Punnu, is trying to find.

In Glowpop the player has to put their parkour skills to the limit. The game has different kinds of maps from more open areas, where strategy is everything to more linear escape run maps where speed and precision are the key to success.

With different play modes the game can be experienced in different ways. Easy mode allows a more forgiving play style. Normal mode requires strategic thinking as you have two checkpoints per map that are for the player to decide where to place them. Hard mode and Terror modes are for players who are looking for even more brutal challenges in the game.

Glowpop seems to combine a cute aesthetic with challenging gameplay. What led to this design decision?

We wanted to stay true to our own style of easily approachable and adorable art style, but we wanted to create a game that requires skills to play. That led to a decision to try to combine the two. 

The philosophy behind this is that not all hard games need to be grim and dark in their mood, but it is possible to create challenging skill-based games without the dark atmosphere and still achieve a sense of pressure in the game. I would not say that cute