How Cocoon Melds Many Worlds into One Promising Game | Push Square

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Off the back of its PS5, PS4 release date announcement during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase, we caught up with Cocoon developer Geometric Interactive to learn more about what is one of our most anticipated indie titles of the year. With the ability to carry entire worlds on your back and dive into them to solve puzzles, it's an amazing concept that has us yearning to play the full release. To soothe the wait a little, we quizzed Jeppe Carlsen (game director), Erwin Kho (art director), and Jakob Schmid (audio director) on all things Cocoon.

Push Square: When you announce a game and mention team members that have worked on Playdead titles, what sort of expectations do you believe that sets for the player? What themes, gameplay mechanics, and story aspects do you at that point think you have to deliver on?

Jeppe Carlsen: At Geometric Interactive, we simply focus on making the best game possible. COCOON is a very original game and we hope players will be positively surprised when the game defies their expectations.

Having left Playdead, how long did it take for you to land on Cocoon? Did you have many other game concepts floating about?

Jeppe Carlsen: I started working on COCOON relatively shortly after I left Playdead, and the game has now been in full-time development for more than 6.5 years. I usually have a few different game concepts floating about, but COCOON felt special, and I tend to get quite focused (borderline obsessive) once I start working on a game.

Are there any ideas or philosophies from Limbo and Inside you're carrying over into Cocoon?

Jeppe Carlsen: During my 8 years at Playdead, I refined my puzzle-designing skills a lot. My instincts about what works and what doesn't are pretty good, and so is