Returnal Interview: Housemarque On Winning Best Game At The BAFTAs
“Returnal was our chance to bring Housemarque’s action to a third-person perspective,” the development team tells me after picking up the top honor at this year’s BAFTA Game Awards in London. The studio a giddy mixture of shock, smiles, and positivity as several very heavy trophies are strewn across them.
“There were a lot of new learnings, and we needed to redefine certain elements to make something unique, something that we can be proud of, but also something that’s true to our arcade heritage. Those were the main goals we wanted to preserve.”
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The PS5 exclusive was the big winner at this year’s ceremony, having picked up the wins for Audio Achievement, Music, Performer In A Leading Role, and Best Game. Nobody, not even Housemarque, expected its humble little arcade narrative horror to sweep the night so extensively, and to see them revel in such an achievement is rather infectious.
“I remember being interviewed for my position on the game and being really excited because Housemarque has never been known for this kind of storytelling before,” narrative designer Eevi Korhonen tells me. “We got the go ahead from Sony to do this dark, weird thing and I was convinced at some point they were going to turn around and go, this is not gonna play, this is too weird. We wanted to be ambiguous, we wanted there to be no single canonical interpretation. There was a worry about going too artsy or unintelligible, but it’s been so great to see fans really resonate with it. They’re coming up with theories about what it all means and that’s exactly what we wanted to do with it.”
The studio also took home the award for Audio Achievement and Music, two worthy
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