Game Pro got to sit down with Rogue Sun Kostas Zarifis (as seen in the photo below). Here are some highlights of the meeting.
Game Pro: What was your main goal in creating Tin Hearts? It’s the first game you developed since Rogue Sun was born in 2016.
Kostas Zarifis: Our primary aim with Tin Hearts was to blend storytelling with puzzle-solving in a novel way. We’ve been driven to create games that push boundaries. Tin Hearts, was conceived from an initial VR idea involving puzzle-solving with cute small creatures in a relatively constrained space around the player. As the project and the target platforms evolved so did the concept and our love for deep, meaningful, and memorable storytelling started shaping things. I am very proud of how the end result manages to pull these two pillars of puzzle-solving and storytelling together in a very player-led and immersive way, which is where our interactive medium really shines I feel.
Game Pro: Albert J. Butterworth, protagonist of Tin Hearts, looks like a real person. Is he a mix of the team’s personal experiences?
Kostas Zarifis: Albert is indeed a mix of different experiences and imaginings, as are all the characters in the game including Helen, his wife, his daughter Rose, and other supporting characters like his sister Lydia and Lucien, the Guild of Toymakers liaison. We wanted characters players could believe and relate to – human, flawed, with drives and ambitions, but constrained by the realities of life and always navigating that balance. There are definitely various personal experiences in there, which have been infused with a touch of Victorian whimsy and magic, to give the game that Dickensian feel which results in a very unique package.
You can read the full article in its native Italian here: https://www.gamesvillage.it/7183770/game-pro-awards-2023-intervista-esclusiva-a-kostas-zarifis-per-tin-hearts/
Find out more about Games Village and Game Pro Here: https://www.gamesvillage.it/
Play Tin Hearts now!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1831700/Tin_Hearts/
