Now Playing: Aesthetic gets in the way - Steven Harmon
(click anywhere to play music)
Now Playing: Aesthetic gets in the way - Steven Harmon
(click anywhere to play music)
This is one of my favourite games of all time. Created by Steven Harmon, Griptape Backbone is a skating game that takes place in a bizzare but serene vaporwave landscape. You zip around, pulling tricks and collecting Taco Bell cups to unlock an ending. There's loads of little gems and nuggets to find which makes it really fun to explore. Oh, and it's free on Steam :)
Amazingly, I was able to get in touch with the creator, Steven Harmon, and ask him a few questions about the game and its style. His answers are shown below :)
Q: Was there any particular inspiration for the layout and format of the game?
A: Layout wise, it was really like Jazz, I'd just make stuff and placed it all to have a good pace (lines and flow) but also maintain some semblance of composition and navigation, making landmarks and skate spots that maybe had a different vibe, such as the verticality of the 80s commercial citypop corner or the ocean with its reverb and pool noodle look. I made all the art in blender and sketchup so iteration was extremely quick.
I like to start and end my extra personal work with some kind of full motion video or real-life audio, that’s been seen in a few of my releases and I think grounds it to some reality. Basically, this project asks the question “Dude, what if I died?” It’s me as a teen sort of making my peace with my life up to graduation and accepting that anything past that is gravy. I know it sounds a little odd, but because of this game and the existential questions I’ve answered while making it I became much less anxious. You can only understand your life looking backwards and having done that work ahead of time as a sort of bookmark if you will, it’s given me a gift I can’t put into words that has served me well through hard times. Despite Awkward Dimensions Redux, or any of my award-winning VR impact driven work, I still believe Griptape Backbone is the best thing I’ve ever made because of this positive internal personal growth.
Q: Of all of the items / features / obstacles in the game, do you have a favourite?
A: That's a tough one, the game is basically just littered with easter eggs - the gameplay essentially lies in the joy of taking as much of them in as possible. As cheesy as it is, I always laugh at the "One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy" ragdoll gag and its counterpart in the steam page official manual. Despite the controversial nature, I am most proud of the catholic-esque confessional app complete with a clippy parody - I enjoy the community's use of it via the steam community screenshots and I think it makes the experience a bit more reflective rather than just another meme game.
Q: How long did the game take to make and was is difficult to develop?
A: Griptape Backbone took 6-8 months to develop, and it was about as difficult as any solo indie game I suppose. Game development in general is difficult, but when you're working on something you enjoy, the technical hurdles don't really feel like setbacks.
Q: What attracted you to the vaporwave style for this game?
A: I am a fan of vaporwave music, even long before development on Griptape Backbone had begun. In my teen years I really resonated with the freeing nature of attribution art, pastiche, glitch art. I found comfort in listening to the genre and wanted to make a love letter to it inspired by the album art, internet humor, and subculture surrounding it all and the art, literature, and philosophy that influenced the genre to begin with.
I'm scared I'll never make anything this beautiful.
