Paperbark (video game)
Paperbark is an Australian point-and-click exploration video game by Paper House, released June 2018.
Development
The game was originally created as the final year project of RMIT game design students Ryan Boulton, Nina Bennett and Terry Burdak, who founded the indie development studio Paper House. They wanted the game to look like a storybook, and used Boulton's work as he had already been developing watercolour-inspired rendering techniques. Burdak suggested the inspiration of children's books. The trio grew up in regional Victoria, and aimed to make a game that looked like the places they knew. The watercolour art style is reminiscent of nature-centric Australian children's books like Blinky Bill, Diary of a Wombat and Possum Magic. Reflecting on their time at RMIT, Burdak explained: "“It has a supportive community, which allowed us to experiment and create a game that explores our personal ideas about Australia and story-telling in a digital format."After graduating from university, they showed an early prototype to different gaming conferences, and discovered the government organization Film Victoria, which offers funding to game development, among other creative projects. After securing a Film Victoria grant in 2015, the team could quit their day jobs, form a company, and devote their time to finishing the game. They brought on various freelancers, including an ecologist who checked if the various plants and animals were native to the bush. The team also hired a children's book author in order to elevate the narrative elements of the game.
Plot and gameplay
The plot centres around a sleepy wombat exploring Australian bushland, encountering various flora and fauna along the way.Players tap the screen to move the character, and as they do more pieces of the path are made visible. According to Gamasutra, "information unfolds on screen in curt but elegantly simple sentences".