Photography games have been on trend lately.
But TOEM didn’t start as a photo game.
The original idea spawned from a conversation two friends had about leaving game development forever.
The road ahead would be long.
“The fun of the act of photography is picking the right lens and the right edits.”
Veselekov says, detailing the game’s two core design pillars.
“There is a lot of depth to picking a lens.
When you start to get into photography, [you realise] lenses can see beyond the human eye.
That’s a really important feeling to capture in photography games.”
Two of the main inspirations for Umurangi’s level design were theTony Hawk’s Pro Skaterseries andJet Set Radio.
One example comes in the Macro DLC level, Gamer’s Palace.
The level is a dystopian bar and arcade, with tunes pumped in by DJ Tariq.
You have to let people discover the excitement, and the meaning, for themselves.
If it were to come out now we would respond differently."
It teaches the importance of photography in an age of conflict.
“We wanted our mothers to be able to play it”, Mikkelsen says through a laugh.
“We thought of ourselves when we were traveling.
I always save all my photos from all my trips.
It’s a magical feeling to look back a year later.”
If Umurangi focuses on teaching players basic photo editing, TOEM emphasizes the power of photos as personal artifacts.
For the developers, this meant not overcomplicating the mechanics.
“It fit the game to strip away complicated photo features.
We often circled back to [the question] ‘does this add anything?’
Most of the time the answer was no.”
This was the design philosophy behind the Swedish team’s debut game.
The stamping in TOEM is one of the most satisfying mechanics of the year.
This is all thanks to the game’s artist and other creator Lucas Gullbo.
“As the stamp hits the card the whole card wobbles a bit to indicate impact.
To put the audience in a headspace of observing the world around them, in-game and otherwise.
Ultimately, that’s the nature of photography.
To preserve, not to destroy.
