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Mosaic from Krillbite and Raw Fury sells itself on the back of being a ‘modern adventure game’, one which will allow you the chance to discover that there is more to life than just working through the usual daily grind. And with launch on Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch, this world has just been opened up to a whole new range of gamer. We wanted to know more, and found that the Creative Director at Krillbite Studios – Adrian Tingstad Husby – was more than happy to reveal a few secrets.
Hi, please introduce yourself. What has been your role in the development of Mosaic?
Hello! My name is Adrian Tingstad Husby, and I worked as the creative director on Mosaic.
Have you worked on any other games previously?
Yes! We’ve shipped a couple of games before. One short experiment called The Plan, and then a game called Among the Sleep.
Why should Xbox gamers be interested in Mosaic? What is it all about?
If you enjoy compact narrative games, I think it’s definitely worth checking out! It’s about a lonely person who’s stuck in a repetitive grind in a huge city, and feels like a small cog in a machine. But as the story unfolds, you start piecing together more and more pieces, until it…escalates. I think it’s a very unique game, with a lot of elements people can relate to.
And what have been the biggest inspirations throughout development?
The idea started forming while working (way too) hard on our last project Among the Sleep. We felt a bit trapped in a large production, so I don’t think that’s a coincidence. From there we added some situations from our own lives, and observations about society at large. Other than that everything from Jaque Tati to Chaplin, other games like Everyday the Same Dream, and even the economist Thomas Piketty’s work has inspired the game. We draw inspiration from all over the place.
Mosaic promises to deliver a bleak and cold atmosphere and setting. How and why was that decision made?
It’s all tied to the message we want to convey. To make the game a coherent thing, we want all parts to fit with the themes, and how the main character sees the world. Hence the cold hues, hard edges and fragile top-heavy characters for example.
The art design is most definitely a stand out feature. Could you tell us more about how that evolved over time?
For sure! We’ve been through quite a few visual directions. We actually started out with a flat 2.5D art style, with a locked side-view camera. After a while we decided to make the leap to 3D, but still explored a much more cartoony art style for a while, where the characters had big round heads and eyes. Not until a few years into production (while the rest of the team were building some tech we needed) the art team did one last iteration and settled on the final art style, that is more centred around a mature look with clean edges and smooth gradients.
It certainly looks like one of those games which is best enjoyed going in blind, but please can you give a quick overview on how the story will unfold?
You’re commuting to work, over and over, and NOTHING out of the ordinary will EVER happen. And whatever you do, do NOT poke around or question the system.
How has the reception been since releasing on PC and Apple Arcade?
It’s naturally not a game for everyone, but I’m happy that the people who are into shorter narrative experiences seem to really like it! We’ve had a lot of fun reading the thoughts people are sharing.
Was the plan to always release later on consoles and should we expect any additional features as it makes the move to Xbox One, PS4 and Switch?
It’s the same game we’re releasing for consoles (it just took us a bit longer to finish these versions), but it’s worth noting that we’ll be releasing a patch for both the existing Apple and PC versions at the same time, with a lot of improvements and bug fixes.
We love achievements – what sweet Gamerscore options will achievement hunters on Xbox One expect to see? Are there any fun ones to go for?
All I have to say is that you should play BlipBlop on your in-game phone.
If you had to offer advice to a newcomer to Mosaic, what one thing would it be?
Whatever you do, DO NOT walk left. There’s absolutely nothing to see there.
And finally, are there any plans to build on Mosaic with future games?
Currently we don’t have any such plans, as we always want to keep exploring new things, so our new projects also something completely different from our previous games. But who knows!
Huge thanks go out to Adrian for taking the time to answer our questions in the build up to the launch of Mosaic on Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch. You can find the game available right now from the usual digital stores, with the Xbox Store giving up a download for £16.74.
Keep an eye out for our full review of Mosaic too – it’s coming soon and should be able to provide even more in terms of details.