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Skating and flying with Magic Rain Studio - Ila: The Frosty Glide and Lua interview at IndieDevDay
We caught up with Yesenia Vázquez Maneiro, Cristina Garcia, and Marta García Villar, to learn more about Magic Rain Studio's two upcoming projects.
Audio transcription
"I'm in Barcelona for the IndieDevDay 2024 and I'm here joined by the lovely ladies from Magic Rain Studios.
And you girls are introducing two games here, Lua and Ila. It's difficult for me to remember.
They're quite different in terms of genre. So let's talk a little bit about Ila, which is in the background."
"It's a sort of puzzle exploration, voxel-based adventure. Who wants to answer this?
Yesenia. Ila is a wholesome adventure exploration about a witch in training that goes to an enchanted island to find her kitty lost Coco, her cat that is missing and calls Coco.
That's why you're wearing the ears?
Yeah, this is the ears of Coco."
"So in order to find Coco, what do you have to do? How do you deal with sort of the world?
How are the puzzles like? What do you have to do?
It's a platforming puzzles. I don't know if you play A Short Hike or you know about it.
It's our main inspiration and it's a platforming puzzles, but a wholesome platforming."
"And we have some exploration as well. So that's it.
What else can you tell us about Ila yourselves?
As a lore, I can say that Ila was created in a game jam and we have been developing it since January.
So not that long ago. We are a team of collaborators and we started by creating the game for the game jam and we said, wow, this maybe has potential."
"So we started creating from new, from scratch, the first level and planning to see what we could achieve.
And now we are here and we are launching a Kickstarter soon, we hope.
When is the Kickstarter releasing?
We don't know exactly, but probably next month. So we are able to finish the game."
"Perhaps you can tell me a little bit more about the narrative?
Yeah, sure. As a narrative designer, maybe I can answer that.
The thing is that, as Yesenia said, Ila's main objective is to find Coco, her kitty, her tiny kitty.
But the thing is that we introduce more deep meaning inside her journey."
"So she will discover something about her own past, her own context, her own relationships with her family.
So it's a very introspective, very inner journey that is under the surface.
You can find very profound, a very deep meaning about it.
But I think that the players will have to discover it."
"But the thing is that we try with the music, with the environment and the narrative work regarding the text.
Everything is oriented just to create an environment where the player feels comfortable.
Just a little bit.
Why did you choose the voxel art style? Is that something that you girls loved beforehand?
Yeah, we chose voxel art because we wanted to give a touch of nostalgic vibe to the game."
"And we mixed this voxel art with a modern touch as well.
So you can feel the stylized voxel.
So yeah, that is the nostalgic touch that we want to bring to the game with the voxel.
Anything else that you would like to mention about Ila or we can talk about Lua now?
Yeah, maybe Lua."
"Okay, Lua is something. It's a different cup of tea.
So this is exploration, platforming, etc.
And that is a rhythm game.
How do you girls go into doing such different games at the same time?
We started developing Lua one year ago."
"And in December, I think it was just by chance.
We went to a game jam and started to make Ila: The Frosty Glide.
So it was accidentally.
Because people love as well the new game."
"So we decided, okay, we can make the two games and go ahead.
So now we are in this situation with the two games.
What's Lua about?
Yeah, they have a lot in common as well."
"They both have female characters that also are trying to find inner messages inside themselves.
So that kind of philosophy that I told earlier about Ila is also in Lua.
And I think that the player will try to find that out.
No cat to find?
No, no cat this time."
"But Lua is...
The story about Lua is more related to nature.
She's got...
She's sad because of the relationship between her mother and herself."
"So it's like a familiar conflict that will be resolved by making bonds with nature, with animals, with plants and so on.
She will discover the truth and the strength in herself, but also regarding her mother.
So we try to explore the feeling of the bonds that unite each other and the conflicts."
"How to resolve conflicts, the communication.
So it's kind of an intergenerational conflict about Lua.
But Ila is kind of a solitude game.
It's an inner journey."
"But Lua is about her and her mother.
So kind of Pixar Studio Ghibli-like, that kind of inspiration.
So regarding narrative, I think that we have inspirational founders in Studio Ghibli, in Disney Pixar and also Cartoon Saloon as well."
"So that will be main of our inspirations, I guess.
It's a runner, a rhythmic runner.
What can you tell me about the mechanics and how players are going to play Lua?
It's a rhythm game."
"So you're going to be skating to the beat of the music.
And also the music is very important for this game.
Because the music is made by a Brazilian band.
And it's a folk blues style."
"Hence the name of the game?
Yeah, the game of the band.
The name of the game is inspired by Brazilian music?
Being called Lua?
Yeah, exactly."
"There's a relationship also, as Marta said, with nature.
So Lua and Luna, of course, is related.
And the mechanics are that you are skating to the rhythm.
And then we will try to include some kind of narrative."
"Also combine the family relationship fixing.
What else?
That's mainly it.
It's a game that's simple to play.
Everyone can play the game."
"But it's difficult to master the game.
Children can play the game and enjoy it.
But if you want to master it, you can do it.
There's a challenge involved."
"It's also funny that the band who offered their songs, we took inspiration in their music.
And they also took inspiration in our narrative.
So it's a process that we both nurture ourselves."
"It's a full circle, right?
If Ila is getting a Kickstarter What about Lua?
What is the status of the project?
How are you girls planning to release it?
Lua is in an early phase right now."
"Earlier than Ila.
So now we have a Steam page.
But we hope next year we will have a demo available to play.
Are you having a publisher for both projects?
Or not so far?
Are you trying to auto-publish yourself?
Hopefully a publisher."
"Pretty good.
Lovely. Thank you so much for your time.
Good luck with the two projects.
Nice hat, nice ears. Thank you so much."
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