Harold Halibut
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| Harold Halibut | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Slow Bros. |
| Publisher | Slow Bros. |
| Director | Onat Hekimoğlu |
| Designer | Onat Hekimoğlu |
| Programmer | Onat Hekimoğlu |
| Artist | Ole Tillman |
| Writers |
|
| Composer | Onat Hekimoğlu |
| Engine | Unity |
| Platforms | |
| Release | 16 April 2024 |
| Genre | Graphic adventure |
| Mode | Single-player |
Harold Halibut is a 2024 video game developed by German independent developer Slow Bros for PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S. The game is a narrative-based adventure video game in which players control Harold, a janitor on a spacecraft submerged in an alien planet, and complete odd tasks for the ship's inhabitants. The game was created over a ten-year development process, first conceived as an unfunded part-time project to create a narrative game inspired by stop-motion animation. To implement a stop-motion aesthetic, the developers hand-made characters, objects and environments using various materials scanned into the game and animated in the Unity engine. During development, the game received several features, nominations and accolades for video game, film and culture festivals.
Upon release, Harold Halibut received mixed to average reviews, with critics praising the ambition and detail of the game's visual presentation and the themes in its narrative, although critiquing the game's narrative focus as lacking puzzles and interactivity and having a slow pace.
The game's adventure gameplay is a linear, story-driven experience that takes place across six chapters.[1] Players navigate the interior districts of the Fedora and interact or overhear conversations from its characters to progress the story.[1][2] Characters provide the players with tasks, some necessary to complete the game and others optional, which are logged as a to-do list in a PDA menu.[3] Completion of tasks requires simple point-and-click interactions with objects in the game,[2] with some tasks involving small puzzles or minigames, such as cleaning a room through a Tetris-based minigame.[4] Optional interactive minigames can be played in an arcade on the Fedora.[4][5]
Plot
During the peak of the Cold War in the 1970s, the space ship Fedora I, controlled by the All Water corporation, was sent from Earth to find a planet for humankind to colonise. Drifting for over two hundred years, the ship encounters a solar flare and is stranded at the bottom of an alien ocean on an uninhabitable planet, where it has remained for another fifty years.
The player is Harold, a shy and withdrawn maintenance worker on the staff of the ship, who assists the scientist Jeanna Mareaux, who is commissioned to look for ways to escape the planet. Harold also performs odd jobs for the other inhabitants, many with different philosophies, including their views on whether to leave the Fedora or stay.
When a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to relaunch the craft unaffected by the solar flare and return to home is discovered, Harold is placed in a unique position to make a difference in the future of the ship and its populace. During the game, Harold discovers a fish-like humanoid stuck in the ship's filtration system he names 'Fishy', providing him with a window into the perspective of the alien life on the planet. Harold also discovers the original mission of the Fedora may not have been as essential as its inhabitants believe.
Development and release
Harold Halibut was created by Slow Bros., a Cologne studio led by independent developer Onat Hekimoğlu, a filmmaker and graduate of the Cologne Game Lab.[6] The development process for the game took place over ten years, with the development team first working on the game on a part-time basis with low funding, and developing in size and commitment as a full-time project over time.[7][8] In 2012, the initial three-person development team conceived the idea from a conversation about the potential to create a narrative-led video game using stop-motion animation,[9] citing inspiration from classic adventure games and films including Jason and the Argonauts and The Valley of Gwangi.[10] The team also were interested in the use of hand-made assets and stop-motion as they lacked experience in 3D modelling, preferring to leverage their skills of carpentry, sculpture, lighting and costume design to create a game.[7][11]
To create and animate the assets for the game, the development team hand-made puppets, sets, props, and costumes from various materials including clay, textiles, welded metal, and recycled wood.[7][12] These items were then rendered in 3D using photogrammetry by photographing the objects from all angles, animated as "digitally rigged" puppets and imported into the Unity engine.[9][13][14] To animate the characters, motion capture was used through a motion tracking rig, which filmed the movements of actors and fit them to the models of the 3D puppets.[11][7] This approach was taken instead of the originally intended approach of using stop-motion animation for characters to streamline the production process, as art director Ole Tillman stated the original approach was "too restrictive" and time-consuming.[13] Hekimoğlu estimated that the production process required 200 kilograms of clay.[9] Originally conceived to be more reliant on puzzles, Hekimoğlu stated that this approach was abandoned for a more narrative and linear one to focus on player immersion and interaction with the characters and world,[9] taking influence from other narrative games including Night in the Woods and Firewatch.[8]
Release
In June 2017, the studio launched a failed Kickstarter to secure $170,000 in funding for development,[14][15] with Hekimoğlu considering the campaign a success in terms of raising awareness for the game, but attributing its failure to the lack of initial promotion.[8] Harold Halibut was announced at the Gamescom Future Games show on 22 March 2024 with a showcase trailer and release date,[15] and published on Steam on 16 April.
