Lighting the Way is a feature series by Christophe Bettez about the stories behind emerging indie studios, creators, and voices.
It all starts with the obvious question: why would I actually want to play a video game about cognitive degeneration?
Jes Vaillancourt, project manager at Folklore Games, laughs heartily. It’s undoubtedly a question she was asked many times while promoting her studio’s debut game, Spiral. Released on Steam on September 20, 2024, Spiral is a third-person narrative exploration game that puts players in the shoes of a man named Bernard as he faces his unraveling mind and relives his most treasured moments through 19 explorable memories, ranging from childhood to old age.
“It is a difficult subject,” she admits,”but the game focuses on the person behind the disease. We celebrate his life and, hopefully, realize the importance of listening to other people’s stories, and try to tell them once they can no longer do it themselves. Spiral really is a celebration of life, rather than a game about cognitive degeneration.”
In a way, Spiral is heavily reminiscent of indie darling What Remains of Edith Finch: through a contemplative story, players get to know a human being, his past, his dreams, his joys, and his struggles. And even though Bernard is slowly losing his past, Edith Finch’s words about life ring true throughout the adventure: “The best we can do is try to open our eyes. And appreciate how strange and brief all of this is.”
From Student Project to Community
Folklore Games was created in 2012 by three game design graduates wanting to publish their student project. It spent a few years in hibernation before being revived by two of its cofounders, Mikhael Vaillancourt and Jean-François Desmarais, to develop Spiral.
“Our grandmother and two of her sisters were suffering from cognitive degeneration, and that’s where the idea behind Spiral came from,” Jes says. “My brother [Mikhael, Creative Director] wanted to use the medium of video games to express his feelings about it. It’s not something that’s often talked about, so we wanted to help people find a community and a space where they could share their experience.”
And, according to Jes, that mission was accomplished. “If there’s one success we can boast about since the game came out, it’s having touched people enough that they can maybe find a little bit more peace with the concept and want to be there for their loved ones, rather than trying to forget their illness.”
A 6-year Sprint
By the team’s own admission, Spiral was an unusually ambitious endeavor for an indie studio’s very first game. 18 developers spent 6 years on the project- none of them, of course, working full-time at Folklore.
“We all think at first that developing a game is a sprint,” Jes says, “but it’s a sprint that lasts many, many years, and no one is ever prepared for that! There are lots of ups and downs, lots of times when you feel like you’ll never get to the end of it. But there’s such a strong sense of accomplishment once you do get to the end, and you say ‘OK, we’ve released a game, it exists and it’s in people’s hands.’”
So how do you maintain focus over such a long sprint, when you’re a part-time game developer with a full-time job, a life, and a family? “It’s about finding a balance and being regular in your efforts without burning yourself out. We can’t work with as much intensity as we’d all like over a long period of time. We can’t make a game at the expense of our physical and mental health.”
Beyond the Spiral
Unsurprisingly, Folklore has another (super-secret) narrative-driven project in the works. “There are many, many, many games coming out each day, especially on PC,” Jes says. “Establishing your name as an indie studio is always going to be an uphill battle, so you need to have games come out on a more regular basis and build a community around yourself.”
“Many” is an understatement: on Steam alone, around 1,500 games are released each month, for a total of 14,400 games in 2023 alone and 14,198 in 2024 so far (according to SteamDB). But the staggering amount of competition does not seem to faze Jes: “We need different studios for players with different tastes, she says. I think it’s vitally important to have the capacity to develop our independent games, even those we are told cannot be marketed anywhere. We need to have funky ideas and find our niche. Having more indies and more visibility for indies allows for that!”
So if you want to start working on that game you’ve been dreaming about, Jes has one thing to say: “Courage! You can do it! It’s never easy, but it’s worth it.”
Meanwhile, Folklore Games is getting ready for its next big sprint. One thing is for sure: this one will be shorter than 6 years.
Spiral is available on Steam and Xbox.
