Our reviewer loved Indika so much that I reached out and spoke to game director and studio founder Dmitry Svetlow (DS). He was kind enough to really explain how the game came together and some details that I don’t think people who played the game would know.
Obviously, Indika is a groundbreaking game, and has received a lot of praise (from us included). It’s easy to see that Indika is thought-provoking and may make you rethink how you see the world, but the background of making the game is arguably just as intriguing. The first answer really blew me away personally, but the whole interview is pretty mindblowing.
GH: While the conversation around ideas of morality and ethics was fun, our favorite part was your not-so-subtle hints that Christianity, practiced today, is the human interpretation of the scripture or of social norms rather than what is written (Christian love and acceptance vs. what we see Indika live through). Can you talk to us about how you chose to tackle that?
DS: You might be surprised, but in Indika, the theme of religion is not the main one. For me, Indika is primarily a story about a person, their fear of not being worthy, and their self-torture. Nevertheless, you correctly pointed out one aspect of the game, if you remember the scene where Indika sees a small copy of the abbess jump out of the abbess’s mouth, this scene illustrates Indika’s thought that instead of the body of Christ, they are foisting the body of the mother abbess on her. I still really like Jesus Christ, he is one of my favorite characters, but I consider the church to be one of the fairly destructive inventions of mankind today.
GH: How did you approach the creation of each of the three main characters within the world and what they represented, Indika, Ilya, and the Devil? What were the goals when you were writing for them?
DS: Indika was based on one of my friends and in the first version of the script was a man, but then I realized that the story works even better with a female character. So she became a woman, although I always imagined her as a very smart child. I really like such a combination of mature intellect, and sometimes childish simplicity and naivety. Although to some extent, all our heroes are a bit children, perhaps this is a way to expose their deep motivation, like at a psychotherapist’s session. The only adult we have is the devil. You won’t get naivety and simplicity from him. By the way, few people notice that our devil also has female features in his physiology.
GH: INDIKIA hit acclaim immediately upon release. We gave it a high review, and our peers in our industry seem to agree. Will we see a sequel or a spiritual successor in the future?
DS: Right now we are working on another project, not related to Indika at all, but who knows, we all really like the universe of the game, I would like to return to it again.
GH: What was the hardest part of the development process for this game?
DS: Game design. Half of our team worked on the game for the first time, and the other half had never worked on games of this genre before. In most cases, we had to reinvent the wheel. I didn’t understand until the very end whether what we did from the point of view of game design worked or not.
GH: There have been other media that portray religious figures and themes, like the movie Dogma. Kevin Smith, the Director of Dogma would often speak about the backlash he received while marketing and releasing his film. Were you worried about any backlash that would come from the game?
DS: I expected a negative reaction from part of the players, of course, was I ready – a difficult question, negativity always knocks you off track, but that’s our way. In Russia, they write statements about us to the investigative committee, they call for a ban on the game, I periodically receive threats by mail, especially offended believers promise to kill me.
Editor’s Note: This one hurt to read. Please don’t send death threats to people who have different views or choose to delve into religion for their art. This kind of thing never helps and only hurts others.
GH: Why did you choose to go with 2d arcade gameplay for the flashbacks? To us, it felt like it was supposed to show that mental break between past and present, to help Indika recategorize her memories. The complete difference in art, color, and gameplay, feel like she is trying to idealize yet hide from her past. Was that the goal?
DS: In general, pixel art appeared along with the leveling system, as one of the narrative elements. The theme of “game” in our game is one of the main ones. We kind of try to poke the player in the nose that he is playing a game, as is our main heroine. This is an anti-immersive element. The transition to childhood with the help of pixel games, in my opinion, works great, as it transports us to a time when life itself seemed like a light game.
GH: How did you approach the creation of the environmental puzzles and the platforming section? We loved the split world elements, but it felt like they were used sparingly, was there a reason they didn’t happen more often in the game?
DS: Puzzles with a world split are still part of the narrative, and appeared where it was justified by the script. Maybe that’s the reason, or maybe we just couldn’t come up with another good puzzle in this style. 😄
Indika was impactful to our staff, and we’re grateful for the chance to talk to the developers. We wish them nothing but success on their next project, and we want you all to keep an eye out for it. There’s no doubt in our minds that it’s going to be another hit.
