Lorelei and the Laser Eyes Interview with Simogo’s Simon Flessler

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Key Takeaways

• Lorelei and the Laser Eyes by Simogo presents a unique artistic direction and tone compared to previous titles.
• The limited color palette was intentional, as was the shift to a more thoughtful and slower pace in gameplay.
• The game’s one-button control scheme was inspired by the desire to create a dynamic and rich experience with minimal input.

At the risk of saying I told you so…it needn’t take much time initially spent in the Hotel Letztes Jahr back in April for it to become apparent that Swedish developer Simogo’s latest, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, was shaping up to be something truly one of a kind. The kind that signals its placement is undeniably high, not just in some end of year countdown, but for the studio themselves, what might be their best work to date yet.

For a team that’s no stranger to dishing out hit after hit of titles that challenge conventions and usual genre standards, to go one step further than even the lofty achievements accomplished prior, takes some doing. But what exactly was the reason for Lorelei’s stark change in artistic direction, tone and Simogo’s return to the world of ciphers and puzzles to solve? We recently had a chance to sit down with Simon Flessler, co-founder of the studio, to discuss not just the thought processes and inspirations that went into Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, but now just over two months after release, Flessler’s own reaction to its glowing reception from both critics and the player-base alike.

[Hardcore Gamer] One of the earliest and immediate things that stands out about the game is its art-style. Namely, the limited use of color and reliance on red standing out against a predominantly black-and-white/greyscale palette. Given how your previous game, Sayonara Wild Hearts, was bold and expressive not just with visuals but in sound as well, was this an intentional choice from the get-go, to create something that would strike an almighty contrast?

[Simon Flessler] I’m not very good at colors and struggled a lot with them during Sayonara Wild Hearts, so that the next game should be black and white was decided even before Sayonara Wild Hearts had wrapped up. Similarly, we decided early on that the next game, which turned out to be Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, should be more thoughtful and slower.

As much as I absolutely love Lorelei as an entire package, the element that stands out to me the most personally is the tone. Specifically, how it seemed to effortlessly shift from being surreal, strange, a little comical, sometimes unsettling, yet always feeling coherent with what it was doing — like there was an intention or a purpose to how the game presents itself in a player’s mind. Beyond the gameplay and of course, the puzzles present in the game, was the notion of player perception something that felt imperative to get right in Lorelei?

While you always have an outset or early idea about a tone, I think if you just follow that idea and don’t let the game become itself with its own voice, it will feel manufactured. I think the tone was not something that was consciously being designed, as much as it’s a true reflection of ideas and creative whims we had at the time.

Where and when did the idea behind the control scheme come from? On paper, the idea that Lorelei can – for example, on the Switch – be played with one hand and a single Joy-Con, sounds frankly absurd and far-fetched. But on playing it, I was amazed by how well the gameplay translated across via this set-up. Had you experimented with other control schemes beforehand or had this design principle formed as a result of something else?

The one-button approach was formed during Sayonara Wild Hearts as I was testing sections of the game with the left hand, while taking notes or adjusting values with the right hand. While there are games that benefit from a lot of buttons, I feel one of the biggest problems with most games today is that they are spaceships to control, which alienates people from the medium. It has become a self-imposed challenge to try and make a game that felt dynamic and rich, with a minimal approach to button input. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is just a continuation of that thought.

Was there anything outside of the medium of video games specifically that you drew inspiration from, when creating Lorelei and the Laser Eyes? Anything from TV, film, literature, maybe even traditional/fine art that caught your eye before and/or during development?

The 1961 film L’année dernière à Marienbad was one of the biggest inspirations for the game. The way the work of Paul Auster describes fictional media within itself was inspirational. It makes the universe of the work feel rich, natural and alive, as it hints of more existing within it than the few characters portrayed. The way Paul Auster handled ambiguity of identity and truth was also a big inspiration.

Simogo has what many may regard as, one of the most consistent track-records of any studio still going in games. Given that Sayonara Wild Hearts – much like your prior titles – was so highly acclaimed when it was released, did the pressure to follow on from that game feel uniquely different this time round while working on Lorelei? And of course, with the current critical and user consensus where it is as we speak, have those same feelings, now that Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is out, again changed?

I think the pressure is more personal, rather than trying to keep a perfect record. You want to try and find ways to make your work feel fulfilling, create things that surprise yourself, so that they are joyful to work with. Personally, I also want to make things that feel relevant, and for me that is to make things that no one else is making.

One of the hardest challenges I assume for any studio working in the Puzzle genre is the subjective notion of difficulty. What one person finds simple to solve, another may find impossible to even work out what it is a puzzle is trying to “say” let alone how to solve it — thus trying to find a happy-medium in-between the two extremes. Given that Lorelei isn’t a purely linear experience — encouraging players to go off, explore and see what they can find — did puzzle creation conjure any notable difficulties or issues you can recall?

Creating these types of cipher puzzles is maybe not so much about making them challenging as much as it is about making them interesting.

How long did it take until you felt 100% comfortable that every puzzle in every location had been tuned to the right difficulty?

Creating and tuning them ultimately becomes a communication challenge, in which you tweak how much of the information you can obfuscate and what you can do to communicate the idea of a puzzle in a language that is new to the player. Practically, it often meant showing the team puzzles in early versions often with just an image and asking them to figure it out.

On the subject of solving puzzles, Simogo put out a disclaimer prior to release stating that as a studio, your belief was that only a small percentage of players would reach end credits — possibly alluding to the difficulty of the game, but also perhaps the labyrinthine and interconnected nature of how specific puzzle solutions are acquired. Being honest, at the time I thought this was a bold declaration for you to make. What was your thinking and reasoning behind such a statement?

It was simply our belief that this statement was true.

Now that the game is out and there is now a bevvy of discussion not just with the puzzles, but also its ending and narrative implications, what’s your overall reaction to things? Has any one comment or theory behind the events of the game that you’ve read stood out to you the most? Has Lorelei accomplished what you hoped it would?

There are several good analysis and interpretations online. All of them are equally interesting, and I think the entire idea of them existing means that the game accomplished what it set out to do: to have ideas linger in the heads of people who played it.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is available now for PC & Switch.