Building rat: Gwen Frey about logic, laughter and laser grilles

Gwen Frey is no stranger to great ideas – or big games. After you have worked on titles as Bioshock Infinite And The flame in the floodShe is back with a new game! LabelA satirical science fiction puzzle game that starts on Xbox that plays the player against an excessive self-confident AI called Sara

With over 100 handmade puzzles, sharp writing and a surprising amount of heart, Label It's just as much about logic as to be observed. I sat down with Gwen to talk about puzzle design, to work solo (and not so solo) and how it is to express almost every character in her own game.

Corey: Sara plays a central role in Label-A hyperintelligent, obsessed by metrics, which observes everything and reacts to everything the player does. Inspired partly by her experiences that work alone during the blocking, she brings humor, tension and the feeling of being constantly evaluated.

Has the concept for Sara shaped the gameplay, or did the puzzles come first?

Gwen: Of course, the idea for Sara developed alongside the core mechanics of the game. My puzzle designer and I explored a new system early on, but thematically we both felt like rats in a cage – inside. We have built this feeling in everything: puzzles that cause the restriction, nervous character animations, and even blocked that they block when they are misused, such as a scientific experiment that went wrong.

Visually, I was inspired by my own dual monitor setup during the Lockdown when the largest part of my interaction led over screens. This has developed into Sara's concept – an arrogant algorithm observed that observed every movement and reflects the uncanny, separate mood that we survived. When I saw the game world through this lens, everything started to click.

Corey: You described Label As a game that “makes people think and laugh”. Which of these two was it more difficult to design?

Gwen: In any case, make people laugh! If a person sits down to complete a puzzle game, they are ready to think deeply and solve problems – they are in the right setting. Themnation comment is generally a welcome addition to this experience. However, the comedy is unexpected, very difficult and different types of humor in different people. Seriously – comedy is difficult.

Corey: There is a really clever rhythm of how the puzzles can develop Label. What was your approach to the difficulty curve?

Gwen: There are two options that I have liked to have committed: discovery and championship. Discovery is when you come across something new and find out how it works. Championship uses this understanding to solve a harder challenge. I try to present all the couple of puzzles something new to keep things fresh and I aim for solutions that feel deserved – closed enough to grasp with some thoughts, but never obviously.

Block pushing games have a unique problem: it is easy to land in an unusual state without realizing it. This kills the motivation. So in LabelWe let them undone movements, pull blocks from walls – basically give them a space for experimenting without fear of being firmly stuck. It makes the game more accessible, especially for players who are new to the genre without making it less satisfactory.

Corey: Working on a game in a small team means wearing a lot of hats – designers, writers, programmers. Which part of this process felt the most natural for you and what surprised you the most?

Gwen: Programming, art and animation came naturally for me. These are things I've done for years and I work in the unreal engine that I used my entire career. So there was nothing new to learn. By far the most surprising thing I had to learn for this project was the voice output. I am not an actor and have never done language work Label. It was pretty difficult.

Corey: We were lucky enough to play through the game, so we saw the end -credits. Just how many characters did you address personally in the game? Did you count?

Gwen: This question made me laugh. My programmer put my name into the credits about 100 times as a kind of joke. I could change that before the start … but it is true that I have put every character in the expression Label. There was a line in which we absolutely needed a male voice and my husband joined the microphone, but otherwise all characters were personally expressed by me. I spent a lot of time to record arguments with myself, and then used the sound effects in the engine in detail in order to make every character unique.

Corey: If you could sit next to someone who plays Label For the first time on Xbox – without spoiling it, is there a certain moment that you would wait for you to reach?

Gwen: There are many, many moments from which I hope you can reach! I wanted every 30 minutes from Label More interesting and unexpected than the previous 30 minutes. I am curious to see if we have achieved this.

Corey: Many thanks to you, Gwen, for the fact that you have taken the time to chat about it LabelIndie -Game development and what it is like to argue with yourself in an recording!

Label Is now on Xbox One for the Xbox series X | S available.