Nintendo Life: How did the idea for Loco Motive come about? What interested you about this setting?
Adam Riches: Our childhood was filled with memories of playing point-and-click games, and as we grew up, our passion for these games stayed with us! It was a shared dream of my brother and I to make the games we enjoyed playing as kids.
I had been talking about working on a point-and-click adventure with Joseph for a while, but I didn’t know where to start. When the pandemic hit the UK a few months into 2020, it wasn’t long before everyone was working and living at home under quarantine. At first I enjoyed the novelty of working from home without a long commute, but it quickly became isolating. Additionally, Adventure X, the annual narrative gaming convention in London, has announced that it is canceling its event that year and will instead hold its first game jam, dubbed AdvXJam.
it seemed motivating and achievable to create something in two weeks.
I admired the beautiful environment art of Over the Alps, a narrative adventure game set in Switzerland in the 1930s. I dreamed and remember seeing clear images of a character on a train, it was cut so you could see the inside as they moved through the carriages.
Remembering that image, I started thinking about how we could make a short, concise story set on a train. I still had that picture with me in my back pocket when the game went down, so it made sense to use the idea. After I presented the idea of joining the game jam to Joseph, he immediately agreed. We answered Discord’s call together and started brainstorming ideas, it was motivating and achievable to create something in two weeks.
When we released the jam game, the reception was immediately very positive, with media coverage and lots of people asking for more. This made us think about setting up a full-sized game based on the same concept. With Loco Motive, we want to simultaneously pay tribute to the pixel art LucasArts point-and-click experience of our youth, but with a modernized twist.
Can you explain how you got the attention of Chucklefish publishers?
Adam: At the time I was working for Chucklefish as part of their internal development team. After it got a great reception for the jam game, I wanted to demonstrate it during the company and tell. It went well, and especially the marketing team gave us a lot of support. I felt comfortable approaching them later with questions about how to pitch, as it was not something I had experience with. Luckily, they had plenty of good advice to share.
It took me a few months to put something together, which I then submitted through an official application. I think most people first knew I was featuring a game when it arrived in their review inbox. I eventually managed to start my own indie studio, Robust Games, put together a small team and we’ve been working on the game ever since!
How is Nintendo Switch development going? What challenges did you face?
Joseph Riches: The ‘chunky’ pixel art style scales well, so I found it perfect for the Switch’s different display modes. The game looks great whether you play in portable or docked mode.
since we were able to focus specifically on the Nintendo Switch platform from the very beginning of development, we are very satisfied with the results so far.
When it comes to playing point-and-click adventure games on consoles, it was important to us that the controller support was up to par. This was a challenge that we wanted to tackle directly, and since we were able to focus specifically on the Nintendo Switch platform from the very beginning of development, we are very satisfied with the results so far.
Thanks to direct character control and hot spot selection, players can easily move through the game without, say, mimicking a cursor. We’ve also managed to implement Nintendo Switch-specific features like HD Rumble!
One of the obvious comparisons to Loco Motive is Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ – was that a key influence for you when designing the game? How do you think Loco Motive is different?
Adam: It’s fair to say that Agatha Christie’s work was a big source of inspiration for our game. I have often described it as a mix Monkey Island and Murder on the Orient Express.
We drew a lot of visual inspiration and took references from the actual passenger train itself, but I also researched a lot of behind-the-scenes photos from the various film adaptations of Murder on the Orient Express.
Our goal was to put a comedic spin on the classic murder mystery formula. For example, what if the celebrated detective in the story wasn’t Agatha Christie’s famous Poirot, but was actually a bit of a bumbling fool, trying to solve the case but in reality flying by the seat of his pants?
Loco Motive definitely feels inspired by classic point-and-click adventure games, but also exhibits a modern sensibility. Are there any particular games you look to for inspiration?
Adam: Loco Motive draws inspiration from classic point-and-click adventure games, such as Monkey Island and Tentacle Day. While certain gameplay elements are still essential to the genre, they have continued to evolve over time. To ensure the game feels fresh, we researched other games and included modernizations where they made sense.
As for the visuals, we use modern lighting and shadow techniques that complement the pixel art. We also used particle effects and shaders to create weather effects and even implemented edge lighting on characters to help them stand out in the environment. While these effects are subtle in places, they all work together to create a great aesthetic for the game.
Another modern feature in the game is the in-game hint line. While its purpose is to help players who might get stuck or need help, we designed it as an in-universe mechanic. Hopefully it will be a fun and engaging feature to interact with, even if you don’t necessarily need a puzzle solution.
We also drew inspiration directly from Return to Monkey Island, which recently introduced fantastic modernization and accessibility features. Hopefully, it should be considered the new standard for point-and-click adventure games going forward. I played the game on Nintendo Switch and it felt really natural.
Can you give any indication of when we might see Loco Motive release for Switch?
Adam: All we can say right now is that we’re aiming for a 2023 release, but we have a demo available on Steam this weekend (until May 8th) for people to check out. We’d love to get feedback from the community!
This interview has been slightly edited for clarity.
Our sincere thanks to Adam and Joseph Riches for taking the time to answer our questions. If you’re interested in checking out Loco Motive, you’ll be pleased to hear that Robust Games is currently participating in a digital event LudoNarraCon on Steam, which will run until May 8, 2023. As Adam says, you can try the free demo during the event while we patiently wait for the Switch release date. Needless to say, the game looks great so far and we can’t wait to play the final product!