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The American videogame developer Colabee headquartered in Seattle
is currently developing a computer game called "The Forest Song"
based on Lisova Pisnya by Lesya Ukrainka.
You may have heard of the game from the recent reports on Ukrainian TV channels,
but this interview is special, because this talk is based on the soundscape of the game.
You are able to experience the audio from this game
and actually plunge into the mystical world of "Forest Song".
Let's listen.
The Morning Wave on Hromadske Radio.
Vasylyna Duman by the microphone and now listeners will be have the opportunity
to hear the way "The Forest Song" sounds and was
inspired by the drama by Lesya Ukrainka. On the basis of this work
the American company Colabee Studios is developing a computer game.
The Creative Director of Colabee Dmitriy Veryovka is on air from America.
- Good morning, Dmitriy.
- Good morning.
- Dmitriy has prepared a collection of sounds which will be featured in the game.
So let's listen, think and imagine.
- Wow that was a bit scary! What will sound like that?
- This is how the forest at night sounds in our game.
As we know, in the "Forest Song", much of the action of the game takes place in the forest.
And one point in the game Lukash must explore the forest to solve a puzzle
in which he must find periwinkle - a flower for Kylina.
When he enters the forest these sounds are the way the forest spirits greet him.
- Indeed, one can imagine it.
So the forest is very mystical and can be very dark.
As it might be imagined from the way it sounds.
- Yes - yes. It is very mystical and very dark.
It's like the forest where...
At night when Lukash arrives uninvited, the spirits are not happy to see him there.
That's why they...
they warn him about the dangers ahead and
actually they forbid him to come.
When we were ..
During the expedition we spoke with many people who live in Volyn.
They say that a visit to the forest is like visiting someone's home.
They ask permission to enter and are grateful to come in and leave the forest.
That was very interesting for us and
that's why this relationship between people and forest is so important in the game
And if you are not welcome there, you'd better not come.
- Dmitriy, did you in fact visit Volyn for the first time during this expedition?
Tell us more about this visit, please.
Why did you organise it? Was this experience special for you as well?
Also for your America colleagues who travelled with you.
- Yes, I visited with my partner, with whom I established Colabee.
Well
Just to understand more about the people who live in this region.
First of all why Volyn? Because Lesya Ukrainka wrote "The Forest Song" there.
She was there..
- The story takes place there.
- Yes the story was developed there.
So it is about that place
and
That's why I had to go there and have a look and talk to people.
For the game we created before - a game called "Never Alone"
It is a game about Alaska.
We went there more than 15 times
and spent a lot of time with people, performed interviews, lived among them, ate with them.
We listened to lots of stories.
- Was it the same this time?
- We did exactly the same this time.
It is very important to go there and to speak with people who live there.
Even though I was grew up in Odessa, I did not visit many places in Ukraine.
So it was extremely interesting for me to come there just like for my partner.
To make the trip a success
We enlisted cultural partners to help us to go there.
Olena Ivanovska.
She is from Kyiv Institute.
Also...
Oleksiy Dolya
Who is an expert in folklore.
- Did you go into forest?
- Yes, we went into the forest. And recorded a lot from the forest.
- Was it scary? By the way, did any mystical things happen to you?
- I wouldn't say so.
But the feelings...
Once we went into forest when there wasn't anyone around, we could feel the presence
like someone would appear.
Or that someone was there but we could not see them.
There was a lot of source material for inspiration but we recorded how people travel through the forest as well.
How the steps sound like from rubbing branches, rustling leaves.
We recorded all these. We recorded all around the swamps.
Like when someone comes out of swamp, like Rusalka and Mavka. Or when someone falls in to the swamp.
So we recorded all the sounds.
To get this right, we have a team dedicated to how the game should sound.
Their name is "Impossible Acoustic" - a very talented team who collaborated with us on our previous game.
So the soundscape is very important for us and to visit the forest and record there is really important.
- Let's continue to listen the sounds.
- This is once again mystical.
This is also the forest at night.
Lukash understands that he needs to cross the forest to the other side of a lake.
But it remains nearly impossible, because he would have to cross the swamp.
Many spirits live there.
It is impossible to get there.
So he has to find another way.
And...
At that very moment he discovers that there is a kind of a spirit bridge which can take him there.
It is also mystical, unreal.
He sees the bridge and realizes it will get him to the other side.
- What about the characters? Are you adapting all the characters from the Lisova Pisnya? And did you add any new?
I will remind listeners the characters from Lisova Pisnya:
He Who Rends the Dikes, Rusalka, Lost Babes (Poterchata), Water Goblin (Vodyanyk),
Uncle Lev, The Fiery Serpent (Perelesnyk), Lukash, Propasnytsya, Forest Elf (Lisovyk), Kutz, Mavka
Starvelings (Zlydni) as well, a whole mystic cast of characters
Are you adapting all of them and maybe you introduced any new characters?
We have not recreated all of them - yet. This is only the beginning of the production, it is a work in progress.
The game will not be released until 2018.
So we have 2 more years of development.
But...
But are definitely adapting the main characters like Mavka, Lukash, Kylina, Mother,
uncle Lev, He who Dwells in Rocks, all of them, except the Lost Babes...
Well have concepts but we have not included all of them yet.
But we plan to adapt almost all of them.
- Which characters are your favourite ones? I mean out of those you have already implemented.
- Well... I think Mother of Lukash, because she has such strong temper.
Everyone asks if she looks like that, she must be bad person, but...
she has very interesting voice. We have just recently recorded for her.
Unfortunately I don't have this recording to share.
Mavka is very interesting, because she is so ethereal.
It is impossible to see her precisely.
She appears and disappears all the time.
- Let's go on listening what we have.
- I can tell you a short story about that sound.
This is when...
When Lukash plays flute, he can leave his body.
We created it the way, when the hero plays flute - his spirit can fly.
He plays the flute
he leaves his body, flies
just like a spirit.
When he flies, you hear this music and when he flies he gathers...
parts of spirits that look like embroidery.
Ukrainian embroidery, exactly from Volyn, from Polissia will be the red thread running through the game.
- Let's continue listening.
- This sounds like an anxious creature
Where is it used?
- This is both anxious and it is not.
I mean, the player will see
a crane far away and it will fly...
this is the sound that you hear when it approaches..
- Crane.
- Crane, yes. Crane...
And when it appears on the screen
... we display an alert
to tell the player they have unlocked what we call a "cultural insight" in English.
These are small documentaries lasting about 1 minute.
In general 1 minute sometimes 2 minutes.
This is when we insert into the game first-hand interviews with people we have spoken with.
While playing, gamers can directly hear the voices of people who live and who can tell us about these traditions.
- Let's continue to listen.
- You have just heard how a windmill sounds like in the game when it "awakens".
One of the puzzles we are working on right now.
It already exists in prototype.
This is when...
Before his marriage, the Mother of Lukash asks him
to deliver flour for the wedding bread (karavay).
Yes...But the mill is in disrepair and the miller has disappeared.
That's why..
Lukash has to repair the mill by himself.
But it is not easy at all. He has a lot to do:
to fly, to solve, to think how it works. In the end
when he does everything, you will hear this sound.
The sound as if
as if the windmill has awoken. As if it calls to everyone in the village saying that "I am working again"
So this is quite an important moment, because when this is complete new objectives open to you.
- So the windmill is just like the living organism?
- The windmill is like the living organism, yes, like something...
yes, something alive, big and wooden. We were ...
-And very domestic and cozy.
-Yes.
- Let's listen some more.
- This one is the most our most recent recordings. We have not yet integrated it into the game.
It was literally last Monday when we recorded Nadia Tarnawsky.
Nadia Tarnawsky...
She is
is a very interesting person. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio
She was born in America
to a family of Ukrainian immigrants yet she learned to sing traditional Ukrainian so amazingly
- This is a sound when...
A storytelling mechanism of the game which is very interesting is that Lukash is stuck in a time loop.
It is very similar to ..
I don't know if you have seen...
- "Groundhog day"
- "Groundhog day", yes.
So he...
He is stuck in a time loop. And to leave this day...
He has to solve all the puzzles, but he has only one day.
That's why he
when a new day starts he always comes back to...
- To the start point.
- In the beginning of the day you will hear that sound.
- Do you need any support right now?
From our listeners right now.
- Well, the main support for us... We have self financed this project so far
So my partner and I established this game production.
Of course the financial support, to attract people who will be interested in a collaboration with us.
I think this is number one, because
in order to release the game faster we have to engage such supporters.
Number two, we are searching
for people who are able to help us with translations,
because there is so much material written in Ukrainian. I can read, I translate, but I cannot translate for everyone.
That's why
The more people that could help us in translation the better.
People speaking English and Ukrainian.
It would be very helpful. If there are any volunteers, please contact us.
-Yes, contact Hromadske Radio. Search us on social media. As well as find the contacts on our website.
Thank you very much, Dmitriy. For this extremely interesting interview and for the leading this excursion to
the virtual world of "The Forest Song".
- Thank you.
- I'll remind our listeners, on air was the Creative Director of Colabee Studios, Dmitriy Veryovka.
We were talking about the computer game based on the drama by Lesya Ukrainka, called The Forest Song
Listen and think.
It's really interesting game, I would identify it as Indie.
So the game has a very unique concept and visual style
It is not like a first person shooter, not an like an action arcade game, it is not a quest.
Well, there are some elements of a quest.
It is not fantasy pop culture. It is very ideological.
Yes, first of all I hope the developers find good translators.
Because to tell this very important Ukrainia, very Slavic story
one has to do their best to make it clear for everyone from Tanzania to Scotland.
- As far as I understand all dialog will be in Ukrainian and the translation to different languages of the world will be provided in subtitles.
Yet, Ukrainian to English translators are needed to work on this game
just to help explain to the developers what's going on.
- Well, those sounds, even that vocal we've heard is unlikely to be translated into other language.
- Well, it shouldn't.
- Let's hope that this game will become a hit not only in Ukraine.