Don't Nod wants to "send a message like a bottle in the ocean" with Jusant

Just recently, we reported on the news that Jusant will be officially launching as soon as October 31, 2023. Ahead of the game making its debut on the spookiest day of the year, we've also recently had a chance to preview and play a bit of Jusant, all on top of getting to speak with co-creative directors, Mathieu Beaudelin and Kevin Poupard, during our time in Cologne for Gamescom.

As part of that interview, we asked the duo if Jusant has a message to it, and how important the theme of environmental stewardship and conservation was when creating the title.

"Yes, that was since the beginning of the project when we wrote it, when we tried to create it. Ecology was one of the main themes, but more than ecology, it's more like how do we need to reconnect with the nature and what surrounds us," said Poupard. "That's actually the reason that we didn't set up our game in a realistic world. For us, it's more powerful to have some kind of a metaphor. It's easier to have our own universe because we can tell whatever we want through the metaphor. Also, the allegory of the metaphor, what represents climbing, overcoming something. It could mean anything to anyone."

Poupard further added, "The main theme is reconnecting with the nature. After all, if people want to see something else, if they want to chat about it, if they want to have a debate about what they understood about the game, that's a win for us because we don't want to have any moral or we don't want to judge people. We just want to send a message like a bottle in the ocean."

Beaudelin then continued, "Just for the gameplay also, Kevin said earlier that the gameplay was the principal mechanic of the climbing and how to reach a point. But in the core gameplay, there is another mechanic. There is a companion with us and this is a Ballast. The Ballast is our bond to the nature. It connects us to the nature. The gameplay of the Ballast is an echo. Each echo will bring back the nature, the fauna, the flora. We wanted to connect also to the rock and to the nature by the gameplay. It was our way to put the message in the hand of the player."

Catch the full interview below for more information on how Don't Nod created the climbing mechanics and how the tower itself has been moulded into an influential figure in the narrative.