"Techno-magic" is how Douze Dixièmes describes Mio: Memories in Orbit's striking art direction

If you've seen snippets or stills or Douze Dixièmes' upcoming Metroidvania Mio: Memories in Orbit, or perhaps even played a portion at a gaming event or via Steam, you will be familiar with one of the title's key aspects; it's art direction. This game has incredible colourful and memorable artwork, and it's also something that's perhaps a tad difficult to describe succinctly.

Fortunately Douze Dixièmes has you covered. We spoke with co-founder and executive producer Sarah Hourcade recently where we inquired about the art direction, how they describe it, and where its inspiration came from.

"Yeah, in the studio we call it techno-magic," began Hourcade. "But at the beginning we wanted to do something in the science-fiction universe, and then we got a little bit free of constraints and everything, and it ended up like this. But I think we have a deep... we have deep roots in science-fiction. I think one of the books we read, we talked a lot was Hyperion, while doing making the game, and there was also a lot of inspiration in French comics. So yeah, and that's pretty much the main art inspiration. And then for the games, of course, Hollow Knight, Ori, we've played a lot of those games, we love them."

Speaking about Hollow Knight and Ori, we also inquired with Hourcade about how Douze Dixièmes is going about ensuring that Mio: Memories in Orbit stands out in an increasingly saturated Metroidvania space.

"Well, we worked a lot on the visuals of course, I think everyone noticed this part. But we've also worked a lot about the lore and the universe, it's a very intricate universe with a lot of information. We haven't put everything in it, but we have a very, very deep lore hidden pretty much everywhere, and a lot of aerial combat. So I think it's something between Hollow Knight, which is not very aerial, but a lot of exploration, which we loved, but Ori was more aerial, but not too much exploration. So we wanted to do something with our universe, our feelings, but with the exploration and combat."

You can see the full interview with Hourcade below and also head over here for our thoughts on our time with Mio: Memories in Orbit.