English
HQ
Gamereactor
Videos
Barraka

A claymation house of fun - Chatting Barraka with Zomorro Studio at IndieDevDay

We caught up with solo developer Ibai Aizpurua to learn more about his upcoming adventure that uses claymation to present a very unique experience.

Audio transcription

"Hi friends, I'm in Barcelona for the IndieDevDay 2024 and I'm here standing by Ibai.
Thank you so much for joining us.
And you know, you can see it."

"We're going to talk about a game that's called Barraka and it's made all of clay.
And now, about you, you've done the game yourself.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hello, thank you to Gamereactor for your interest."

"Barraka is a game, a little game made in claymation.
And it's a game of adventure and puzzles and also has mini games.
The theme is in a fair or in a carnival.
And it's haunted by an evil witch."

"So the protagonist, Tainoa, must defeat the witch.
And it's just an excuse to explore the haunted place.
And you can enter in different rides.
And each ride is a different world."

"Sometimes some rides are of adventure and other rides are more like arcade games.
So, for example, in one, it's about bumper cars.
Because I think that in every fair or carnival needs a bumper car.
And also there is an arcade level that you can pilot a plane."

"And in a game you can find evil clowns, toys, and I think that's all.
There's plenty of gameplay styles, I've seen it.
So, of course, the most striking thing about this is the way you guys have worked.
Well, you yourself have worked with claymation, claymotion."

"Tell us, how did you do this to look like that?
For better or worse, I started this project using clay or claymation or stop motion.
And my workflow is usually I design different elements and characters.
And then I try to replicate that character in clay."

"Usually then I take pictures and I use, I call it an hybrid animation.
It's a stop motion, but I also use digital techniques to manipulate sometimes the frames.
So I mix the traditional stop motion with digital animation.
It's also 3D or it's just pictures and then frame by frame?
Frame by frame."

"There is nothing in 3D.
It's like real 3D, I mean.
Of course, yeah.
But yeah, everything you see in the game, it's just clay and pictures."

"Where did this come from?
I remember from the SNES era, you know, ClayFighter, ClayMates.
Was that the main inspiration here?
Maybe."

"Many of the attendants sometimes are surprised by the style.
I think, like you said, that in the 90s, the claymation and sometimes the use of puppets, it was more common nowadays because there were games like Clay Fighters, Skullmonkeys, The Neverhood and also Primal Rage that was made with puppets."

"And I think that was a really nice technique that nowadays is barely seen.
And when I started this project, I thought that it was the best moment to start a claymation project.
You were into clay before this, I guess, so that you can create all the figures and then take pictures.
And so you were working with clay before?
Yeah, I used it to teach stop motion."

"I used it to make tons and tons of stop motion workshops.
And also, right now, I participate in game jams.
Also, I created my own game jam called Euskal Game Jam, the first game jam in Basque in Euskera.
So I used it to teach stop motion and at the same time, I used it to create different little games."

"So it was something natural to start creating games for game jams with stop motion and claymation.
Tell us a little bit more of what we are going to do here in this game because I've seen the main character having this long tongue and then I've seen some of the puzzles that you mentioned that are kind of Zelda-like but then there is more action-based shooters or the bumper cars."

"Yeah, the biggest part of the game is like exploration and puzzle game that in each room, you have to solve the room to get to the exit.
So usually, you must defeat some enemies, find some keys, use different strange machines like the tongue bridge and many other strange things."

"But when I create games, sometimes I am frightened.
I don't want to players get bored.
So I include many, many, many games because also in a carnival, you find a lot of variety of rides.
So you can, like I told, the biggest part of the game is puzzle game."

"When you are on the square of the town, you must explore the town and it has some metroidvania and backtracking elements to give some spice to the game and use some mini-games like the bumper cars or the guacamole game or the playing levels.
Alright, alright."

"What's the status of the project?
You do have a publisher already, which is Dojo.
So where can we expect Baraka to release and on which platforms?
If everything is going fine, I think that the game will be ready for the end of the year."

"This year?
This year, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But maybe if everything doesn't go so well, so smooth, it will release at the beginning of the next year.
And platforms?
I think that maybe the first release will be on Steam, but it will release for any platform thanks to Dojo System, that is my publisher, that right now we are preparing the ports for the console, all consoles."

"Thank you so much for your time, Ibai, and looking forward to playing this one.
Looks great.
Thanks for your time. We will see. Thank you."

Interviews

Etermax - 15th Anniversary Interview

Etermax - 15th Anniversary Interview

More

Videos

More

Movie Trailers

Carry-On - Official Trailer

Carry-On - Official Trailer

Arcane - Season 2 Act 2 Sneak Peek

Arcane - Season 2 Act 2 Sneak Peek

Disney+ 2025 - Teaser Trailer

Disney+ 2025 - Teaser Trailer

It's In The Game: Madden NFL - Official Trailer

It's In The Game: Madden NFL - Official Trailer

Max 2025 - Teaser Trailer

Max 2025 - Teaser Trailer

The Pirate Bay - Officiell Trailer

The Pirate Bay - Officiell Trailer

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew - Official Trailer

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew - Official Trailer

Presence - Official Trailer

Presence - Official Trailer

Squid Game: Season 2 - Official Teaser

Squid Game: Season 2 - Official Teaser

Black Doves - Official Trailer

Black Doves - Official Trailer

More

Trailers

Monster Hunter Outlanders - Announcement Trailer

Monster Hunter Outlanders - Announcement Trailer

ARC Raiders - Gameplay Reveal

ARC Raiders - Gameplay Reveal

Botany Manor - PlayStation releasedate trailer

Botany Manor - PlayStation releasedate trailer

2XKO - Jinx Gameplay Sneak Peek

2XKO - Jinx Gameplay Sneak Peek

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - Gameplay Deep Dive

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - Gameplay Deep Dive

Saudi Pro League: Kickoff | Official Trailer | Netflix

Saudi Pro League: Kickoff | Official Trailer | Netflix

Marvel Rivals - Moon Knight Character Reveal Trailer

Marvel Rivals - Moon Knight Character Reveal Trailer

Genshin Impact - Xbox Series X/S trailer

Genshin Impact - Xbox Series X/S trailer

Thunderbolts* - Extended Lool Brazil D23

Thunderbolts* - Extended Lool Brazil D23

Captain America: Brave New World - Second trailer

Captain America: Brave New World - Second trailer

More

Events

Phil Spencer takes the stage at BlizzCon 2023

Phil Spencer takes the stage at BlizzCon 2023

We're Ready for Summer Game Fest

We're Ready for Summer Game Fest

We're attending Summer Games Fest

We're attending Summer Games Fest

MSIology RTX40 event

MSIology RTX40 event

LG UltraGear - Luis Pablo Flores Interview

LG UltraGear - Luis Pablo Flores Interview

MWC 2022 - Blacknut - David Cook Interview

MWC 2022 - Blacknut - David Cook Interview

MWC 2022 - Oral B iO 10 - Katie Andrews Interview

MWC 2022 - Oral B iO 10 - Katie Andrews Interview

More