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We spoke with the co-founders of Patattie Games, Murray Somerwolff and Rothio Tome, to learn more about the anticipated adventure title, Wax Heads, all during our recent visit to London Games Fest's New Game Plus event.
"Hello everyone and welcome back to Gamereactor. We're still at London Games Fest at the New Games Plus event and I'm currently here with Murray and Rothio to talk a little bit about Wax Heads.
Now, a fair few people have told me about this game and told me to be quite excited about it, so I'm expecting big things from it.
So, for the people who are unaware, give me a little bit of a rundown. What is Wax Heads?
It's a cosy punk puzzle narrative record store game. So, it's all about, you know, customers coming in and trying to find the right record for the right customer."
"So, if it's all about running a record store, I assume that music plays a pretty predominant role in the gameplay. How is it incorporated?
Yes, so we've got our composer, Gina Laughlin, and she made over 25 songs which span across a whole bunch of different genres.
And then they are sang by myself, my wife, my father-in-law, sister-in-law, friends. Rothio is on one of the tracks."
"And then we have a few guest tracks as well. So, it's got over 30 songs, all original, all part of these fictional bands that we've made for the game.
Interesting. And so, I take it that you spent a lot of time researching different sort of iconic bands and stuff to make sure that everything that you put in the game feels authentic and real.
What was the sort of process for that?
So, what we didn't want to do is to make it uncanny. We didn't want to do, like, instead of The Beatles, it's The Fleas or something."
"Instead, it's trying to find the emotional feeling towards songs that we like and then pulling from three or four different references.
So, for every song, I would go to Gina, who composed them. I'd say, for this song, here are some references.
And then she would amalgamate from them to then, because what we wanted with this game, we want the bands themselves to feel, we want them to be believable."
"We want the bands in this game to feel tangible so you could go out and find them in a record store.
So, what we're hoping is, and what's happened so far, is people will listen to them and go, oh, I can hear that.
And people will tell me different references. They'll be like, oh, I can hear Taylor Swift or I can hear Charli XCX or stuff like that."
"And I'll be like, and I always say yes, because I don't want people to, part of the magic is, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But that's how we know that we're making something which is of its own at the same time familiar.
And, Ruthie, tell me then a little bit about what the process is for sort of running this record store and being part of this environment."
"We didn't want to focus like in the simulation of the game, like trying to manage the record store itself.
You don't have to care about like the money you're earning or nothing like that, not like boring tasks, like maintaining the shop itself, but instead feeling part of the community and like trying to give the best record to everyone that comes for a recommendation."
"So we wanted to focus on that game loop. We focus on the emotional and personal aspect of the game more than like the technicalities of having a business and like earning some money.
One of the things that really caught my attention with Waxheads was the sort of art direction you've used.
It feels like almost like the animated stickers. So tell me a little bit about the process there."
"Yeah, sure. So I guess for one thing, I've been working in games for nine years, but I used to be an illustrator.
And so I've got my own kind of style. But for this game, I really wanted a core identity.
And so I was really inspired by Scott Pilgrim. And Scott Pilgrim's got a really dynamic, really chunky art style.
And it just felt part of this cool like post-punk kind of like DIY art style. It was a good fit."
"And also the sticker quality. I just want to shout out Tango Tower by SFP Games.
They've got this really nice kind of like characters which have that like white outline.
When I saw that, I was like, oh, that's really good. So we kind of emulated that with the Scott Pilgrim thing to make that sticker effect.
There's some interesting games that you mentioned there. They're quite almost lively, charismatic, a little bit humorous games."
"Does that creep into Waxheads as well?
Oh, I mean, absolutely. Like we, I think it's fair. We like humor.
And the, yeah, because I mean, that kind of stuff, we want it to be authentic with our interest and passion for music.
But we also want it to be somewhere like, like you said, community."
"We want it to be something which is approachable to people and is, you know, it's a place to hang, right?
So you want that feeling of like good times, humor, that kind of like, we use the word cozy, which I know is overused and it can be quite broad.
But I think in the sense of we want it to be a place which you want to, you want to spend, you want to spend there."
"You want to hang out. So I think in that kind of correlation. Yeah, definitely.
So obviously you mentioned there's about 30 fictional bands you've created. Do either of you have a favorite out of all of these ones you've added?
Okay, Albon, I really like the story that is behind some of the bands.
For example, one of them, Sister, it's like core from the very beginning."
"And you have the counterpart, not counterpart, because they are not like opposite, but you have Mimi.
For example, I have seen that some people are like aligned to one of them or the other and they start to become like fanboys or fangirls of a band that actually doesn't exist.
So I like those both bands, the identities that are created.
Of course, I aligned more with Mimi."
"I think I have to pick Becoming Violet, which is like the band, which there's a core story underneath the game, which the record store's manager.
She was the front singer of this band, Becoming Violet.
And it's got a special connection to me because my wife is the singer of the song of those in the game.
And also there's another like the I won't spoil it, the Crescendo and her sister in the band."
"But there's a bit of rivalry. That's kind of the antagonist, Willow.
That's my sister-in-law. So we have the two sisters being sisters in the game and in real life.
And there's so many together of this duet.
And it's just, I don't know, for me, having that come together and heading in the right way, it's really special."
"So because of that, it has a real like, you know, a special place in my heart, I think.
Yeah. Was that always intended to have such a family connection with this game?
Not not not intentionally. I'm just very, like, resourceful, I guess, in the sense of even when me, my wife got married.
We had loads of our friends and family all singing it because I've just I've been in bands."
"A lot of friends are in bands and I've been very fortunate just to be surrounded by very talented people.
So then when we started making it and Gina, so I'm based in Nottingham, Gina's in Nottingham.
And I was a bit like, well, we need lots of singers.
And I was like, well, why not ask all these amazing people I know?
And then, of course, we started with Daisy and I was convinced, yeah, please, can you sing in this song?
And then it just started to create this reactive chain because then I was like, oh, if you do that, my sister-in-law, Alice, if you do that one and then that's like, yeah."
"And then laughing at my own cleverness going home, you know, but I just it just it was very reactive.
But I'm just like it feels very in keeping up the game for that idea of community and idea of DIY spirit.
So, yeah, even I have like vocals in a song.
Don't expect nothing like really because I'm not a singer myself."
"But it was really important for me that like all of us were somehow represented a little bit in the bands.
So there is like a techno, like electronic music with some vocals in Spanish because it's my my language.
And it's really cool to see like a cool song that you could actually dance with some of my vocals over there.
So Waxheads is actually quite close to launch at this point."
"Coming out in early May, I believe. May 5th. May 5th.
With that being the case, what's one thing you're really excited?
One thing from both of you that you're really excited for fans to experience in the game?
Oh, I think just hearing the whole soundtrack."
"I think, I mean, not to get too much of the music, but I'm just so just talking about the music now, just hearing the way that we've incorporated the end of the whole game, how it brought these bands to life and the fact that people throughout the game, there's so much because we've obviously put some songs up for promotion, but there's so much people haven't heard yet."
"And I'm just really excited for that to be like, you know, out there in the world and people to hear these.
So, yeah.
In my case, I'm looking forward to see like people that play the actual game and they write essays or what they mean, the game means for them."
"I'm really looking forward to that, like not specifics about art or programming animation, but instead what it felt playing the whole game and what they got of that experience.
I'm looking forward to read about that.
There's a final question then."
"Obviously, there's a lot of original music you've created for this game.
Have you ever thought about doing a physical soundtrack, a physical vinyl edition?
I mean, from the very first day, yeah.
I mean, it's, as you know, we've got a publisher and like, you know, it's one of the things I just keep bringing up."
"And when we do the physical record, nothing to announce on it just yet, but 100%.
Some way or another, this will be on Wax.
It will be on vinyl.
Yeah."
"Exciting.
Stay tuned.
This is Wax Heads.
Again, the game is, as of recording this interview, about two weeks away, three weeks away."
"So definitely check it out.
And for more on the game, you know where to find it on your local Game Rant."
