Interview: Rauniot Offers Exploration & Creative Thinking In A Bleak Finnish World

Heikki: My name is Heikki Pulkkinen and I created Rauniot as a solo-developer from an idea to a ready game with care and passion. In my previous company, we published horror games, and after that, we all decided to focus on our different projects.

It was quite hard to work full-time and develop Rauniot alongside. It was an excellent point to focus 110% on Rauniot.

Heikki: At first, when I was playing around with ideas, the setting was kind of a mixture of sci-fi and post-apocalyptic worlds, and the location was fictional at that point. But for some reason, post-apocalyptic themes and Finnish nature are both near my heart, so it started to be clear that I must add these two things to the game.

I also understood that it was not going to be an easy task for me, making this whole game all by myself, and I really had to link my interests to the game so I could handle all the long years. There also aren’t too many games located in Finland.

Heikki: Early climate change and something happened to the moon – oceans behaved disastrously. With hundreds of millions of refugees around the world, the borders of countries were not respected anymore. Humans did what they could do best – started to kill each other and began a nuclear war.

Heikki: For example, cutting a rope with a knife could be an example of an easier puzzle. A harder puzzle could be something like preparing multiple smaller things right first, then interacting with some other character, and after that understanding what to do to achieve something. 

Heikki: People think and act differently. If the game enables one to explore things here and there in a different order and also solve puzzles in different ways, it encourages one to explore places and think more creatively. This could also rule out some possible bottlenecks from the game, and hopefully, the overall game flow will be better.

Heikki: It’s an adventure among others, but hopefully, a grim atmosphere and a Finnish melancholy add their flavor to it. Also, the Finnish voice acting in the Northern dialect is something you don’t get to hear very much.

Heikki: Yes, and it took an eternity to get it ready. When it’s about passion, days fly past while developing – good and bad. Lots of up-and-downhills were included anyway, and I’ve also learned a lot. It wasn’t surely an easy task for me, but creating something that comes from my heart and seeing the progress was rewarding and helped me push forward.  

Heikki: At the beginning, locking the design process and just start doing the actual game. Later on, combining the story and the puzzles was pretty challenging. 

Heikki: At some level yes, but not much.

Heikki: Nice to hear that. I like to listen to music when I make creative stuff, and occasionally, when I hear something that I somehow link to the world of Rauniot, I add it to my notes.

All the music was made by a Finnish composer, Paavo Härkönen, and when it was time to introduce my ideas – what the music or ambient should be like – I sent him my notes. Then, the talented and very nice guy Paavo translated my ideas into music that matched Rauniot’s world. 

Heikki: Well, turn-based games are close to my heart, and maybe my next project will be turn-based. Pretty excited already.