From clay to your console: game ‘Harold Halibut’ is a puppet show that is as philosophical as it is recognizable

Building video games is in the vast majority of cases a purely digital laborious task, but some creatives take a different tack. Take what just appeared Harold Halibut. Fourteen years ago, the German Onat Hekimoglu, a recent graduate of film school, had an ambitious dream in mind. He wanted to create a story-driven game about a dejected janitor who got stuck in an alien underwater city.

Stop-motion was his visually ambitious technique of choice, which involves recording frame by frame to give objects or sculpted figures the illusion of movement. This labor-intensive method is best known for feature films such as Tim Burtons The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Wes Andersons Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) or the works of Aardman Animations (Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run). A more recent example that embraces this nostalgic form is Guillermo del Toro’s interpretation of Pinocchio, released on Netflix in 2022.

To craft

although Harold Halibut just catches the eye because of its organic looks, ironically that approach was not even a purely creative choice. No, it was also a practical solution for Hekimoglu and his colleague, art designer Ole Tillman. The duo was not very familiar with programming and, as handy Harrys, they simply found it easier to assemble everything manually. And we really mean everything. Every room, every object, every character, even all the clothes you wear Harold Halibut were first painstakingly put together in bedrooms and studios, before switching on a computer.

Over the years, stop-motion technology gave way to photogrammetry, a method that allows you to create 3D models of real objects or scenes – often used in film or by architects, archaeologists and engineers – with a smoother result. In fact, the analogue-virtual mix is ​​texturally convincing to such an extent that while playing you sometimes get the strange need to physically touch everything. Also the dark puzzle platformer The Swapper from 2013 brought astronauts made of plasticine, plaster and brick to life in the same way.

‘Walking simulator’

“Our team has a very diverse background, not necessarily game-related,” Hekimoglu told the trade magazine Game Informer about his aptly named studio Slow Bros. – the building of Harold Halibut took a total of more than twelve years. “Many even hate games. (laughs) But that’s interesting: if they approve of this, we might also be able to convince other non-gamers.”

Harold Halibut belongs to the circle walking simulators, a subgenre that focuses primarily on exploration and storytelling, and traditional ones at that gameplayprefer to ignore elements such as puzzles or combat. Successful in this category are the emotionally exhausting ranger simulator Firewatch and What Remains of Edith Finch, a series of playable short stories about life and death. Thanks to its extremely simple controls, this genre is ideal for less experienced, so-called casual gamers.

“We first wanted to make an adventure game that was straightforward, full of brainteasers, but that would only get in the way of the story,” explains doll builder Tillman, who has a past with Disney. “And so we deleted them all.”

Wes Anderson

In Harold Halibut Strolling around is the main part, more specifically in the spaceship FEDORA. That scum full of scientists had fled the Cold War in an alternate timeline in search of a habitable planet. A successful mission, or at least somewhat: after a crash the ship became irrevocably stuck in an alien sea. The crew decided to make the best of it – and have done so for hundreds of years.

In this desperate situation, the player plays the titular Harold, an ordinary lab employee of top scientist Jeanne Mareaux, who does everything he can to guide FEDORA towards new, drier horizons. While completing daily tasks, questioning the meaning of life and talking to fellow sufferers, Harold soon stumbles upon an incredible secret.

In addition to the remarkable aesthetic, which with its emphasis on detail and symmetry is reminiscent of the aforementioned Wes Anderson’s painting-like mise-en-scene, the strong writing of Slow Bros. Harold Halibut tells a deep story about friendship and the meaning of the word ‘home’ in a world full of quirky characters. It asks the big questions, colors outside the lines, but above all remains sometimes painfully recognizable – complete with bumbling and all.

“Most of the time, games want to make you a real hero,” says Hekimoglu The New York Times. “We like it when things don’t work and when you don’t achieve your goals.” Because that is also part of life.

Harold Halibut is available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series|S and PC.