InsaneHawk

I’m still every now and then getting questions on whether we force DEI stuff into the games we’re making, so let me make it clear once and for all: Absolutely Not. I find that entire approach perverted. I’m an artist, I would rather quit than have someone else tell me how we should do our art. That would make a mockery out of everything I believe in. I’ve been very much outspoken on on how I feel about consulting and I still very strongly feel that if people haven’t lived the process and don’t have to think about the issues at hand 24/7, they will always deliver worse work than those who do. When it comes to the stories we’re telling, I always approach it from a human angle first and foremost and let the story tell me where it needs to go. If it tickles me to have a gay character in our story and I feel like that character could be fascinating then I will push for that. But I would NEVER make a character gay simply because some outside party told me that it’s hip to do so and that we might face backlash if we don’t. Art fundamentally doesn’t work that way. Everyone has stories inside of them that are based on the experiences that they went through in their lives and to me what elevates art beyond just craft is when you’ve reflected enough to know who you are and then let those stories out because those experiences that you lived through are most likely experiences that other people can relate to that will speak to them in a profound manner. Because they’re real. Ori and the Blind Forest in many ways was about me reflecting on what it was like to see my father dying of cancer when I was 10 and being grateful to my mom. Wisps on the other hand was written when we all started to have kids in the studio and imagining what it would be like to have a kid with a disability. I wrote the first draft of No Rest for the Wicked quite some time ago and that also came from a very specific place. I hope that clarifies it for everybody. I’ve had to learn the hard way what it means to be an artist and I’d never let anyone take that away from me.