The Art of Hoa
Hoa begins with infinite sweetness. Our heroine, a little fairy in a red coat, lies on a leaf drifting on the water. She finally reaches the shore. As soon as she sets foot on it, the wonder begins: the dull, sandy shore becomes verdant, grass and leaves spring up luxuriantly. Insects appear or awaken – fluttering butterflies and curious bees. One painting later, our little fairy brings the flowers to life. Hoa brings vegetation to life wherever she goes, breathing new life into the forest she passes through and the people she meets, in search of her old home.
Genesis and history of the project
The idea for Hoa was born at the end of 2018. At the time, the Skrollcat studio team consisted of just two members: director Cao Son Tung and art director Lê Son Tra, both studying at universities in Singapore. Cao Son Tung is the only one to have worked in the video game industry: his inspiration comes from side-scrolling games such as Limbo, Trine or Rayman, not only for their gameplay but also for their visual beauty.
So it’s hardly surprising that for his first game, he set out to create a side-scrolling game. His first idea was for a character to find his way home; horizontal scrolling allowed him to explore different settings, while telling a story in the background thanks to environmental storytelling. Cao Son Tung continues to refine the details of the story with Lê Son-Tra.
In early 2019, the Hoa project became more ambitious than expected, and Skrollcat studio recruited two more people from the same university background as Cao Son Tung. With these two friends, the team now consists of two artists and two programmers. While Hoa is a first major video game project for everyone, it should also be pointed out that the team only works on it in their spare time, outside their main profession.
In the same year, a call for composers went out on Twitter/X to find the creator of the game’s soundtrack. Swedish composer Johannes Johansson won the competition: having fallen in love with the game’s visuals, he produced a score imbued with a joy and serenity perfectly suited to Hoa‘s universe. He is now the studio’s fifth member.
At the end of 2019, Cao Son Tung returns to his native Vietnam to work full-time on Hoa. Lê Son-Tra follows him, leaving the other two developers on the team in Singapore. With Hoa proving increasingly demanding, a partnership was formed with the Vietnamese studio Kyx. This additional help is so welcome that Hoa’s development progresses to the point where a preview of the game can be unveiled at the Wholesome Direct Indie Games in May 2020. The game is immediately noticed for its visual style, reminiscent of the films of Japanese studio Ghibli.
Nevertheless, the pandemic is hitting all video game studios in 2020, and Skrollcat is no exception. The game lags behind in production, but continues to develop, slowly and surely. In the spring of 2021, a seven-minute video with commentary by Lê Son-Tra is unveiled, along with a video showing the recording of the game’s soundtrack. Hoa is finally released on August 24, 2021 on PC, Switch, Xbox and a little later on Playstation.
Nature at the heart of the work
The genesis of Hoa shows us that it was above all the story and the style of play that came to Cao Son Tung as primary inspirations. Collaboration with Lê Son-Tra then enabled him to flesh out the plot, and the two agreed on a design idea for the heroine.
Art direction
Indeed, Hoa‘s birth began with the little elf, the game’s main protagonist. The heroine was envisioned in a variety of graphic and visual styles. Certainties soon emerge. Like Journey‘s hero, she wears a cape, or a cloak, to give her a visual identity. The two artists’ wish is to create a benevolent, violence-free game – another mark of the legacy left by Journey, an independent game where only cooperation is possible – so their little fairy will have no hands. In fact, she doesn’t need them at all, since it’s her jumps that enable her to climb here and there in the surrounding world.
The heroine’s style thus follows several iterations, always retaining her little coat – which will be red in the final version – and the idea of a pointed hood, evoking both mischievousness and her fairy nature. With her round face and pixie-like shape, she is unmistakably associated with a childlike character, which makes sense with the story: she returns to her birthplace after many years.
The heroine’s design then determines the game’s landscapes. The protagonist is placed against a variety of backgrounds. The one that stands out most is a hand-drawn, Japanese-animated landscape – the Ghibli inspiration is there. It’s all the more important given that, from the outset, the game aims to tell a story in which nature and flowers play a key role. From that moment on, the influence of Hayao Miyazaki becomes increasingly evident in Hoa, even if it’s not the only one.
Among the other illustration styles tested, Lê Son-Tra mentions 3D experiments, but also drawings inspired by children’s storybooks that she loved, such as those by Ira Sluyterman van Langeweyde, a German illustrator. Her line exploits watercolor with full, round, warm shades, perfectly suited to a childish audience. This idea of storytelling is repeated later in the construction of Hoa.
Finally, a great classic: more pronounced perspective strokes, with stylized shapes, were considered, in the manner of the Sable video game by Shedworks, itself inspired by the pencil of the famous cartoonist Moebius. In this context, Hoa could even be said to be inspired by the Ligne Claire art movement. This is a style born of the technical constraints imposed on children’s illustrations in the 50s and 60s, in which contours are clearly defined, colors are flat (with no light or shadow effects), and scenes are unified and regular. Indeed, all Hoa‘s paintings are intimately linked to one another, with a continuity of nature and no ellipses in the scenery. But it’s in a more Japanese universe that Hoa has definitely slipped.
Visual and musical inspirations
The Ghibli style chosen by studio Skrollcat requires the creation of hand-painted landscapes and scenery. The details of each painting are directly integrated, and 2D sprites are used to create parallax effects, bringing each level to life. To prepare for this style, the team took a long look at Hayao Miyazaki’s films, and didn’t hesitate to cite My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke. Viewers accustomed to the Japanese studio will easily find in Hoa‘s paintings the power and beauty of nature inherent in the feature films, and the characterization of characters and animals with facial expressions, winks and ways of moving. Hoa‘s protagonists and backdrops convey the same sense of nature’s verdant beauty, this immediate attachment to friendly, endearing faces.
The underwater passages are also reminiscent of Ponyo on the Cliff. From the jellyfish to the corals, from the aquatic lights to the lightly animated creatures, it’s hard not to draw parallels! From Studio Ghibli, Hoa has the heritage of hand-drawn images, recreated by Photoshop, but also a serene, chill atmosphere, with animals and creatures living side by side. There’s also the same magic and wonder of discovering a strange, splendid world, with the animism of the animals and plants encountered. Hoa‘s few darker scenes and elements, such as the aggressive little robots we come across, or the industrial level that nature gradually reclaims, regaining its rights over mechanics, are also reminiscent of Princess Mononoke, Chihiro’s Journey or Castle in the Sky. These contrast blooming forests and gardens with darker, glowing environments dotted with strange machines and mechanical buildings, with robots moving like spiders, or industrial fires.
Another famous cartoon comes to mind as we progress through Hoa’s adventure: The Iron Giant, directed by Brad Bird in 1999. In this work, a giant robot befriends a little boy, causing unintentional damage along the way. The story reveals, however, that the giant is a weapon of destruction, giving the film a Cold War and nuclear subtext. Only the friendship with the film’s young hero, and his reminder of the freedom to be whoever he wishes, manages to make him savior rather than deadly. Seeing the iron robot in Hoa‘s world, it’s impossible not to think of it – especially with the heroine’s iconic shot of the mechanical hand. The presence of this machine makes perfect sense with this reference in mind, since Hoa‘s robot, like the little machines that repel the heroine throughout the game, can be either beneficial or aggressive. Their eyes, sometimes yellow, sometimes red, symbolize the nature of their intentions, and the robot’s long arms are undeniably reminiscent of the iron giant with the huge frame.
A final important visual inspiration for Hoa. Cao Son Tung hails from Vietnam, and more specifically from Hanoi, his hometown. Known as “the city between the rivers” and the capital of Vietnam, it is a city with a flourishing economy and a very attractive location. It’s also home to an important natural heritage, with lakes and a superb botanical park. Hoa means flower in Vietnamese, a word close to the sound of Hanoi. The city’s green spaces are also threatened by urban construction projects – another echo of the industrialization of nature in the game.
The music is the work of Swedish pianist Johannes Johansson, who won the studio’s call for compositions. But Johansson also enlisted the help of friends to create the right music for Hoa: Finnish sound designer Lauri Koivisto and Swedish sound engineer Simon Evig. Initially, the game was to be accompanied by midi music, but the soundtrack evolved to the point where it was recorded by a small orchestra in Stockholm over a two-day period. Calm, peaceful, sometimes more upbeat, Hoa‘s music is undoubtedly reminiscent of music by Joe Hisaichi, the resident musician of Miyazaki’s films (he was the reference and model for the call for composers). But above all, it remains serene and natural, with a delicacy that permeates the adventure and reinforces the impression of a peaceful, pressure-free journey.
Turkish artist Amir Zand (currently employed at Quantic Dreams) reveals concept art he created for Skrollcat Studios in a tweet from September 2021. Considering his previous work, it’s very surprising to learn that he was a concept artist for Hoa, his graphic creations being much more oriented towards science fiction, desert landscapes with industrialized buildings, or even a style close to Moebius. On the face of it, this is a far cry from the nature and bloom of the title. However, a glance at his portfolio reveals a certain Totoro… and some images that evoke the smallness of the characters lost in an immense setting. His concept art seems to emphasize a much more threatening industrialization than that kept in the final game, reinforced by a much more present shadow.
Themes
With all these sources of inspiration in mind, it’s easy to understand the messages behind Hoa. For while Hoa offers a relaxing, exotic adventure with an irresistible degree of adorableness, its story also serves to highlight certain themes.
Indeed, it’s well known that Studio Ghibli films often feature plots linked to ecology and the conflict between nature and urbanism, tradition and modernity. Hoa also inherits this message through its very similar aesthetic, and also through its story. Our little elf brings nature back to life with her simple presence, awakening insects from a long sleep, offering rebirth. She symbolizes spring, blossoming (by her name “flower”) and she is renewal, the return to light. It brings back to life sleeping nature, which is beginning to regain the upper hand over old industrialization.
The conflict between nature and machine is an ever-present theme at Studios Ghibli. The natural world always reclaims its rights or takes revenge on humans – in Princess Mononoke, the forest gods turn against the population – if a balance is not found. Sometimes, however, the forest is also a factor of healing and peace: we can think back to the moment when flowers invade Lady Eboshi’s weapons to keep her from fighting, and compare this to the moment in Hoa when the pixie, through her magical powers, vegetalizes the iron robot, making him peaceful and protective. Hoa highlights this duel, and in a way, it also echoes Hanoi’s natural heritage, which is increasingly nibbled away to create new buildings.
Hoa‘s other message lies in its genesis as a non-violent game. Our elf is peaceful, can only flee, never fight. Even when confronted with enemies, she acts benevolently, never retaliates, and even uses them to progress. Violence is not the solution; the world must strive for harmony and peace. This benevolent tone is thanks to the game’s artistic director. Cao Son Tung recalls a moment at university, when Lê Son-Tra noticed snails crawling along various paths. While most of the students passed by without paying them any attention, even crushing them, the young woman patiently put them back in the grass, one by one. This anecdote, which crops up in various interviews, demonstrates the peaceful, benevolent tone that embellishes the whole game. Nature is to be respected; it’s beautiful down to the smallest detail, and every living thing is important – if only we pay attention for a moment. She is aware and protective.
A tale, a journey
The legacy of Journey, Gris and Limbo
But it would be unfair to say that Hoa is a pure copy of Ghibli and its messages. There are many other influences and tributes: Journey first of all, and probably Gris. We’ve already seen the heroine’s costume as a visual symbol, but Hoa also borrows its non-violent side from Journey‘s heirs. The studio offers us a resolutely serene adventure, where death is impossible. Not only is the game affordable for novices, or for parents and their children playing together, it also offers an enchanted and comforting interlude.
The exploration of nature, the observation of details… these ideas are found in Gris and Journey. In Hoa, there’s that fabulous moment of freedom when the pixie hurtles down a slope, intoxicated by the speed and splendor of the surrounding nature. These emblematic slides echo those of Gris and Journey. The very nature of Hoa‘s gameplay, as basic as it is, follows in this vein. The heroine can jump, fly, double-jump and push blocks. It’s certainly basic, but it’s more than enough for this few-hour game, which Cao Son Tung wanted to be as short and beautiful as Journey.
One of Hoa‘s greatest surprises comes at the very end. The final part of the journey plunges the fairy into a black-and-white world of inverted horizontal and vertical mirrors. A dreamlike universe that moves with our progress, tilting to one side or the other. All our reflexes acquired during the game are put to the test, reversing directions and prompting us to think differently in order to move forward! Once again, it’s reminiscent of Grey‘s mechanics, the inverted levels of the Rayman games or the black-and-white – but much more contrasting and less gloomy – version of Limbo. This dream world, so strange and unsettling, seems to perfectly represent this moment in the plot for our pixie – a plunge into once-forgotten memories, finally revealed.
Hoa is totally in line with this heritage of 2D independent games, short, more polished than they appear, with an artistic proposition that sets them apart and calls for a relaxing adventure.
Animism, tradition and immensity
Hoa‘s visual and video-game influences are clearly evident. But they are not the only ones, as the game also draws on Vietnamese traditions and a directly related way of perceiving the world.
Hoa‘s story is also steeped in a Vietnamese tale, in which a cricket decides to set off on an adventure and meet other animals and insects. The finesse of the tale is to create an immense world, due to the size of the insect, even though it travels to only one place. This sensation is also fully felt with our tiny pixie: at the size of the beetles and butterflies whose paths she crosses, the universe she explores seems gigantic, inciting us all the more to immerse ourselves and marvel at the rays of sunshine, the blossoming of flowers… bringing us back to our love of nature and the magic of its life cycle.
Lê Son-Tra also points out that there is an animist tradition in Vietnamese culture. It’s quite common to lend a soul to animals, insects and flowers, and even to places. Everything is interconnected, as can be seen in the game: it’s our pixie’s arrival that awakens nature with her fairy powers, it’s her flowering that pacifies the robots, and she herself longs to return home. At the end of her journey, her return brings harmony back to all the forest’s inhabitants, despite the presence of certain machines. This is another example of the ecological theme mentioned above – living in harmony with nature.
A child’s eye
Hoa‘s singular art direction is reminiscent of Studio Ghibli’s animated masterpieces. However, its visuals evoke many other inspirations, such as the Iron Giant or the native country and culture of its creators. It is fully in line with wholesome games, those short independent games that offer a real invitation to travel, in a gameplay devoid of violence and death, but also as an heir to Journey. When you play it, you feel a serenity that only certain independent games have the secret of. Instead of speeding through the levels, we slow down, savor every detail of the forest, the ballet of insects, and enjoy the soothing music. The game invites us to wander, to take our time, to wander with the sole aim of marvelling at these wonderful, colourful scenes.
Throughout its journey, Hoa offers a breath of fresh air. Its release, just after the pandemic and confinement, offers a welcome opening to the world, a break from the anxiety of 2021. While it doesn’t revolutionize the genre’s gameplay, nor is it as big an event as its ancestor Journey, it does encourage us to be kind, to reconsider nature and reconnect with it. Its creators put it this way: the desire to rediscover one’s inner child, to feel like a child again, to rediscover nature as if for the first time, by being curious and adventurous.
That’s probably why Hoa looks so adorable and appealing at first glance. Its colorful art direction, full of detail and subtle play of light, with its personified insects, inevitably reminds us of childhood tales and cartoons. Its immensity, its tiny scale compared to the forest and galleries the heroine travels through, encourages us to look up, admire the details, the simple little things that make us smile. This is an initiatory adventure – the return home – from a child’s point of view, with a welcome freshness and benevolence, amply reflected by her artistic choices.
Ressources
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