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Favorite Love Stories of the team!

Haven is at its core a story about love and freedom, and we’ve asked our team to share with you their Favorite Love Stories (and they had plenty to share!).

So if you like romance, you will find below some recommendations of new works to read, watch or play. Please share yours in the comments too!

Pierre, Writer

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Novel) by Carson McCullers: When asked by a journalist why there weren’t any love stories in the Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers seemed startled and she replied : « There is nothing but that ! ». This is always the first book that comes to my mind when I hear « love story », and even if it is not a romance, it’s definitely all about love.
Locas (Comic book) by Jaime Hernandez: Locas is a comic book series started in 1985 and still going today. It tells the decades long love story between two L.A. latin-american punk girls Maggie and Hopey. At times they’re together, at times they’re apart, and sometimes they’re not even there. I’ve been reading their stories since I’m a kid and I hope I’ll keep reading them for a long time. Locas is my The Young and the Restless.

Pilules Bleues (Comic book) by Frederik Peeters’ Lupus: I already mention Frederik Peeters’ Lupus when asked about my inspirations for Haven. Pilules Bleues is an autobiography about a couple dealing with H.I.V. It’s funny, sad, beautiful but most importantly : it’s deeply human.
Strangers in Paradise (Comic book) by Terry Moore: Katchoo loves Francine. David loves Katchoo. As for Francine, well, she’s figuring things out. This might sound like a pretty classic love triangle, and it would be if Strangers in Paradise didn’t also involve troubled pasts, secret agents and crime syndicates. Is this soap opera comic book a bit too long? Maybe. Did it jump the shark a few times? Certainly. It’s still a landmark of US indie comic books and is well worth your time!
When Harry met Sally (Movie) by Rob Reiner & Nora Ephron: This movie is often mentioned as one of the best romcom movies of all times (if not the best) but what I love the most about it is that… it’s hardly a romcom? I mean, most of the movie is about friendship, not romance. A Friendcom maybe? Now, is there really a difference between friendship and romance? Are they two different categories? A spectrum? Is sex compatible with friendship? Its absence with romance? Well let’s watch the movie and find out.
Castaway on the moon (Movie) by Lee Hae-joon: He’s stuck on a desert island in the middle of Seoul, she’s stuck in her room. Soybean noodles will bring them together. Sure, it doesn’t make any sense now, but in its own way, Castaway on the moon is a pretty classic romcom.
Language Lessons (Movie) by Natalie Morales & Mark Duplass: After a year in lock-down doing zoom calls after zoom calls, I didn’t think I would enjoy a movie which is basically that, zoom calls. And yet. Language Lessons is a super impressive first movie, a surprising huis-clos, and a wholehearted friendship/love story.

Alabama Monroe (The Broken Circle Breakdown) (Movie) by Felix Van Froeningen and Carl Joos: Sometimes you want to watch a cute lighthearted romcom, sometimes, you just want to cry every single drip of water your body contains, and more. Alabama Monroe is for the latter. You’ve been warned.
Big Ocean Wide Jacket (Video game) by Turnfollow: Would Big Ocean Wide Jacket even qualify as a love story? I think it does. It even offers two love stories for the price of one: the newborn, tweenish and cute love story between Mord and Ben, and the steady, tried-and-tested and not any less cute love story between Uncle Brad and Aunt Cloanne. It’s literally the best video game ever made (I mean it) and it’s short enough to be played 5 times in a row in a single day.

Emeric, Creative Director

Thelma & Louise (Movie) directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri: A road trip that goes bad for Louise and Thelma. I first saw this movie when I was much younger, and it struck me as one of the best love stories ever. To the point that, when I saw it again much later, I was surprised to realize that they were only presented as “friends”. Still one of the best love stories for me.

Ruby Sparks (Movie) written by Zoe Kazan and directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton: It’s the story of a writer who sees the character of his novel come to life. It’s both very funny and surprising and a nice angle on what happens in a couple when the balance of freedom is broken.
Maison Ikkoku (manga) by Rumiko Takahashi: I love Maison Ikkoku not so much because of the love story but because it shows the daily life of normal Japanese people. It’s fun, moving, and still very unique even though it’s 40 years old.

Nagi no asukara (Anime) directed byToshiya Shinohara & written by Mari Okada : Despite its cheesy looks, this anime is quite a surprise if you give it a chance for more than 3-4 episodes. I won’t spoil anything but if you’re into coming of age romcoms with a twist, it’s a good one.
Marin Eden (book) by Jack London : This book by Jack London is probably the most impactful love story I ever read. A young, poor and illiterate sailor falls in love with an aristocrat and to seduce her he dedicates his life to become successful as a writer. An unmatched love story about obsession.

Audrey, Executive Producer

Saga (Comic book) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples: A major inspiration for Haven. The story of a couple from two nations at war, fugitives hunted down by formidable foes, trying to protect their child. Yet on the backdrop of the epic odds they are against, their story is so ordinary and relatable: lassitude in the couple, raising children, getting on with the in-laws, giving birth…
In The Mood for Love (Movie) by Wong Kar-wai: For the sensuality and the restrained desire that emanate from this impossible love but also for the voluptuousness of the nights of Hong Kong.
Lost in Translation (Movie) by Sofia Coppola: for everything that doesn’t happen between them, the unspoken words, everything that could have been and never will be.

Marjorie, Game Artist

Lore Olympus (Webtoon) by Rachel Smythe: I love the cartoonist art style and the story. It’s about the kidnapping of Persephone by Hades but in a revisited and more modern version. It also deals with a lot of difficult subjects like harassment, physical & moral violence, rape.
Wuthering Heights (Novel) by Emily Brontë: It’s a dark but delicate story and setting. A story of love and revenge in England in the early 1800s.
Final Fantasy X (Video game) by Square: My favorite game of all time, but also a amazing story of chemistry & love between Tidus & Yuna.

Julien, Programmer

A Court of Thorns and Roses (Novel) by Sarah J. Maas that tells the tale of a young mortal Feyre Archeron who is abducted into the land of fairies after she accidentally kills one. This is a fantastic love story full of tension.

Kimi no Na wa (movie) by Makoto Shinkai. What to say? Probably my favorite Japanese animation movie. A cocktail of emotions and surprises that left me with a wonderful memory, and especially a reaction like: “But wait… what? WHAT?!”
Outlanders (TV Show) based on the novel from Diana Gabaldon: A huge crush. I think I watched the first season in just one week.

Also, one of my passions being music:

Crépuscule – Coeur de pirate,
Enfant de – Pierre de Maere
Margaux, Omar, Marlow – Kyo

Steven, Game Designer

Banana Fish (Manga) written by Akimi Yoshida : This manga starts off pretty intense: the first volume shows gang wars, murders, corruption, sexual exploitation… It kind of feels like a gritty HBO show. And in the middle of that, these two characters meet. At first, I didn’t think much of it, there was a lot going on anyway. But the more I read, the more I found myself rooting for these two, hoping they would overcome the many obstacles between them and find their way together. It might not be a love story in the strictest sense, but in my book, it’s definitely a great one.
tldr: Came for the gunfights, stayed to see the relationship between the two main characters unfold.

Mylène, Marketing Specialist

Malgré tout (Comic book): This story by Jordi Lefebvre is about two lovers who never had the opportunity of living their love. It’s very touching and the narrative structure is very refreshing <3

This is Us (TV Show) created by Dan Fogelman: This is a story about family but also about love. I really enjoy the couple dynamics which are always trying to get the best of their partners. They feel relatable and a couple goals at the same time, and make us cry a lot!

Here you go for a few recommendations from Haven’s team, we hope you will make some discoveries that will stay with you for a long time.

Job Offer – Marketing Manager

We are looking for a Marketing Manager to become the market pulse and communication mind of our studio, connect our games to their audiences and amplify our reach and image. We have been self-publishing our games since the creation of our studio and our publishing team is now growing! Your main focus will be on our upcoming game(s), but you will also be in charge of our previous titles and some third-party publishing.

Game Bakers is a French indie studio creating original games that stay in players minds, like Furi or Haven. Thanks to our games success, we are an independent and self-published studio since our creation in 2010. We are a small cohesive team, we work in a good atmosphere, with a good work life balance. We are a fully remote studio and this position is also fully remote.

We welcome applications from candidates with profiles that will bring diversity to our team, and unusual professional backgrounds (self-taught, from another industry…)

Mission:

Become the market pulse and communication mind of our studio, connect our games to their audiences, amplify our reach and image, deliver at a high level of care and craft, learn and innovate.
Your responsibilities:

Define the marketing strategy
Develop and implement go-to-market plans
Maximise visibility through featuring and advertisement campaigns
Optimise ROI on marketing initiatives
Optimise our games offering on the stores (sales and distribution)
Manage marketing content creation across all channels
Nurture relations with content creators and press
Coordinate with internal teams and external agencies
Maintain a good understanding of our target audiences and market trends
Monitor new marketing techniques and channels

Profile:

2+ years of experience in video game marketing / helping games find their audience
Very good knowledge and love for indie games
Experience with indie games channels of discoverability
Autonomous, self-motivated, hands-on and a team player
Excellent communication skills in English (French is an advantage)
Artistic skills and video editing skills are a plus
Data driven with a love to learn and try new things
Keywords: impact, adaptability, market sense, creativity, accountability.

More information:

Dates: Start between May and September 2023

Location: Fully remote (anywhere in the world that works with CET+1 work timezone)

Competitive compensation with bonus scheme, flexible working hours, and several advantages.

Full time (4 day/week minimum) CDI ou Freelance

Please send a short intro with your resume / portfolio at hello@thegamebakers.com

Furi Community Week – Fan Art Winners Revealed!

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for participating in Furi community week and to the Furi fan art contest on the theme “Peace: what if Rider became friend with one (or several) guardians?”.

We received many submissions and we were very impressed with your work! It’s inspiring for us to see how you bring the characters from Furi back to life, in this peaceful alternative future that many of us have thought about. Thumbs up to some of you who sent fabric dolls or text submissions, a lovely variation from drawings and paintings. And a big thank you to all of you who made us smile or touched us with the subjects of your artworks!

Our judges consisted of:

Emeric Thoa (Creative Director)
Audrey Leprince (Executive Producer)
Anthony Beyer (Lead Artist)
Marjorie Deneux (Game Artist on Haven)
Mylène Lourdel (Marketing Specialist)

It was hard to chose, but, without further delay, here are the winners:

1st place: New kayaking buddy by Multi

2nd place: Peace by Afrosus

3rd place: A Friendly Game of Cards by ZowerLemon

For the Coup de Coeur, 3 entries got the same score, so we decided to award them all 🙂

Warm breeze by Aru53840337

Forgiveness by Vadanel

Fan Art by Esidisi-86

You can see all the fan arts here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/t7gqaj0oi3i0xnouwte3r/h?dl=0&rlkey=5ppybd1z597h438pp88lgqash

Furi Community Week – Interview with Chris, CG Animator

Hello everyone,

The community week is still going on! Today, we are happy to share an interview of Chris Hoareau, Lead Animator & Artist at The Game Bakers. To learn more about his work on Furi, read below!

Hi Chris, can you present yourself and your job on Furi?

Hello! I am Chris and I am a French CG animator and artist, living near Paris. I’m 33. I always drew and wanted to work in entertainment. Fun fact, according to my school teachers, I did my first flipbook at only 4 years old. In animation, I like moves that use the whole body (like fighting, you know). I also like to add unnecessary details, and I’m always the guy who’s late (I am sorry about this, truly). In life, I like speed, having fun, learning things – I actually want to learn everything – and, I’m also the guy who’s late.

For Furi I was in charge of the gameplay animations: that includes the long walk on the path, the fights, and some cutscenes. I also rigged* all the characters. I also storyboarded The Flame’s cutscenes. 2023, it will be my 10-year anniversary at The Game Bakers, so cheers!

Furi is about creating intense satisfaction to players, as Emeric Thoa, Creative Director, explains in a blog post. How is animation part of creating satisfaction? What were the keys to making Furi’s animation?

There are at least two categories of animations in the game that create satisfaction for players, without talking about cutscenes which make the story go forward.

First, the ones we call “Melee Attacks” (when the boss is stunned, and the player attacks to trigger a short cutscene) are very pleasant to watch. The player can appreciate the nasty blows the bosses have to swallow.

Then, Furi’s gameplay lets players do really quick moves to avoid, parry or attack bosses. Our animations just push up those actions to a next level, that makes them even more satisfactory.

But I want to say it’s really the work of the whole team, animations alone wouldn’t be enough!

Furi is also a game about facing challenge. What was the biggest challenge regarding animation on Furi?

The biggest challenge was to make fighting animations that were fast but also readable to the human eye. It was my intention, but it was pretty hard to do, especially as I was a junior back then. I had not that much experience in animation. Some of the fighting animation length was something like 2 frames (Furi was animated at 30 frames per second, so that is pretty short in time). I hope players managed to see all the nice details we added!

Can you share some references you used to animate some of Furi’s bosses?

For sure!

First, Takashi Okazaki (character designer of Furi) drew some cool and original posings for Rider. I’m thinking about Rider’s running stance: holding his sword in two hands right in front of him while running at something like 50mph, haha.

I love and grew up with Japanese culture, mostly anime (precisely “shonen neketsu” like Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Hokuto No Ken, etc…) so I am imbued with these brutal accelerations, inhuman movements and iconic posings.

I also practiced martial arts for a few years, so I recorded myself with my smartphone smashing pillows in the living room of my previous apartment to reproduce and adjust my moves in the game. (Don’t ask, I will not share those videos).

Emeric, who has a big movie culture, shared some movie scenes that help me a lot, for instance from the Miyamoto Musashi movies. He shared ideas coming from fighting games like Soul Calibur or Metal Gear. He already had an excellent vision of the game before its conception.

Finally, I can tell that there was also a big part of “feeling”. I mean, the characters’ designs have strong personalities. Just looking at Takashi Okazaki’s artworks was often enough to know how to animate and give life to each boss.

What did you enjoy the most while working on the game?

To be honest, as an animator, Furi was the first game I worked on for PC and consoles. Just wow ! Secondly, this is a fighting game! I’m keen on fighting games. As I said before, I practiced martial arts and I really love them. It was just like a dream come true to animate all those incredible fighters! Thirdly, there was a big creation part. I was and felt really free to create some fighting moves. Every time I worked on a new boss, it was like entering a new world, with new feelings. It was enriching to try to imagine the mindset of each boss.

How did you proceed to animate Onnamusha, the new rider? What did you have to do to make her move as the rider?

I can’t reveal all the magic tricks, right?

Actually, Onnamusha uses almost all the same animations as Rider. The reason was that Onnamusha had to play correctly the existing cutscenes as the new Rider. To do this, I had to set up the 3D model (made by the awesome CG artist Anthony Beyer) so she had more or less the same body proportions to share the same rigged skeleton as Rider. In addition, Onnamusha had to keep her female shape, and that was the tricky thing: to have a female body share the skeleton of Rider. The more the two characters had the same proportions, the more the game and cutscenes animations fit.

Was there anything unexpected that happened during the development?

Developing a game IS a source of unexpected things! There is always something new to learn and something new to fix.

One thing that wasn’t really planned and gave me some trouble was that I had to animate (by hand) Rider’s hair and cape. For the first iterations of Furi, these parts relied on the physics of the game, and it was very beautiful. Then came the optimization pass (it was obviously very important to have a good frame rate to be able to play properly) and we had to make compromises.

Fortunately, I had already done that before on The Burst hat bands. It was already planned to animate the ribbons “by hand”, so I knew how to do it. At that time, we already knew that it would require too much resource to have her bands animated by the game physics, so, it was not an option. Everything was planned in the rig* and the animations of The Burst, and baked into her animations files.

So, I had to adapt Rider’s rig by adding bones to his hair and to his cape. To have something like a natural rendering, I simulated the physics of the hair and the cape and I created the animations one by one. I added wind effects and played with gravity when it was necessary. For example, when Rider runs, his hair and his cape had to go backwards. It meant I had to re-animate, re-export, and reintegrate the animations of Rider with the hair and the cape animations in the files. It was a lot of work!

Do you have any last word for Furi’s players?

For players: if you haven’t finished the game, please do!
For animators: don’t hesitate to do weird new things that can lead to great ones!
For me (how snooty): don’t forget to enjoy life!

* Like for a puppet, rigging is the creating the elements necessary to animate a character. First, we create a skeleton which will more or less influence the body parts that we want to move. Then, to animate it more easliy, we create “controllers” of the skeleton, which allow the bones to be moved as desired. A rig = skeleton + controllers on the CG model of the character.

Offre d’emploi en Level Design (poste pourvu)

[POSTE POURVU]
Game Bakers recherche un ou une Level Designer expérimentée pour le développement de notre prochain jeu d’action aventure sur PC et Consoles.

Vous rejoindrez une équipe de 15 personnes, qui ont travaillé ensemble sur nos précédents projets et livrent des jeux de qualité, sans crunch et dans la bonne humeur. Notre équipe travaille à 100% en télétravail, avec des horaires flexibles.

Game Bakers est une petite équipe talentueuse qui fait des jeux qui marquent les joueurs et les joueuses, comme nos précédentes créations Haven ou Furi. Grâce au succès de nos jeux, nous sommes un studio indépendant et auto-financé et nous travaillons sur des créations originales qui sortent tous les 3-4 ans.

Mission

Créer des zones du jeu dans le moteur de jeu (Unity) avec les outils interne (pipe 3D)
Concevoir du LD qui crée des challenges variés, avec une bonne gestion du rythme et des émotions
Concevoir du LD qui marie les contraintes de gameplay et de level art
Proposer des solutions et améliorations du pipeline et des outils de LD

Profil

Expérience professionnelle en game / level design
A déjà participé au développement – de la conception jusqu’au lancement – de plusieurs jeux commercialisés
Sait travailler avec Unity
Autonomie, pragmatisme, capacité à travailler en équipe, bonne humeur
Bon esprit de synthèse et d’une bonne communication, à l’oral et à l’écrit, en français et en anglais

Informations complémentaires
Dates : début entre novembre 2022 et janvier 2023
Lieu : l’équipe est intégralement en télétravail, mais nous avons un studio à Montpellier qui peut vous accueillir.
Rémunération compétitive et bonus, horaires flexibles, mutuelle de qualité, aide à la garde d’enfants, frais de télétravail.
Contrat : CDD ou Freelance

Pour postuler
Un petit mot avec votre CV à hello@thegamebakers.com

Merci de vos candidatures !

Offre d’emploi de gameplay programmer

[Poste pourvu]
Game Bakers recherche un programmeur ou une programmeuse gameplay expérimentée pour le développement de notre prochain jeu d’action aventure sur PC et consoles.

Mission :

Développer le gameplay principal du jeu
Proposer des solutions, des design, des implémentations qui concrétisent la vision

Profil :

Diplôme en informatique de niveau BAC +4/+5 (école d’ingénieur ou formation similaire)
Connaissances approfondies en C# (C++ bienvenu)
Compétences solides en mathématiques (algèbre linéaire, trigonométrie, quaternions)
Compétences solides en physique et systèmes d’animation (IK, ragdoll, playables, animation procédurale)
Sait travailler avec Unity
Capacité à reprendre rapidement le code existant
A déjà participé au développement – de la conception jusqu’au lancement – de plusieurs jeux commercialisés
Autonomie, pragmatisme, capacité à travailler en équipe, bonne humeur
Francophone
De l’intérêt ou des connaissances en biomécanique, mécanique newtonnienne et anatomie humaine sont un plus

Informations additionnelles :

CDI
Dates : dès que possible – début avant octobre 2022.
Lieu : l’équipe est intégralement en télétravail, mais nous avons un studio à Montpellier qui peut vous accueillir.
Rémunération compétitive et bonus, horaires flexibles, mutuelle de qualité, aide à la garde d’enfants, frais de télétravail.

Pour postuler : un petit mot avec votre CV à hello@thegamebakers.com

Merci de vos candidatures !

Rediscover Furi – Onnamusha Update

Rediscover Furi: Furi Update & Onnamusha DLC

The Onnamusha DLC will let you play as Onnamusha Rider, a powerful fighter that alternates between two stances: fast and agile or slower but lethal until she’s able to unleash the devastating power of the Star. The new gameplay mechanics bring new challenges, for a complete rediscovery of the game.

After Furi we needed a break from intense and fast paced action and we made Haven.
And after Haven we wanted to feel the thrill of combat again… So we worked on a little something during the summer.
We’ve read all the Furi fans messages and this request really stuck with us: “I wish I could forget Furi to discover it for the first time all over again”. We asked ourselves: how could we do that? Is there a way for players to rediscover Furi?

A couple of weeks later we were working on Onnamusha.

Furi Onnamusha

Onnamusha is a new playable character. It is Rider as a woman, but most importantly it’s a new fighter with a completely different playstyle. While the original game is very demanding but pretty simple in terms of abilities (you can dash, parry, slash and shoot), Onnamusha adds a layer of tactics by alternating two combat stances:

Spark: while in Spark stance, Rider is faster than ever, heals on parry and can double dash but deals weak damage.
Storm: in Storm stance, Rider is extremely lethal, but very slow and has a vulnerable jump roll.

It’s a different rhythm when playing with Onnamusha, as you’re always toggling between stances to optimize your damage and maximize your chances of avoiding hits.

But there’s more. When you make damage or parry successfully, you fill a special power gauge. It’s true in both stances, but while in Spark you will fill the gauge much faster. When the gauge is full, you can trigger the Star power and benefit from the best of the two worlds: be even faster and even deadlier.

And finally, another mechanic finishes to make Onnamusha a very fun and rich character to play: the burst mechanic. You get a boost in damage and defense just after you change stance, for a couple of seconds. In Spark stance, you’ll shoot many more bullets during burst. In Storm you’ll fire bigger and faster bullets. In both stances, your slashes will be deadlier. This makes it valuable to toggle stance frequently to take advantage of the power burst.

With these new combat skills, each bossfight can be approached with new strategies. You’ll have to decide when to deal damage with the Storm stance, when to toggle stances to benefit from the burst, when to use your Spark speed to defend, gain back some life or build up your Star power. And eventually, decide when is the perfect moment to use the power of the Star and destroy your opponent.

You can get the Onnamusha DLC (6.99$) and rediscover Furi with Onnamusha in Story mode, Speedrun mode (with dedicated leaderboards) and Practice mode.

In the Furi free update that is made available at the same time as the DLC, we have included all previous content that was released on the game, and in particular the previous “One More Fight” DLC with The Flame bossfight (and secret boss Bernard). We also updated the game in general and added new accessibility improvements with the ability to unlock trophies in Promenade Mode, an option to autocomplete Quick Time Events, and a couple of additional control schemes.

Rediscover Furi: Furi Update and Onnamusha DLC is available on PC, PS4, PS5 and Switch.

Go back stranger. We will bring you back.

Try The Right Shot, our talented interns game!

Over the last 5 months, we welcomed 3 talented interns in our studio: Louise, Maya, and Leelou. They had a mission: create their own game, from scratch to publishing with mentoring from the whole team at Game Bakers.

We’re very happy to announce that their game, The Right Shot, is available today!

Play the game here: https://thegamebakers.itch.io/the-right-shot

The game is free, but you can give more and all the money raised will go to Secours Populaire. The charity supports people who are victims of social injustice, poverty, hunger and armed conflicts.

In The Right Shot you play as a little devil serving cocktails to the bar customers. Catch them, throw them: whatever it takes to serve them quickly!

Meet the team

While the game design was teamwork, each team member had their own specialties.

All the graphics of the game were made by Louise Jandot dit Danjou, who also took care of the management of the game production. She studied video game conception at LISAA. She enjoys getting lost on artstation, discovering new things & people in general! instagram.com/l.usie/
Maya Hill, who is in her first year at Epitech studying computer science, took care of the programming of the game. She loves playing video games as much as she loves creating them, and uses reading as a source of creativity and inspiration. And she’s fond of cats, cats everywhere.
Last but not least, Leelou Puech, who learned game design at Eart-sup. She worked on the game design and level design while working in parallel on the QA of Haven and Furi. She’s in love with hiking, cinema, theater, painting… Listening to music goes hand in hand with creating it for her! > twitter.com/LeelouPuech

Our studio has always been looking for ways to give back and support developers in our beautiful industry, in general, and with a particular focus on women over the recent years. We usually only take interns to work on our games in production, but considering how difficult it was during the Covid years for students to find an internship, we decided to do a bit more. This is why we created this “sur-mesure” internship for the 3 students, to help them get practical knowledge, mentoring and the applied learning they needed for their studies.

The whole team at Game Bakers is very proud and impressed by the result of their work! There’s no doubt they will make great games in the upcoming years!

Yu and Kay Voice Actors Reveal & Interview!

Hello everyone,

7 days to go before launch! I can tell you the bakery is buzzing here! We’ll have ample time to tell you more about the game after launch, but there was something that we really wanted to share, as so many of you have asked: who are the amazing actors behind Yu and Kay! It’s time to reveal them…

While casting for Yu and Kay we were looking for actors that would excel at conveying subtle emotions, every day life feelings, and be at ease with intimacy and humour. Those are challenging roles for actors as they require solid performer skills but also enough personal experience to recreate the texture of a relationship with authenticity.
Working in London with the team at SIDE, we were very lucky to meet :

Janine Harouni and Chris Lew Kum Hoi!

The two actors recorded the 80 000 words of dialogue together in the SIDE studio in London in 2019 and 2020, reenacting the scenes together to achieve as much complicity and authenticity as possible.

Before to meet Yu & Kay in a few days, here is a short interview of the actors behind them!

Can you introduce yourself? Can you tell us about you and your career?

Janine: I’m originally from New York but I’ve been living in the UK for the last 8 years. I’ve been lucky enough to voice parts in some really fantastic games and I’ve done small roles in fun films and TV series. Next year I’m going to be a series regular in a new sitcom called ‘Buffering’ on ITV2 next which I’m really excited about. But mostly I’m excited for comedy clubs to open up again so I can get back to doing stand up. I did my debut show last Edinburgh which got nominated for the Best Newcomer award. Which was a very lovely thing to happen and means I no longer have to do gigs in the basements of grimy pubs. I now do gigs on the ground floor of grimy pubs. So things are moving up in a very literal sense.

Chris: Not quite sure where to start. I originally trained in a drama school in the South of England and upon graduation left to work in the theatre and gradually building up into screen work – proud to say I’m part of the Dr Who universe. By chance, I stumbled into the voice over world. I was doing a theatre workshop and a friend asked me whether I did voice-over. I lied and told him I had done a few before and he suggested me for a videogame audition. I ended up getting the job and a hop, skip and a jump into the future and here I am doing Haven – a project which I’m very proud of working on.

At the very beginning when you started working on Haven, what did you expect? Did you expect that kind of game? That kind of dialogs?

Chris: From the first readthrough, I was taken by how naturally the script settled in the mouth – it had a simplicity that I hadn’t experienced before and that’s exciting. The words could go in so many directions. I didn’t really know what Haven was going to be but knew that there was a beating soul that needed to be let out into the videogame universe.

Janine: I’m not sure what I was expecting. I had never worked on a game for that long and I had never done VO with another actor in the booth with me. It was amazing to get to spend that much time working on something. I really felt like I knew both our characters inside and out by the end of our recording. And it was incredible to get to work on such a rich and dynamic story. I just feel very lucky to be part of such a fantastic game!

Haven has a very special setting as it is heavily focused on two characters, a couple in love. How did that make the recording different from another game?

Janine: Lots of times when you work on a game you only record your lines. Sometimes you read with the director but lots of time you just record your side of the dialogue with very little context. Working on Haven was brilliant because I got to be in the booth with Chris. Which means we were able to react to each other and be in the moment. That’s something you rarely get to do when recording games. It made everything feel much more intimate and real. Working with Chris and our brilliant director Damien Goodwin, was a dream – I really felt I was in safe hands and learned so much from both of them.

Chris: So different! In most other videogames, you are in a booth by yourself and rarely do you get to hear what the other actors have created – you have to kind of guess and the director does their best to read in the plethora of other characters (sometimes to a hilarious extent). But with Haven, I got to work with the lovely Janine in the booth. This had a huge positive impact on both our performances. Aside from Janine just being fantastic, there’s a chemistry that the characters had to have that you just can’t recreate without having both people in the room together. It always made the recording sessions exciting – you don’t know what your partner is going to throw at you.

Would you say you can relate to that couple, or to your character?

Chris: Kay I hold close to my heart. He’s desparate to be cool but can never get it quite right. He’s vulnerable and sensitive and a perfect match for Yu. She has a fire that keeps him in check and he has a jokey manner that pokes holes in Yu’s armour. I think that’s why they work so well. My partner and I share the same sort of relationship – we’re so different in our tastes etc. But it’s that different perspective that gives both the resistance we need and the freedom to be ourselves. I also definitely have Kay living in me – we’re both kind of in awe of the world whilst bumbling through it completely lost. Might as well enjoy the ride whilst on it eh?

Janine: My real life partner is a lot like Kay actually – more cautious and analytical than I am. I’m more like Yu, a jump-into-things-now-and-figure-them-out-later kinda person. Which can be fun, but can also lead to some VERY weird nights out.

Can you share a funny or memorable moment that happened during the recordings?

Chris: The one that springs to mind are the “R” rated scenes. Performing it was hilarious because I went for it and knew that everyone around me was going to feel awkward. At the end of it, there was a pause, and Janine just said, “is it hot in here?” that for me was the best praise ever. That and Muffin and Cupcake! Can’t forget the joy they brought.

Push-Up The Volume!

Hello everyone,

You’ve seen the news: Haven has a release date! It will launch on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Xbox One on December 3. As good news comes in pair, we are delighted to announce that the physical edition (vinyl and CD) of the Haven soundtrack is available for pre-order now 😍

Haven’s Original Soundtrack is composed by French electro musician DANGER (whose work was already featured in Furi). Today, we are thrilled to announce we cooked with G4F Records two physical editions: a double vinyl album and a CD digipack. The digital version of the soundtrack will be available December 3rd on Bandcamp, Steam, YouTube, and all music streaming platforms.

The pre-orders of the physical editions start now!

Double vinyl edition ($39/€35): https://www.g4f-records.com/en/produit/haven-edition-vinyl-pre-order/
CD edition ($17/€15): https://www.g4f-records.com/en/produit/haven-cd-edition-pre-order/

Pre-order bonus items are offered: copies signed by Danger (for the first 100 pre-orders) and an art print from the game. Shipment of both editions is scheduled for late January 2021.

The vinyl edition is inspired by the colourful watercolours of the game intro movie by Yukio Takatsu (Japanese animator and director). The album includes two vinyl records (180 g), yellow and red, in a “pastel grain” textured gatefold cover. The double CD edition is a 6-panel digipack and includes an 8-page booklet.

In the Haven original soundtrack, DANGER returns to his electro synthwave music style, adding more positive and colourful vibes to it, as well as elements of Vaporwave and Funky music, mixed with a new orchestral dimension.

If you can’t wait, the first single “ 04:42 Still Free” is still available on Steam, Spotify and other platforms. What are you waiting for? Push the volume up and enjoy the music! 😜🎧

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Yu and Kay Voice Actors Reveal & Interview!

Can you introduce yourself? Can you tell us about you and your career?

At the very beginning when you started working on Haven, what did you expect? Did you expect that kind of game? That kind of dialogs?

Haven has a very special setting as it is heavily focused on two characters, a couple in love. How did that make the recording different from another game?

Would you say you can relate to that couple, or to your character?

Can you share a funny or memorable moment that happened during the recordings?

Push-Up The Volume!

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