Lydia growing in substance for 2017 release

Written by K R Parkinson — October 30, 2016 at 13:58

It’s hard enough sometimes for adults to rationalize the things they do, so asking a child to understand an adult’s decisions, especially when those choices are harmful, can be particularly difficult. Exploring this topic is the crux of Lydia, a narrative-driven adventure game being prepped by Finnish indie studio Platonic Partnership for release early next year.

While story details are being kept vague for now, the game is said to be heavily influenced by To the Moon and focuses on the eponymous character Lydia, whose life has been affected by adult substance abuse. The developers say that their goal is to tell a “very depressing” story that explores how a young girl processes an influential adult’s problems “through her imagination.” The player’s job will be to guide Lydia through the story in an attempt to understand “why adults behave the way they do.”

The surrealistic graphics will feature “atmospheric” greyscale tones tinted with hints of color, accompanied by audio that will further help to convey the story. The developers estimate that the game will take 2-3 hours from start to finish, and aside from a few “simple” logic-based puzzles, Lydia will be story-centric. As such, the controls will be greatly simplified, with no inventory and a single button comprising the user interface. While there will be no voice-overs, players will be able to answer various characters using a multiple-choice dialogue system, though the focus is said to be more on answering questions posed by others, rather than the player doing the asking.

Lydia is currently campaigning on Steam Greenlight, and if successful, we can expect to see the game released for Windows and Mac platforms sometime next spring. For more information, head to Platonic Partnership’s official website for the game.