"...any interpretation of an artist's work is valid, though it may not represent the artist's intention." - The Shopkeeper
There's a bit of a meta-narrative to Sabotage Studio's indie throwback RPG Sea of Stars I didn't see enough critics and players talking about in the wake of its release. Sabotage's values as well as themes of perseverance and vulnerability are woven naturally into their works, but are also overtly catalogued in media outside of their games for curious players seeking a more complete picture.
This inspired a project whose goal would be to both inform and persuade a wider audience to be a little more curious and not miss the forest for the trees. To do that, I would have to weave my own criticism and analysis into a story encompassing the nearly complete history of Sabotage Studio.
My strategy would be to first appeal to Sea of Stars' detractors, acknowledging criticism with the game's storytelling, before painting a broader picture of Sabotage's ambitions for a massive in-game universe spanning multiple games—what is ultimately a decades long ongoing project! Thankfully, I had access to dozens of interviews featuring studio head Thierry Boulanger, and the first five years of Sabotage's history was publicly indexed by executive producer Philip Barclay. My first task would be to adapt much of this content to video through my commentary and a series of strong visual aids.
I wanted to draw human parallels between the studio's history and the motifs in their games, featuring as many core members of the team as much as possible. With such a strong character as Thierry to get behind, this would make buying into Sabotage's goals easier.
A series of visual aids used to represent the catalogued history of Sabotage
Next was to leverage my point of view as a player and critic to zoom out and examine how this ambition and design philosophy broadly impacted Sabotage's games, and more importantly, demonstrate why I believed this enhanced the overall product while interrogating the concerns and criticisms addressed earlier.
The Boy in the Well story in The Messenger breaks the fourth wall in a feat of heroic vulnerability
Showing off the congruent attention to detail between games
A quick little animation sequence I liked "Every screen is assembled with purpose..."
Posing the question, "What is the point of investing one-self in this ongoing universe if there's a good chance it won't be completed?" I answered by drawing parallels between the studio's philosophy and the emotionally resonant themes of Sea of Stars' story.
Finally, I sought to end the piece with a persuasive message and a crescendo of highlights from their first two completed works.
Sound on! Gameplay montages are fun AND resonant!
