by Danreb VictorioLast month, Fishbowl from imissmyfriends.studio came out with high marks, including a 4 out of 5 from yours truly. I recently had the time to talk with the members of the two-person studio, based in India, and I left the interview with a smile.
I obviously had my own thoughts about the game but the conversation with Rhea and Prateek really opened my eyes as to how passionate they were for this game. I had a blast experiencing the protagonist Alo’s story, but to learn that to them it was sort of a virtual pet kinda thing really just made so much sense.
Anyway, let’s get on with the interview.
Interview with imissmyfriend.studio’s Rhea Gupte and Prateek Saxena
Danreb Victorio, Executive Editor, SmashPad (SP): Thank you both so much for agreeing to speak with us. Let’s start by having you introduce yourselves and what you do for imissmyfriends.studio!
Rhea Gupte & Prateek Saxena, imissmyfriends.studio (IMMF): Hello! We are Rhea (she/her) and Prateek (he/him). We are a two-person indie game studio based out of Goa in India. Rhea is the writer, director, character designer and art director. Prateek is the pixel artist, programmer, producer and composer. We both work together on game design, narrative design, sound design, marketing, business development and all the other things that go into running a tiny indie game studio.
SP: First off, that really is a whole lot, and you really deserve both a round of applause and a pat on the back for everything you pulled off. Congratulations!
To jump right into everything, the pandemic was obviously what triggered the development of this game. I was wondering when exactly development started, and how it evolved even after the lockdowns were lifted?
IMMF: Fishbowl started as a part-time project in the middle of the pandemic on April 4, 2021. We both were working other jobs which had nothing to do with games, Rhea as a multidisciplinary artist and writer, and Prateek as a UX designer. We had both dreamed of making games and telling stories for a long time and had always maintained a long list of game ideas that we would someday work on together. The pandemic changed that for us, as all our work travel suddenly stopped, and we saw ourselves at home in this difficult situation. We decided to start making a video game in our spare time, (while) juggling things with our full-time work. For about two and a half years, we continued to work on the game in this way.
In the middle of 2023, we decided to give Fishbowl our all by starting work on it full-time, as we believed it was a story we wanted to tell. We had started pitching the game to publishers, and we had some interest from a couple of them. Fishbowl was announced to be part of Sony’s India Hero Project in February 2024, and that further aided our dream.
SP: So cool. Can you talk more about some direct inspirations of other games that led to Fishbowl?
IMMF: One of the biggest inspirations for Fishbowl was the Studio Ghibli film Only Yesterday, where the protagonist goes on a journey through her memories because of simple acts and moments that trigger them. In terms of games, To the Moon was a big inspiration to us, and it was a story that stayed with us long after we played it.
SP: Wow, I’ve experienced both and never really thought much about Only Yesterday, so it’s really cool seeing Fishbowl draw some inspiration from that film. I felt like the game really opened up once you got the cookbook. I was interested if you felt the same way and whether this was intentional.
IMMF: Ah! That’s so interesting. We have noticed different players have different perspectives on this. For some it’s when you can start watering the plants again, and for others even the packages arriving set the tone for how the rest of the game might unfold. From a narrative perspective, we paced the items that unlock as per how Alo, our protagonist’s emotional state progresses in the game.
The objects which do unlock narratively may still remain locked for some players if they haven’t kept Alo’s mood up to a certain extent. For us, it is a metaphor on how a person may not feel ready to do certain seemingly ‘simple’ tasks if they aren’t in the place emotionally to do them. The unlocking of objects in the home starts with something simple, a record player which has a very forgiving unlock meter, but that too may end up being ‘locked’ for certain players if they haven’t taken care of themselves/Alo. In order to unlock something like being able to cook, which is a comparatively lengthy task requiring a much larger degree of self-motivation, the player needs to have taken care of Alo pretty consistently over time in the game.
Where the cooking unlock was placed was definitely intentional to communicate that Alo is now ready to take care of herself, in a deeper way, if the player is ready too. Similar to where the unlocking of cooking is placed narratively, a bird that the player can now take care of comes in later in the game. By then, the player may be in a headspace where they could try to take care of something other than themselves. Most things in Alo’s home unlock keeping in mind these levels of difficulty in self-care that a person may experience as they go through grief.
It is up to the player whether they show readiness for these tasks or not. Of course, not being able to do the unlocked activities doesn’t stop your progress in the game. We always wanted to keep a gentle approach of allowing the player to do as much or as little as they are able to with the assurance that the game does not have any ‘bad’ endings. But the way Alo deals with it would shift and change.
SP: That’s really fascinating. The way you talk about it, you guys make it seem like the experience is sort of like that of a virtual pet. I never thought I personally was “taking care of Alo” at all, and I was really jsut going through the motions that made sense to the narrative and keeping her mood up!
Getting back on track, some of the “trouble” I personally had playing the game was with the puzzle element of opening boxes. Can you talk about that experience?
IMMF: Was it some trouble with the mechanics of the puzzle? We’d love to know more about your experience to be able to answer this better. ^_^
From our perspective, we took inspiration from our own experience of how going through the things of a loved one after they are no more is extremely difficult. We wanted to pass that feeling into the game. To that sentiment, we tried to make the unpacking of objects which are emotionally tough for Alo to engage with, harder to ‘get’ or solve, and those that have joyful memories attached to them, very easy. Also keeping in mind that as a person who is grieving, such a task is something hard to engage with overall, she goes through it a box or two at a time. The slow pace was intentional and hopefully allowed for space to feel and move in a way that is comforting but something that still puts you in the shoes of somebody who finds this task really hard to do.
SP: In regard to my “trouble” solving puzzles, it wasn’t really that deep. I just had issues moving things around in the boxes, so the key item in each box was visible. I would have much rather just pulled items out one by one before getting to that key item. 🙂
I love how, while the game is cozy, some elements of the story really tug at your heartstrings. We know how devastating the pandemic was for people across the board, and right now, the tech and gaming industry is going through arguably tougher times amid layoffs. Having been there myself, I had to take a break as soon as I got to the part with the application rejections. I assumed this section was more about Alo possibly being a disappointment to her family, but I was wondering if there was anything more to this scene narrative-wise, and if you can talk more about it.
IMMF: It has been heartbreaking to see news of layoffs and to know people affected by it.
Sorry you went through that. So glad you stepped away and took the time you needed to come back.
As a young adult trying to make their way to financial independence, rejection and the hopelessness that accompanies it are a big part of many of our lives. It certainly was for both of us. Through Alo’s struggle with finding a job, we wanted to share the deep self-doubt that becomes a part of one’s life after such an experience, of feeling unwanted and unworthy. As a young impressionable person, it stays with you in a strange way even after you have accomplished something. For Alo, these feelings accompany her well into her new job and color her days there, even as she tries to do her best. Although her family is encouraging, their words don’t sink in for Alo until the very end. It is something within her that she must overcome in her own way, to be able to build herself up, accept the encouragement that exists in her life, and let people in.
SP: Thank you so much, I really appreciate that, and I really appreciate the color about what Alo is or was thinking. At the end of the day, who did you make this game for, and do you believe you accomplished that?
We made this game as a way to put our hearts into something that could be experienced by others and to bring hope to anybody going through a dark and difficult time in their lives. We believe we were able to do both.
SP: That’s pretty much it from me. I like to close interviews with a fairly basic question, so all this said, what are you playing right now? 🙂
IMMF: Right now, Rhea just finished playing And Roger, and Prateek is playing Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. ^_^
Thank you so much for playing our game and for chatting with us!
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We really appreciate the time Rhea and Prateek took to talk to SmashPad.
Fishbowl is available now on PC and PlayStation 5.
