The award-winning Ember Lab team. (Original Text)

We had a lovely chat with the wonderful members of the Ember Lab team, which led to us asking them a few interesting questions about Kena: Bridge of Spirits, them transitioning into the gaming industry, as well as their future as game developers. So without further ado, let’s see what brothers Josh and Mike Grier (the team’s founders and game directors) had to say!

Question #1) Firstly, we ought to congratulate you for the exceptional course of Kena: Bridge of Spirits. The game has received great reviews, a bunch of awards and is hugely popular with all sorts of game lovers. Surely you must have had faith in your project, but did you ever expect such an amazing response from the entire gaming industry? How do you feel about the way things unfolded?

Ember Lab: We are beyond grateful for the amazing response to Kena! Our whole team poured their hearts and souls into the game, so we knew we had something special to share. Still, we could have never expected to receive such fantastic feedback from gamers and the industry.

Question #2) The quality of your studio's work in animated films was well-known. However, Kena was your first attempt at creating your own video game. How was your experience with the process of this transition? What were the challenges and how concerned were you about the reaction of the public?

Ember Lab: There was definitely a learning curve. We did a lot of learning as we went, plus we had the exciting opportunity to release Kena for the PS5 as well as the PS4, so we had more capabilities to play with. This meant more to learn in order to take full advantage of the new platform, and we’re glad we did! As far as making the transition to games, we tried our best to lean on our background in animation as the bedrock of our creative vision, then set out to make a game that we would want to play. Ultimately, we think that was the best guide through the challenging process of game development.

Question #3) The game made its debut during the PS5's very first showcase. With the internet at large tuned in to find out about the games and the console itself, expectations were sky-high. Did you feel a lot of pressure taking the stage in front of such a large and demanding audience? Were you confident about representing the beginnings of this console generation?

Ember Lab: There are always nerves with that scale of attention, so we definitely felt pressure! However, it’s often the high expectations that help push us to create our best work. So in that way, the responsibility of the opportunity helped motivate us. That said, the response after the debut showcase really helped us feel more confident that we had something people would enjoy.

Question #4) Personally, I was amongst those who considered your reveal one of the top highlights of said presentation. I was totally dazzled by the quality of the animation, the overall world and - of course - the adorable Rot. How did you feel watching Kena steal the spotlight in a showcase that featured titles like Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Resident Evil Village, and other behemoths of this industry?

Ember Lab: Thank you for your kind words, we’re so glad you enjoyed it! Ultimately, the quality of games right now is so high that we are so humbled to be included among such large-scale successes. The games that we’ve played throughout the years have inspired us, and now the support and passion of Kena players has given us new and even stronger inspiration for future projects.

Question #5) A large portion of the media and content creators immediately associated Kena's visual Identity with Disney and Pixar flicks. I can't hide the fact that I'm a huge Disney fan, one that grew up with these movies, and that connection definitely ignited my excitement for the game. Do you find these associations accurate? How do you think they affected the marketing and can you confirm whether there was, in fact, an influence from these works?

Ember Lab: Disney and Pixar films have definitely been a large artistic influence on us. We’ve always been big fans of their balance of endearing and beautiful animation with rich and emotional storytelling. We actively work towards those same goals in our work. One big difference Kena has from Pixar, however, is our focus on fast-paced combat and challenging enemy encounters. On that front, one of our favorite comments we recently received described Kena as “Pixar Souls.” We got a big kick out of that!

Question #6) The initial promise was that the game would launch alongside the PS5. We now know that enormous development teams went completely off-schedule due to the Covid restrictions. We can imagine that the pandemic might impact a smaller indie studio like yours even more. Was that the reason behind the initial delay to August and eventual release in September? What were some other major difficulties during the development?

Ember Lab: The COVID-19 pandemic definitely created some major obstacles to development and was a driving force behind the delay of our release. The upside came from some of our restructured workflow to accommodate remote development and keep the ball rolling. We’re already implementing things we’ve learned through the challenges of the last couple of years into our ongoing workflow.

Question #7) All went well, though, eventually, as Kena's release was met with high praise and huge publicity. Countless positive reviews, including ours, sang songs of its gorgeous world and rejuvenating tone. Can you describe the atmosphere in Ember Lab after such a successful launch? Did you feel a catharsis at the end of this huge undertaking?

Ember Lab: Definitely! With any undertaking like that, there’s a sense of closure and fulfillment that comes from completing it and feeling like we created what we set out to. That feeling was multiplied by the positive response because ultimately, we wanted to create something players would enjoy. While the team continued to work on patches after Kena’s release, we also needed to take quite a few naps!

Question #8) Even more important than the reviewers' praise, is the appreciation expressed by the fans. We've seen such a huge amount of love for Kena on social media, as well as tons of wonderful pictures created through the in-game photo mode. Similarly in Greece, where we're writing you from, we noticed that people were enthusiastic about Kena to a degree that an indie game rarely achieves. How satisfied are you with the players' response and do you have any message for the Greek community?

Ember Lab: Hello to the Greek community! We are so excited to have your support in Greece and all over the world. The international response has been a very exciting surprise. We have loved seeing all of the community engagement, artwork, and photo mode shots created by players. We even have an internal channel where members of our team share fan art, cosplay, etc. Some team members have even been known to use fan art as their phone backdrops! All of us truly appreciate the enthusiasm and support of the fans. Thank you!

Question #9) One thing that really impressed me when I took on reviewing the game, was the support you provided for troubleshooting. I don't know if you recall me contacting you regarding a bug that halted my progress but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the wonderful decency of your apologetic response and immediate effort to resolve the issue. In my experience, much larger companies don't provide that level of support even with a lot more people on the task. How tough were the days following the launch, considering you still had to work on patches after a development process with plenty of challenges?

Ember Lab: We’re so glad we were able to address your issue! Troubleshooting can be difficult, but our first commitment is to provide players with an enjoyable experience, and that means resolving a bug or other issue should be as painless as possible. We also want to make sure to address all bugs as soon as we can so that the issue does not affect other players, too. The time has been great about responding to as many inquiries as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

Question #10) Every player, fan, and critic is entitled to their own opinion. We'd like to hear yours, about what Kena's strengths are. Which, in your opinion, are the strongest elements of your game or the ones that drew fans to it the most, both on PlayStation and PC? Having received so much feedback now, is there anything you'd change if you could go back to the development phase?

Ember Lab: While we look forward to improving on a lot of things we learned, we are very proud of our work on Kena. Some of our favorite aspects are exploring Kena’s beautiful world, the fun and intuitive combat, and the rich cinematic cutscenes. We’re also quite happy with the Rot, both as characters and as a mechanic. Many players have loved getting to know these cute little creatures, too! In the future, we’d love to take our learnings from Kena and go deeper in all of these aspects as well as expanding on elements we just didn’t have the scope for in our debut game.

Question #11) In December we were happy to see you on-stage during The Game Awards, and applaud you for accepting awards for both the Best Indie and Best Debut Indie categories. Were there any co-nominated indie games that stood out to you? What were your feelings during the special moment of the acceptance speech?

Ember Lab: We were very honored to be nominated, and extremely excited to win these categories at The Game Awards! Going up there to accept the award was pretty surreal. Ultimately, we were simply overwhelmed with gratitude. To be in such great company in our categories made these honors even more special. We haven’t had the chance to play all of our other co-nominees, but we’ve really enjoyed Inscryption’s style and creative gameplay. Also, Death’s Door has been a fun challenge with a fantastic art style. There are so many great indie games right now!

Question #12) Apart from all these honors, the game's course on the market is - for better or worse - important in its own right. We're guessing you can't talk numbers, but could you comment on whether you're satisfied with its commercial success? Surely PlayStation's promotional campaigns helped the game from reveal to launch in this regard.

Ember Lab: We’ve been happy with the performance of Kena, and our partnership with PlayStation definitely helped get our game visibility that would have been very difficult on our own. We hope that players who haven’t had the opportunity yet, or who haven’t been introduced to Kena, can join in soon! PlayStation has been a great partner and have been so supportive and encouraging of our work.

Question #13) Being a part of the gaming industry, you must be aware of the activity of prestigious publishers, especially in regards to buying out small and bigger studios alike. Xbox is incorporating Activision Blizzard to its workforce, Bungie has become a part of PlayStation and we can safely assume similarly impactful moves are being planned as we speak. We can’t ignore the fact that you’ve started off with a major success in your portfolio and we expect you to continue growing your library with more high-quality games. Having said that, it’s highly likely that investors have grown very interested in your studio. What’s your position on the matter of buyouts and would you be open to being integrated into a larger sum of development studios, should the opportunity arise?

Ember Lab: Every situation is different with definite trade offs on both sides of the discussion. We value the creative freedom that has come from being an indie studio, but we also think every team needs to make the choices that they feel are right for them.  For us, the most important decisions are the ones that will allow us to make the best game we can.

Question #14) Considering that you remain independent, what’s the next step for Ember Lab? Kena: Bridge of Spirits has made your ability evident, but surely that’s just the start of your aspirations. Is there a new project in the works, or at least in the planning stages?

Ember Lab: We have been putting our heads together to discuss next steps, but are not ready to announce anything at this time. Whatever our next steps will be, we are excited to share them with everyone when the time comes! Our social media channels are the best place to stay up to date on any news and exciting content.

Closing Sentence: Awesome! Once again, we’re really grateful that you agreed to answer some of our questions. We’re happy to see the studio and Kena shine and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors. We’re amazed by the studio’s incredible first step in the world of gaming and we truly hope that we’ll get to experience more of your fantastic work!

Ember Lab: Thank you so much! We truly appreciate your support and clear love for our game. It means a lot to us. Thank you for helping us communicate further with our amazing Greek community of video game players and fans!