“When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.” I don’t know who first said these words, but they have given me great comfort over the years. I truly believe memories can be treasure, and often the most precious treasure there is.
Pine HeartsDeveloper: Hyper Luminal GamesPublisher: Little NookAvailability: Out now on PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch.
But what if we were to take those memories, and channel them into creating something special and new, which then goes on to help others going through something similar? This is what Hyper Luminal Games has done with Pine Hearts, its wholesome take on the Metroidvania genre, and similar to what fellow Metroidvania Tales of Kenzera: Zau did on its launch in April.
Pine Hearts welcomes players into the hiking boots of Tyke, an adorable little bean of a chap who returns to the Pine Hearts camping site he used to visit as a child. As Tyke makes his way through the grounds, he can assist other campers with tasks such as collecting firewood and scaring off crows. So far, so indie. But quickly you realise there’s more to the game underneath its bright and unassuming exterior – a deeper story of love and loss that serves as a heartfelt ode to creative director Rob Madden’s father.
Madden’s father Roy passed away in 2019, shortly after a sudden discovery of cancer. “The diagnosis when he got it was, ‘it’s inoperable’,” Madden explains via video call, as he shares his story with me. “There was nothing that could be done. It was well past the stage of any sort of recovery.”
Understandably, it was an enormous shock to Madden and his family. “He was always such a healthy guy, and in a lot of ways, you always look up to your dad as this sort of immortal being almost, even when you are in your 30s,” Madden continues, remembering how his father was quickly moved into palliative care. Six weeks later, Roy passed away.
After his father’s death, Madden found himself consumed with grief, so he turned to something he’d always had a passion for as a source of comfort: making games. “I’ve always loved that. I have always been artistic and creative in that way, so it became a natural thing to want to build something that felt cosy, and a nice place to be,” he says. “I made myself somewhere ‘warm’.”