[GDN] How did Binary Tweed get the idea for the watercolour-painted art style for Clover?

[DeeJay] Jeanette Abrahamsen does work in a variety of disciplines, such as oil painting and architectural design. I saw one of her greetings cards which featured the cartoony characters, and thought that would be perfect for the appealing art style I was looking for. The choice of watercolour was a consequence of trying a variety of approaches and finding that it yielded the most aesthetically appealing results, whilst still being quick to implement.

[GDN] Clover will be released as a community game on Xbox LIVE, how many hours of gameplay are you estimating will be in the title?

[DeeJay] Excellent question! The game world isn’t fully constructed yet, so we haven’t been able to perform a full play-through. As a designer of puzzles, it’s hard to fathom how long it might take someone else to figure out the solutions.

In the design phase I spent a fair amount of time researching and analysing the original Dizzy adventure titles, examining the number of puzzles, items and screens. Clover is around the same size as titles like Magicland Dizzy and Fantasy World Dizzy. If you know the solution to every puzzle, these games take a mere half hour to complete; if you’re figuring it out for the first time, it will take considerably longer.

[GDN] Clover is a plot-driven platformer, I’m curious if there will be plot-branching based on decisions made by the player or if it is a completely linear plot?

[DeeJay] Plot-branching was in the original design spec, but had to be cut due to financial constraints. It also leads to a different kind of experience. In Clover we are taking players on a journey, telling a story and leaving them to come to their own conclusions about the events that have unfolded. With a branching plot the game becomes an exercise in exploring the consequences of one’s actions, and while this is something I’d definitely like to do in a future title, it doesn’t fit particularly well with the plot of Clover.