With Infinity Nikki due to release on December 5, the team at Infold has been busy with a global exhibition tour, the first run of playtests, and a whole bunch of promotions to ramp up everyone’s excitement. With the game’s launch fast approaching, we now get to take an exclusive peek at the work that’s already gone into specific elements of the game from an artistic perspective.
In the new documentary, you get to see how the team came to a unanimous decision to put Nikki into a beautiful, sprawling open-world with a focus on exploration and freedom, and how this ultimately led to the overall design of the game. Sha Dingyu, Infinity Nikki’s game designer, says “What we were doing felt unprecedented. We had to integrate the Nikki IP and the core mechanics of a dress-up game with an open-world concept.”
The development studio has put a painstaking amount of time and effort into the framework for Infinity Nikki, which is immediately obvious just from listening to them talk about their work. If anyone had any doubts about Nikki being popped into an open-world, this documentary is a heart-warming explanation of how the team worked so collaboratively and passionately to make it happen. Personally, we’re super excited to skip around a gorgeous map looking for new outfits and making virtual friends on the way.
We love a good cozy game, and Infinity Nikki is shaping up to be a fine addition to our collection. But it goes a little deeper than that, because it’s clear that the team behind it has poured their hearts and souls into it. Developer Infold recruited the help of Brent Homman, a filmmaker who worked on the incredible – and Oscar-winning – Big Hero 6, to contribute to the character design for Infinity Nikki. He talks openly in the documentary about how the concept of buildings and nature being completely intertwined heavily influenced the design and aesthetic decisions behind Infinity Nikki.
As well as that, Infold borrowed the genius of Andrzej Dybowski, who worked on the Game of the Year award-winning The Witcher 3, to join the Infinity Nikki team as a concept artist. He talks about how the design process for the Faewish Sprite region of Infinity Nikki was challenging, but also very rewarding, and it’s obvious in the way the whole team talks about the creative process that it was a joy for them to work on. He says “In the beginning, the approach to this topic was not very creative. The first designs were pretty generic and didn’t reflect the uniqueness of the sprites. The ‘eureka’ moment came when we realized that sprites don’t behave like humans, and so we ditched stairs and doors completely.”
It’s this attention to detail and level of creativity that have us so excited to explore the Grand Millewish Tree and the surrounding environment with Nikki, but if you just can’t wait, we have everything you need to know about the Infinity Nikki release date, including how you can pre-register for the game now. Plus, we’ve got the latest info on any Infinity Nikki codes, so you can get your hands on some extra resources once the game is out.