“She’s as fake as you are,” the monster growls, “so I ate her!” “I wrote every sentence to give you hints as to what the monster is about,” explains Connie as on screen the creature continues to berate Kay who has lost track of the friendly floating girl. It is uncomfortable watching this when you know the backstory of the game, even more so when the person who wrote it is sat beside you, essentially exposing her inner demons for you to see. The monster shouts and insults Kay in a horrible manner, telling her she’s “a worthless piece of sh*t” and “You have no idea what you’re doing, do you? As usual!” it continues. While Hellblade, the most obvious comparison at least thematically, had a more gentle introduction, Sea of Solitude lets rip from the start. “Everything you see in Sea of Solitude is a metaphor for something,” she explains, “The water, the girl, the weather, everything.” While some of these are obvious, such as a warm sunshine representing Kay’s good mood and thunderous storms representing danger and terror, others are more subtle and left for you to figure out.Īs Kay meets the first giant monster, a huge creature hiding under a shell, its darkness if brought to the fore. You reach your destination by clambering and platforming around the partially sunken city, which is based on Berlin, or boating and swimming, assuming there’s nothing nasty hiding in the depths, “I’m a big fan of Jaws!” grins Connie. This works as a guiding light, shows the path to you next objective when you fire it, but it travels in a straight line and Kay may find obstacles in her path. There are a few other character in the world which you can interact with to try and help Kay, the first being a bright, cheerful young girl who gives Kay the flare ability.

The game begins with Kay waking up in boat, feeling hopeless, worthless, and lonely. “We were always calling the ‘therapy group’”, said Connie, “At the core it’s my story, but with many other people stories too. “All these emotions overwhelmed me so much I needed to let them out,” she explains, and Sea of Solitude is the result.Īlthough large parts of the story are based on Connie’s personal experiences, planning the game with the rest of her team allowed them to fold their own issues into the game as well. Reading up on the subject she worked out that she herself had issues.

“Within months he wanted to marry me.” However, within a few months more, the man started to vanish from the face of the earth, not contacting her for weeks at a time as he, Connie would eventually learn, was suffering from depression.

Whilst this was going on Connie ended a long term relationship and started a new one, “It was the best thing, but stormy,” she explains.

Do I cancel this contract with the publisher and try and make the ‘arthouse’ games I wanted, but maybe destroy my company? Do I risk everything, including the jobs of my employees?” “It was lovely, but I felt more and more unhappy as I couldn’t do the thing I wanted to do,” explains Connie. Jo-Mei Games had been creating free-to-play games for almost five years, they had a great publisher and a contract that guaranteed the company a decent income every month. At the end of 2013 Connie was what she describes as the “lowest point in my life”, both personally and in work.

Sea of solitude ps5