Kalia, Burgers and Cultural Inspiration

Hello all! For those who have not yet been introduced, I'm "GDN", the solo developer of "Kalia and the Fire Staff" which is the game where my character Kalia will make her debut. I say "debut" because there's more in planning for her after KatFS is finished, but it's important to start at a reasonable scope. I'm also from Brazil, which might not seem relevant but is actually a central point to this devlog.

Since Kalia will be featuring across multiple games, it's been an important part of development to build the setting where they will take place, in order to provide for a cohesive grand narrative between all entries. This has certainly been one of the most interesting aspects of development, but also a major challenge and potential trap. To avoid getting lost in world-building, I try to maintain a personal rule of only detailing out what's necessary for my current project, with everything beyond remaining fuzzy. This allows me to keep within scope while also preventing me from building myself into a narrative corner, with a fuzzy concept of the world around being in place.

That's good and all, but what is this devlog about then? You see, as a Brazilian indie developer, I have had the privilege of mingling with other Brazilian devs and discovering a brilliant emergent indie scene that I hadn't been aware of. Brazilians seem to have a natural desire to share their culture with everyone, and often get excited when they recognize their own culture and experiences being represented anywhere, be it film, music or, of course, games. As a result, the Brazilian indie scene is chock full of games that take inspiration from the devs' own experiences. Something as simple as a particular type of building, a soda can of a local brand, an exotic animal, heck Brazilians will go crazy over a caramel-coloured mutt!

Understanding this made me realize that I've been lacking in this area with Kalia's worldbuilding so far. Of course, I'm not obliged to represent my own country in any of my games. But Kalia is a Brazilian creation by a Brazilian creator and I want to represent my own culture dammit! Besides, my particular region of Brazil is still under-represented even within the BR indie scene. 

So the brainstorming begins: How could I introduce regional elements into Kalia's setting? She lives in a completely fictional world, so I cannot just say she lives in Brazil and carbon-copy everything. It's a fantastic setting too, so it needs to leave some room for the extraordinary. And simply cherry-picking obvious references and dropping them into the games feels like a cop-out. In my opinion, inspirations and representation should serve the core mechanics and narrative, and not the other way around. Fortunately, there were still plenty of areas in Kalia's world that were still "fuzzy" and in need of fleshing out. Introducing... A burger!

Okay, lemme explain to those that aren't in on the joke - Kalia's favorite food is canonically burgers. You know, like the ones that can drop as health pickups in the demo?

It started as an in-joke, but the concept was too good to pass - a cute demon girl with an appetite for burgers! It's been a hit with everyone who gets to know the character. Except there was one issue with it - Kalia's story is set in an early renaissance analogue era, and in our reality burgers were a Victorian era invention. So there's already an anachronism, but this is fantasy, we can make it work! Yet, the concept of neat burgers that look like something out of a fast food ad has always felt "wrong" in some way, like an anomaly in what could be otherwise a reasonable setting...

Enter my town's "bread with meatloaf". It looks like a burger, tastes like a burger, you could say it's a burger. But it's "bread with meatloaf" and it's a local dish! Here's that picture again:

Observe the rough patty, the rustic bread, the way it's being presented... Doesn't this look like something that a 16th century bourgeois could reasonably prepare and eat for dinner? Kalia has no need for American fast food burgers crammed with ketchup and pickles and mystery meat, what she really needed after all this time was something I could just get out of a food truck at the town center right now!

Food is a great springboard for using local inspirations and references in your stories. Apples are so vanilla, why not fill Kalia's fruit basket with guavas instead?

From there my mind blew up with ideas. Local plants, biomes, architecture, clothing, cultural quirks, all could serve as inspiration for building Kalia's fictional world! It seems so obvious now, but I'll admit that prior to that I was stuck at the generic Eurocentric fantasy tropes, and I believe many creators like me might be in the same spot, even if they're unaware. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, but it can be difficult to stand out when you're being presented between generic fantasy setting #37 and generic fantasy setting #39. And while I'm not under the illusion that I've found a silver bullet, I can now confidently claim that Kalia's world is something that has my own essence in it, rather than a collage of the Western fantasy tropes I've gathered in this lifetime. All I had to do was to look away from the developer environment and remember the world I exist in. Not only that, but cherish it enough to want to see it represented in some form through my games.

Kalia and the Fire Staff is still in pre-alpha, but it has been available to download as a free demo for a while. This phase of development approaches its end as work on the final chapter of this demo starts - but there's still a long road ahead for the project. I hope I'll be able to look back at where I'm at now in 2-3 years and be amazed at how much the game has progressed since then. And also how it will look more like a Brazilian project by a Brazilian creator.