OUTSIDE THE STUDIO – THE SHAPING OF SEASON

Our team is made up of unique, open-minded and extraordinary humans. We wanted to get personal with you, and introduce some of the women who capture the essence of Season through their values and passions. We are all so different on the team, and that makes for a beautiful blending of experiences to share within the world of Season (and you’ll just have to wait to see how).

Meet four members of our team who contribute in their own way, day after day, to the success of Season.

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GENEVIÈVE B. – THE STORYTELLER

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My name is Geneviève and I am a 3D Artist working on the environments of Season.

One of my core passions has always been storytelling through visual arts and crafts. I’ve also been obsessed with games, both tabletop and digital, as a means of interacting with stories ever since my childhood. What this means, aside from playing a lot of games, is that I’ve been experimenting with tons of different mediums over the years. Traditional 2D and 3D art, digital painting, 3D printing, game jams, woodworking, gardening, nature photography, and even a very short (and confused) foray into LARPing. The latest hobby I’ve taken up this year is pottery on the wheel. What does that have to do with storytelling? I don’t know yet. Whatever story a piece of pottery holds can be very short, but there’s a long and engaging process behind it. Making things that are unique is something that I’ve always enjoyed.

So, my ‘’passion’’ is still something that is hard to define for me, but it’s not from the lack of options.

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How do you feel it is related to Season?

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This kind of unending struggle to figure out which tools to use to carry out a story is a theme that I feel is part of the dilemma of Season, both in its global theme and during its development as a whole. How do you choose to record and encapsulate a moment? Are you allowed to reinterpret it or is the aim pure documentation? Do you make its meaning explicit, or let the viewer piece things together on their own? Can the viewer be more than just a witness? Will they experience the piece, and its story, in a unique way?

In my opinion, these are all important game development questions. Wide, overarching ones, but they are interesting nonetheless, and I’m happy that Season will have its own personal way of answering them whatever the game will turn out to be.

– Ge B.

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QINHUA – THE TRAVELER

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I am Qinhua and I’m currently working as the payroll and accounting technician at Scavengers Studio.

I am passionate about traveling. Since I was young, I started to travel around with family or friends. I still remember my first trip to Luoyang, one of the most ancient capitals for many dynasties. It was during my school holiday which was the peak season for tourists. All the trains were overly booked, and that left me with only one option, a standing ticket. It took a lot of effort to squeeze into the train. The train looked much like a can fully filled with sardines. I was standing on the train for fourteen hours without even a teenie weenie space to move my legs until my destination. However, the trip was amazing! I met a Buddist who shared with me many stories; I met a little girl, who kept calling me Auntie. I also participated in a feast with twenty dishes, all of which are soup dishes.

After that first trip, I just can’t stop travelling. Each year, I visit different places in different countries. In Thailand and Japan, I was enjoying the breathtaking natural beauty as well as experiencing the extraordinary internal peace. In Italy, there was the perfect harmony of history and modernity. In Australia, I got to experience  “Christmas on a scorching summer’s day.” Here in Canada, I am getting to know what  real winter is like and expecting more adventures to come my way.

Travelling to me is adventure, replenishment, and a part of my life.

How do you feel it is related to Season?

When I first read the development blog on the Scavengers website, the cycling and travel stories from its creators hit my heart. A lot of beautiful memories came rushing back. At first sight, I believe the natural bond has been established between Season and me. I am determined to continue my travelling journey with Season.

– Qinhua

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MEGAN – THE FOLKLORIST

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Hiya, I’m Meg, your friendly Community Manager! A fun fact about me, I have a Diploma from Elf School in Iceland (yes, you read that right). Some might call me a folklorist, which means that I love stories passed down within cultures.

When I was a child, my grandmother would tell me stories about the fairies that lived in the gardens and the tricks they would play tilting the sunflowers to the light.

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My interests have always been twisted towards the darker parts of folklore, the tricksters and villains of this world. I would read any ghost story I could get my hands on and learn about the ghosts that visited my family over the years. I exhausted my limited network and started looking into dark tourism, a tourist attraction surrounded by dark history. It turned out, my home of southern Ontario has a dark past, especially London, Ontario, with its history of serial killers.

Oddly enough, my interest in dark tourism pushed me down the path to games! I travelled to England to learn about magic and myths. From that experience, I started to devour anything I could get my hands on about Jack the Ripper, including a DLC of Assassins’ Creed. I later found myself living in Guelph, studying simulation dark tourism and war games as a digital game scholar.

The funny thing about this all: If I play a horror game, I’ll never sleep again.

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How do you feel it is related to Season?

There is an interconnection between stories, people who tell them and their culture. In Iceland, the roads twist and turn to avoid certain rocks, believed to be elves’ homes. I think there’s something beautiful about learning how culture shaped its land and how stories share the meaning of places with strangers.

The aspect of storytelling and learning from one another is what is beautiful in Season. As a player, you get to experience Season’s collective memory through stories, architecture, art, and so much more. Although you won’t collect Jack the Ripper’s history, you will be experiencing something extraordinary to connect you to the world we created for you in Season.

– With love, Meg

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GENEVIÈVE P. – THE COOK

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Hello. My name is Geneviève (yes, a second one!) and I am Scavengers Studio’s Communications Coordinator.

My passion lies in everything that has a direct or distant connection with the phenomenon of zero waste in the kitchen.

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Since I was little, I have loved to cook! I first discovered cooking with my mother. She’s the one who taught me almost everything about it. Well, she didn’t actually teach me how to cook; she taught me how to have fun with different vegetables, flavours and colours. She taught me that food doesn’t just meet our needs; it fills our lives. Is there anything better than a good family meal or a romantic dinner for two?

On a more practical side, when I think of cooking, I mainly think of:

– Recovery: did you know that carrot stems can be used in pesto and that radish stems make the best summer green soups?

– Reuse: with a little bit of imagination, you can turn the leftover Thanksgiving turkey into a soup, paté or sandwich instead of eating it every day for two weeks.

– Creativity: I NEVER cook the same recipe twice. And obviously, to recover and reuse food, you have to be creative!

My love to cook whatever I have on hand goes right with my love for recycling, reusing and composting. As I live in a small place, I compost in two ways: Bokashi and Vermicomposting (Google that. I swear it’s worth it!).

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How do you feel it is related to Season?

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I believe that my passion directly relates to my love for nature and the environment. I sincerely believe that we all need to do our part for the planet. Its protection is fundamental to me. Thanks to my passion, I am making a (very small, but significant!) difference for our beautiful and fragile planet.

As you will play Season, you will undoubtedly understand my love story for the planet… This game will make you appreciate the beauty of nature, the fragility of the elements that surround us and the importance of preserving this fragile natural balance. With Season’s end of the world both so near and mysterious, this game will make you realize how much the present moment defines the future.

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– Gen x