When you reach Grandmothers House, it is night. But once inside you discover things may not be as you remember them. It is a memory of a house, of a relationship between two generations, and possibly another more sinister presence. You head through the corridors to the Bedroom. If you haven’t met the murduring wolf GAME OVER. Begin again. If you have, you find grandmother dead. And you are murdered as well. SUCCESS! Begin Again. Only this time, there is one less Red avatar to choose from.
–From the 2006 design document for The Path.
As you get closer to her house the sun sets. So her home is always shrouded in darkness. And you can see the forest also at night by entering closer to Grandmother’s House (thus the colors you see will vary depending on the ‘time of day’ you enter the forest.)
So what, exactly, is up with Grandmother?
In the fairy tales, Grandmother is a bed-ridden enigma. So we let it be in The Path. One must think of all the possible symbolism of her Bedroom (where the story ineveitably always ends.) and her Bed (which makes an appearance at every end-game.) In this house, the girls find a way to either remember or misremember or fantasize all their love for grandmother and angst for her unknown ways. Not to mention a place to revel in their own traumatic situations. But what traumas do young girls have. Trouble at school, dark places under the bed, coming to terms with growing up.
And thus her house becomes what the girls want to see. If no wolf has gotten there first then it is simply about the relationship between the girl and her grandmother. The house can get quite odd. The overlays you see when interacting with objects in the Forest all relate back to these, half remembered half imagined ‘memories’ the girls have, that they put into their ‘basket’ and bring with them to their Grandmother’s House. They invade her home as much as the wolves do. Leaving you to wonder if any of it is really happening at all in Grandmother’s reality.
these are the various reference sheets we used to clarify what each girl’s experience of the house would be.
Of course, if you meet the wolf in the forest the path to the bedroom changes. The wolf invasions superimpose themselves on the ‘Safe’ configurations of Grandmother’s House. Suddenly rooms which before seemed dark and eerie are now damaged and transfigured, seen through the lens of the each girls new experience. Her world is changed. The house is changed. The comfort of the normal ending at Grandmother’s side is lost to her forever. Yes, an intense experience. But in every case, we hope, an experience worth having.
And here at last, the last of the wolves. The Cloud Wolf appears, like the weather. He doesn’t mean to hurt anyone, he just is. He is beautiful like a thunderstorm. You can only sit back and admire the destruction he causes.
So indeed in his making I had strong ideas about him. But damn if I can explain anything underlying his part in the game in words.
If I had to pick a ‘favorite’ wolf of my own, it must be the Cloud Wolf. Beyond all words. Every time I see the scene with Rose on the lake tears come to my eyes.
No I don’t know who he is. No one does, least of all her, or me. She aspires to know. She loves. Because pure love is all Rose knows.
[audio:tippysdemise.mp3]
and some music to take us out.
Far back as I can remember, Charming Wolf has been driving me crazy. He was the first of the men I had to make. And I’d never modeled a man before. I knew everything about him though. The muscle car he drove and the motorcycle. His dirty hands covered in motor oil,… I knew him right down to the wolf’s head belt buckle. We used him for tests. I personally had to remodel him twice and still don’t think I got him exactly right.
I don’t think it was the first time he and Ruby met at the playground either.
When creating the art style for The Path, we were influenced by several wonderful artists. We are trying to interview them all. Our interview with Lisa Falzon was published a while ago. And the interview with Ray Caesar was done in that same period. But we never got around to publishing it. What better moment than the first anniversary of The Path to share this very insightful and inspiring interview with one of the world’s most imaginative contemporary artists!
People think I paint pictures of children… I don’t! I paint pictures of the human soul… that alluring image of the hidden part of ourselves… some call them ghosts or spirits but I see them as the image of who we truly are, made manifest with all the objects and bruises that filled the story of each life.
I look at the game industry today and see only one game… it starts the same and ends the same and it’s sold in a variety of names and packages and has no mystery because it is not utilizing creativity as well as it could…
They are not the same girl. Or are they?
The Girl in Red Wolf is an even bigger mystery than The Girl in White when you meet her.
The Girl in White was the first model made for The Path prototypes. We couldn’t keep re-using the girl model from 8. The Girl in White of The Path is much older. I was perfectly ready for a re-design and asked the help of Ted Pendergraft. Here are a couple of his suggestions. But everything he gave seemed too much of a radical departure from the original girl. I think that if he could have worked with us longer we would have come to something great. But he had other work at the time which drew him away.
I went back to my original concept for this character and started from scratch. We always wanted one of the wolves to be female, it just had to be. We liked the concept of there being twins in the game. (at one time we’d even thought of making Ginger and Rose be twins.) But then at some point, it felt good to split the Girl in White into her shadow self. And the girl most likely to be attracted would have to be Ginger. A girl stuck between child and teenager and a total Tomboy.
A switch in hairstyle & dress and The Girl in White becomes The Girl in Red Wolf. click to see them larger.
Now perhaps the Girl in White and the Girl in Red are aspects of each other. The Girl in White always trying to be helpful to those lost in the forest and Girl in Red is always playing tricks, her disappearing act, tripping Ginger up so she falls, etc. And all those birds that suddenly show in the field… Maybe the girls have encountered her before and that’s why they keep chasing the Raven away on The Path… they don’t want the Girl in Red Wolf around! Only Ginger wants to play with her, unlike her sisters this wolf likes rough games, she understands. Ginger doesn’t want to grow up and this wolf in red doesn’t either. They are 3 of a kind, all 13 years old, they are what is missing from each other’s lives. So Ginger wants to play…
… and who can blame her, she is the perfect playmate.
