Meet the Forest of Sleep team
Introductions
Welcome! You may have been wondering about the radio silence over the past year or so, but we're pleased to say we're gently reviving the long-hibernating Twisted Tree Games blog! In welcoming Hannah Nicklin aboard as producer in March, we've now got the capacity to attempt to talk to in public about the interesting things we're doing behind closed doors (with the upcoming game, that is. Otherwise you'd be getting a long list of all the great plant Ed's eaten recently).
Over the next year or so, we're going to be doing profiles and interviews with team members on how they're working on the games, spotlight particular influences and reference points, as well as producing a monthly newsletter with a few bonus items, and filling up our brand new page with other bits of interest and miscellany. You can also still find us on , and sign up to the mailing list for those monthly extras.
Hannah will begin guiding us through some of the creative landscape of The Forest of Sleep in the next week or so in an interview with co-designer and animator Nicolai Troshinsky. And in the meantime, we thought a nice thing to do would be to introduce the current team, with a little about each of them. You'll be hearing more in the coming months!
The team are:
- Ed Key - lead designer, lead developer
- Nicolai Troshinsky - animation, illustration and addtional design
- Hannah Nicklin - producer
- Martin Kvale - sound designer
- Joonas Turner - foley and additional sound design
- Chris Butler - developer
- MUSIC TBA - VERY SOON - WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT THIS!
And here's a little intro to each team member.
Ed Key
Who are you?
I'm Ed Key and I make computer games.
What do you do on Forest of Sleep?
I'm the lead designer and developer, and the general "creative director". I'm also the one that worries about time and money. I am temporarily the main source of google docs.
What's a surprising thing about you?
Contrary to my strong personal branding, 99% of my diet consists of food bought in a shop, although I did just make a nice cup of peppermint tea from some I picked while out for a run.
What are you excited about at the moment?
I'm going to finally see [our secret unannounced musicians] play live this month after missing their UK tours for the past 7 years.
What excites you about Forest of Sleep?
There's an exciting amount of scary work! Or is it a scary amount of exciting work? I'm also excited by these awesome people we've gathered together. *gestures non-euclideanly from inside this webpage at other parts of the webpage*
Nicolai Troshinsky
Who are you/what do you do?
I'm Nicolai Troshinsky and I make illustrated books, animation short films, small experimental videogames and who knows what else.
What do you do on Forest of Sleep?
I'm doing everything you see on the screen. From concept art to animation to interface design. I also collaborate with Ed on the game's design.
What's a surprising thing about you?
I'm currently ranked as the 16th best pinball player in Spain.
What are you excited about at the moment?
I'm born Russian but I grew up in Spain. I'll be visiting Moscow this summer for the first time in 13 years. I'll profit to do some research and get good reference material for Forest of Sleep.
What excites you about Forest of Sleep?
I'm very proud of the visual language we are building and the animation work I am doing so I'm really excited to see how people react to it.
Hannah Nicklin
Who are you?
I'm Hannah Nicklin, I work in games and theatre as a writer, producer, and academic.
What do you do on Forest of Sleep?
I'm the producer, I make sure that things happen to spec, to time, and to budget (ha). I also have an academic and artistic background in storytelling, so can be a useful sounding board during some of the creative/design decisions around the game.
What's a surprising thing about you?
I've decided to become an elite cyclist. 31 years old isn't too late in endurance-based sports. I may not make it, but I dislike doing things without aiming to be the best, so I'm going to try to get to racing at an elite level.
What are you excited about at the moment?
My background is in the cultural sector, I'm pretty excited about the potential of this game to reach beyond the games community (who it will also serve well!) - I'm excited about finding ways to talk about experimental games to new audiences/players.
What excites you about Forest of Sleep?
I think it's asking questions both about what storytelling can be and do in games, but also, excitingly, wider questions about stories, and how we interact with them. I also have a career as an independent designer/writer, so I'm very picky about what I produce, only choosing stuff I really care about. I really care about this. I'm excited to be able to work on it.
Martin Kvale
Who are you/what do you do?
My name is Martin and I work with sound and music for various interesting indie games, just like this one!
What do you do on Forest of Sleep?
I work with the team supervising the sounds and music for the game, as well as implementing, editing and production duties on both the sound and music. I initially got approached to do ambience and textures for the game, but since then I´ve become more involved :)
What's a surprising thing about you?
I work with horror game sound but I'm too scared to play horror games!
What are you excited about at the moment?
These day I am excited about summer slowly crawling back and reclaiming Norway for a few months. Having a break from making awesome sounds to going out throwing frisbees with friends in the sun is close to heaven imo.
What excites you about Forest of Sleep?
Working on something this open and different, it leads to many possibilities we get to explore, as well as many problems to crack. I love challenges and that the game will be generated and unique each playthrough makes the sounds and music have to be adaptive and feel organic with developing next to the stories.
Joonas Turner
Who are you?
My name is Joonas Turner and I am a Sound Designer / Voice Actor / Foley Artist.
What do you do on Forest of Sleep?
On Forest of Sleep I am more of a Foley Artist/Sound Recordist, I provide a bunch of sounds in a style unique to Forest of Sleep that Martin can then use to cook up the final assets!
What's a surprising thing about you?
I am a game designer as well, working on my own games on the side. That or that I also used to sing in heavy metal bands for plenty of years, hence I voice act a lot of monsters in video games…
What are you excited about at the moment?
The vibrant patterns of life, so many cool things happening around us to tap into and gain inspiration from!
What excites you about Forest of Sleep?
The unique style and approach, not just visually but with sound too. Recording in ways I haven't recorded before using tools I probably wouldn't have used before. Exciting!
Chris Butler
Who are you/what do you do?
My name is Chris Butler, and I am a Freelance Unity Developer working on Forest Of Sleep
What do you do on Forest of Sleep?
I write code and work together with Ed to develop all the features and gameplay involved in Forest of Sleep.
What's a surprising thing about you?
I use to be a fire spinner! I span fire poi and fire staff (But sadly haven't done it in a long time due to living spaces). I'm also pretty sure its the reason my beard only comes in in patches now...
What are you excited about at the moment?
Looking forward to the summer. Long, warm days plus I've got a camping trip planned with friends that going to be awesome!
What excites you about Forest of Sleep?
I'm excited to get to work on something so unique, with very interesting themes to explore and problems to solve!
That's it!
We'll soon have an announcement to make about our exciting musical collaboration, and in the meantime, Hannah's done an interview with Nicolai on some of the influences around the animation and art, which will go online in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for reading!