OR
The moment inspiration kicks down the door, steals our snacks and demands to be turned into a game.
THE QUEST BEGINS WHEN NOBODY IS LOOKING
People often ask where our "unconventional" ideas originate.
The truth is disarmingly simple: they appear precisely when no one is trying to summon them. Ideas never obey commands; they kinda wander. They seep through the cracks of distraction. They bloom in silence. They sneak in while we are busy doing anything except "being creative."
Inspiration behaves like a mischievous forest spirit. Chase it, and it hides behind a bush. Ignore it, and suddenly it sits on your shoulder and whispers an entire storyline into your ear. But one can learn to trigger exactly that!
Much of our creative spark emerges from emotion itself, from the desire to create memories, to shape time into something meaningful both for us and for the players. When you do what you love, the mind becomes a playground. Or a battlefield. And in that battlefield, ideas tumble in like fat children who found the cookie jar.
A great deal also arises from personality, from the philosophy one follows, the worldview one holds, the things that quietly move you even when you're not aware of it. When you're having fun, your thoughts become free. And when thoughts are free, creativity thrives.
As the old Middle High German poem Vrîgedanc (Freidank) from the 13th century states, and we honor it here exactly as it was written:
diu bant mac nieman vinden, (Das Band kann niemand finden / No one can find the bond)
diu mîne gedanke binden. (das meine Gedanken bindet. / that binds my thoughts.)
man vâhet wîp unde man, (Man fängt Weib und Mann, / One may capture woman or man,)
gedanke niemen gevâhen kan.(Gedanken niemand fangen kann. / but thoughts no one ever can.)
If someone in the 13th century understood mental freedom so clearly while dodging plagues, crusades and questionable hygiene, then we can at least honor that wisdom by letting our imagination run wild through fields of chaos.
THE ANCIENT THUNDER THAT DRIVES US
History is not a dusty archive. It is the colossal open-world campaign of humanity. THE RPG, if you will. Every century holds more drama than most modern writers dare to invent: kings and rebels, tragedies and triumphs, myths and disasters, questionable hairstyles, forbidden romances, and medical advice that absolutely should not be followed.
One might say that medieval themes have been exploited so thoroughly that they should have collapsed from exhaustion long ago. And yet: The Lord of the Rings™, Assassin’s Creed®, Age of Empires®, Stronghold™, Gothic®. They still feel timeless. Nobody blinks when playing medieval-themed games because they have become fully saloon approved. They always were.
Yet ask someone to attend a real medieval fair, dressed appropriately, and suddenly they discover a suspiciously urgent appointment elsewhere.
Even funnier: people will wholeheartedly play a VR Stone Age survival game in which they, as pre-Homo sapiens, do battle against mammoths with hand-crafted spears, maybe even accompanied by a loyal wolfhound or an entire pack. But reenact any of that in real life? That is where enthusiasm mysteriously ends.
Human contradictions are delightful. Perfect for game design.
At RedKnack, we draw inspiration from the ancient world because we actively seek it out. We travel to the cradles of civilization. We wander through museums. We study original manuscripts that crumble if you breathe too enthusiastically. We record textures from mosaics older than entire cities. We photograph temples that echo with legends (or with Homer, if you open the wrong book).
Many of our sounds and textures are taken directly from historical artifacts: ancient furniture, altars, columns, frescoes, mosaics, even the creaking of centuries-old wood. This is a privilege we fight hard to earn, preserve and maintain. But it pays off in every frame, every sound, every atmospheric whisper.
Looking into the past often feels like homesickness for a life we never lived. Survival used to be a skill, not a menu option. But if we examine honestly, we would not truly trade places. Missing healthcare systems, constant wars, oppression, famine. This contrast makes the present shine, or sometimes makes us curse it, but in either case it fills our imagination with fire.
MUSIC AS OUR CHAOTIC SPIRIT GUIDE
Music creates worlds. It bends emotion. It reveals moods we did not know we had. It sometimes also creates the urge to build instruments that absolutely nobody asked for.
Sure, anyone can buy a guitar or a piano. But at RedKnack, we occasionally build our instruments ourselves. The intro for our games was played on a handmade banjo built from a branch, glue and a piece of pressed wood. It looks like a relic from a traveling bard who fought dragons for entertainment. A polite way of saying it looks terrible. Its sound is even stranger. And we adore it.
At one point, we even developed a prototype game that required the player to perform actions on a real MIDI piano. On paper it sounded brilliant. In practice, well, there is a reason rhythm games usually rely on four colorful buttons instead of eighty-eight intimidating ivory keys.
We learned. We laughed. We moved on. And we kept the piano.
THE MYTHICAL MOMENT WHEN MUSIC COLLIDES WITH HISTORY
Sometimes we sit at the piano and entire battles rise before us. Epic scenes unfold with each chord: a muddy battlefield, two exhausted warriors facing the final clash as the wind howls and the sky darkens, a moment frozen in time.
Now imagine that scene accompanied by a version of Toccata and Fugue in D minor performed entirely with farts.
Our audio equipment has never forgiven us.
But the laughter fueled half a year of creativity.
If we ever sell that gear, the listing will include the mysterious note:
“Shows minor signs of emotional damage.”
THE WAY WE CREATE CONCEPTS: A HERO’S JOURNEY WITHOUT A MAP
Most studios follow a neat checklist: setting, concept, moodboard, mechanics, gameloop, graphics, done.
We prefer the path of the wandering alchemist.
We take one, at most three core mechanics that excite us, and we build the entire universe around them. The world grows like a mysterious forest sprouting from seeds. Twisting trees, unexpected creatures, entire ecosystems forming from a single spark. This method automatically defines the core gameplay while preventing death by feature. Modularity is king.
Our conceptual process resembles the work of a detective who accidentally walked into a cosmic conspiracy. We throw every piece of inspiration into a cauldron, stir gently, sometimes watch it explode, sometimes watch it form a luminous idea. And in the end we step back to ask the question that matters:
Is this art, or should we press the red button?
We will explore the exact stages in future entries. The saga is far from over.
THE REDKNACK BRAND WORLD: WHERE CHAOS BECOMES TANGIBLE
Before a game becomes real, it exists in a liminal space.
Half dream. Half relic. Half feverish hallucination.
Yes, that is three halves. Mathematics has no authority here.
This space looks something like this:
- Walls covered in moodboards, maps, ancient symbols and sketches
- Coffee stains forming constellations of creativity (or abuse of Caffeine aka Mana)
- A handmade banjo that has seen things no banjo should see
- Books older than entire bloodlines
- Stacks of textures, ruins, reference photos and artifacts
- A computer glowing like a portal to another dimension
- A workspace somewhere between wizard tower, college dorm and archaeologist’s tent
One day we may reveal what the ultimate RedKnack teenage bedroom would look like. Expect posters, relics, instruments, half-finished cosplays, scribbled prophecies, and the aura of a legendary creature who took a nap under the desk and never left.
THE FINAL TRUTH: OUR IDEAS REFUSE TO BE TAMED
We do not hunt for ideas.
We simply live in a way that encourages them to ambush us.
History guides us.
Music provokes us.
Chaos entertains us.
Emotion moves us.
Curiosity fuels us.
And we spend way too much money on stupid shit that nobody needs, but tickles the that little child in us that just want's to do games! ;)
And as long as thoughts are free, RedKnack will follow them into the wild.