This past spring, Burning Planet Digital unveiled their adventure title Molly Medusa: Queen of Spit, which follows Molly as they deal with isolation through a curse. After some positive reviews on the Nintendo Switch, the game is slated for a PC release via Steam on September 6. We spoke to game developer Niklas Hallin and composer Karl Rosqvist (Danzig, Michael Monroe) about this new title.

MP3s and NPCs: You recently unveiled Molly Medusa. How did The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker become an inspiration for its development?

Niklas Hallin: Yes, I just released a game! I've worked on Molly Medusa for several years, and it started with an ambition to move into a full 3D environment. Before this, I'd always looked to Gameboy and the SNES for inspiration.

I don’t know if Wind Waker is the best Zelda to play, but I certainly think it's the most aesthetically complete Zelda. In terms of visual design obviously, but also music, sound, effects, gui-elements, animations, you name it. It's a very good game to look to, if you're seeking solutions to some technical problem. Molly Medusa is the first game I’ve made in full free-camera 3D. Making a move from Link to the Past to Wind Waker – it’s a very natural evolution.

MP3s and NPCs: This is the second game you've created following 2017's Yono and the Celestial Elephants. What was the feeling like diving into your first game?

Niklas: Yono is a game that's very easy to like, right on the surface. Molly is more demanding. I’m certainly feeling a great deal of Yono-nostalgia right now, a kind of yearning for a simpler time. But in truth, nothing was simple back then either. I remember that Yono grew a lot in scope during its development. It eventually ended up on the Nintendo Switch, but for most of production, the Switch wasn't even announced yet.

MP3s and NPCs: What lessons did you learn from Yono that aided you with working on Molly Medusa?

Niklas: Here’s the big lesson: Yono had four different towns and three temples. I had figured it would be really hard to design temples and much more casual to fill towns with little NPCs and sidequests. That was an incorrect assumption! The towns gobbled up so much of my time and effort, and so for my next game, I made damn sure to turn all the characters to stone right away! Molly only has one town, and it’s a small one at that, but instead it has five huge temples plus additional labyrinths to explore. The focus really has shifted. And you ask; so, Molly has less story them? Well… It has fewer written words, for sure. But making NPCs completely unable to speak early in the game immediately opened up new venues for more visual and metaphorical storytelling.

MP3s and NPCs: As a musician, what was it like finding the right mood for the game's music?

Niklas: Metal, baby! Rock’n’roll! This game needed an infusion of angst and attitude for the emotions to hit. And metal has great potential to be brooding and atmospheric, which suits a game of this tempo. Heavy drums and distorted guitars. Heavy heart and distorted thoughts.

Karl Rosqvist: One of the first pieces of music I wrote for the game was the theme song "Queen of Spit". We decided to write it in the style of a female fronted Heavy Metal band and in a way that set the tone for the rest of the soundtrack.

For the temples, we wanted to give the music plenty of time to establish the atmosphere of the corresponding environment while the player is exploring and figuring out the puzzles. The music slowly evolves from an orchestral or ambient vibe to blasting drums and chugging guitars. It might catch some people off guard, but that was the point!

MP3s and NPCs: What music did you listen to for inspiration?

Karl: For the more cinematic music I drew inspiration from some of my favourite composers. Bear McCreary, Trevor Morris, Tyler Bates, Lorne Balfe and many more. I also listened to traditional Greek music, and I ended up using many of those instruments in the music.

For the more heavy and guitar driven music, I listened to bands like Meshuggah and Opeth, but most of the Heavy Metal music within the game is a heavier variation of a theme or melody that I had already established earlier in the respective tracks.

MP3s and NPCs: What message do you hope people take away from playing this game?

Niklas: Well, there is a moral to the story, which has to do with inner strength and character, with the resolve and tenacity of being an artist, and an outsider. But hey, another good message to take away is that there's this cool indie game developer on the rise, who is worth keeping an eye on in the future!