ULTROS and the palette of surreal science fiction

Game design is a bold and dangerous endeavor for Niklas Åkerblad, who works under the name El Huervo. When he describes the artistic process behind him , a neon-flecked platformer set in a demonic space womb, he talks about pushing against the sharp edges of introspection and sanity, drawing from wells of creativity buried deep within his psyche. It sounds like he could slip and fall into any of those wells at any second and never be seen again.

“I had a pretty strict discipline when it came to creating the world of ULTROSÅkerblad told Engadget. “This involves deep meditation while working and maintaining 100 percent focus so you can tell when harmony has been achieved when working with such a dense flow of shapes and colors. It’s almost impossible to brainstorm this process, but it’s something you have to feel, so any external disturbance can significantly affect the process. This is perhaps not something I recommend to others without proper experience in creating visual art.

At the same time, Åkerblad is extremely hands-on in the game-making business. He’s been on the indie scene for years and has enjoyed incredible success as a contributor who provided the cover art and other assets for Hotline Miami and its sequel. You know the mood – gray but bright, with the threat of violence in every second pixel. He also composed a handful of songs for these games, including “” and “”, and it continued to evolve A 3D adventure set in a digital city of hackers, artists and activists who implemented programming as a core mechanic. Else Heart.Break() came out in 2015 and was a finalist at the Independent Games Festival that year.

His latest project, ULTROS, is a 2D exploration of Sarcophagus, a rotating black hole world that takes players through environments overrun with alien plant life and malevolent demons. Every scene in ULTROS is full of detail and brilliant color; the backgrounds are alive with monsters and organic machines. Black stripes delineate the boundaries of walkways, ceilings and platforms, contrasting against changing arcs of brightness.

There’s a lot going on ULTROS at any given moment, but the main character stands out with a glowing green helmet, red cape and an evolving arsenal of platforming gadgets. A lesson from otherwise heartbroken() in which Åkerblad became involved ULTROS was the idea that games could be a lot more fun with color palettes. ULTROS is purposefully full of visual interest.

“I felt like video games were biased no expands the boundaries of color so much beyond ‘green is good’ and ‘red is bad’ and whatever metrics are used for prey levels,” he said. “I feel like there’s this misunderstanding in design that less is more, and my gut tells me it’s just the opposite, and I’ve been working a lot hard ULTROS to prove my theory. There will undoubtedly be people who disagree with me, but I think this is more about taste and personal or physical preference than academic truth – if there is such a thing.

As a looping Metroidvania title, ULTROS is completely different from Åkerblad’s previous projects, but it’s also undeniably El Huervo. Actually, in this case, it’s Hadoque — around 2017, Åkerblad and game director Mårten Bruggemann began building the prototype that would become ULTROSeventually attracting the composer Oskar “Ratvader” Ridelius and Fe designer Hugo Bill. Other artists joined over the years and eventually they called themselves Hadoque, a loose organization of creators who could pop in and out as a project called to them.

“We wanted our group to be associated with its own thing, so we decided on Hadoque,” said Åkerblad. “It’s a great name that seems a little quirky and fits our mood. Also, it allowed everyone to have something on the side and not be legally bound to anything if they wanted to pursue other places.”

El Huervo AB remains Åkerblad’s own corporate entity, useful for dealing with the bureaucratic aspects of making video games. Through El Huervo AB Hadoque received support in 2019 from the gaming fund which also supports titles like Sifu, Roller rink, We are OFK, A sea of ​​stars, Spiritfarer and Chia.

“El Huervo AB just functions as a kind of bureaucratic condom, and Hadoque as a name to use when a group of developers get together to make art as games,” said Åkerblad. “Kind of like a band name. People come and go, but the vision remains.”

ULTROS is a game about life, reincarnation, aliens, monsters, and peace, all set in a multicolored dreamscape of vicious creatures and gorgeous greenery. This is the palette of surreal science fiction next to Åkerblad.

“The topics explored in ULTROS are existential and spiritual in nature and I find surreal science fiction to be a good genre to explore these themes as it has a long tradition of doing so,” he said. “In this regard, Ursula K. Le Guin was a huge inspiration. We hope that what we manage to instill in the players is a sense of self-monitoring and comfort.”

Despite the amount of deep thinking he has done about the nature of art, science fiction, and gaming, there is no single message that Åkerblad is trying to convey with ULTROS. Instead, he and the rest of the developers at Hadoque encourage players to identify their own journey as they make their way through the Sarcophagus. As Åkerblad said:

“Please enjoy ULTROS as you like and don’t try to look for a “correct” interpretation, but rather find your own meaning. This is true of any art, I think, in general. Interpretation is purely subjective, and I want to continue to tell stories that challenge and allow that subjectivity to exist.”

ULTROS is available now on PlayStation 4, PS5, Steam and Epic Games Store, published by Kepler Interactive.