“You’ll Remember For Bernard” – Spiral’s Jes Vaillancourt Opens Up in Interview

I recently had the chance to sit down and talk with Jes Vaillancourt of Folklore Games at PAX West 2024, whose upcoming game Spiral has me extremely excited. In preparation for my review of the title and this interview, which will release near when the game does on September 20th, I played the demo on Steam, and then also replayed it at Folklore Games’ booth at PAX.

The following conversation is from our interview after, and I am thrilled to be able to share it with you all. Jes Vaillancourt, project manager on Spiral, not only answered all the questions I had, but also presented a fresh a new perspective on everything from cognitive decline (the subject of Spiral), to the role of community in the game industry, to the purpose of memory. It was truly an inspiring interview, for a game that is sure to be equally powerful, and I am excited to present my exclusive interview with Jes Vallaincourt:

Graves: Hello, Jes! It is good to have a chance to meet you in person. But, we are here for a reason, to chat about Spiral, Folklore Games’ first release. Before we begin — for those that don’t know — what is Spiral?

Jes Vaillancourt: Spiral is a narratively-driven game, exploration in third person, where you follow Bernard, an old man suffering from premature degeneration… And you’re going through all his memory line. You’re going to step into doors that are his memories froom his past. So you’ll step through the memories from when he was a tiny child to his older self. So you’ll go fishing, you’ll fly kites, you’ll play C&C (our version of DnD). Essentially, you’ll remember for Bernard when he can’t.

Graves: I like how you put that: you’re helping to remember for Bernard… Obviously, the game is about cognitive decline — dementia, Alzheimer’s — and those are pretty heavy topics. What inspired you to make a game about those topics.

Graves: So, it’s setting up to be a tragic narrative? Something like ‘That Dragon, Cancer’?

Jes: We didn’t want to go for something tragic, actually. We wanted to celebrate the life of the person behind it. We wanted to make the player feel for Bernard, and be able to see him as someone they know, and they love, and they don’t want him to forget. They want to be there for him.

Graves: Fascinating! It would be so easy to fixate on the sadness, the tragedy of it. But I see what you are saying: one of the things I noticed is that you really do highlight to positive memories of Bernard — seeing his childhood dog, playing C&C with friends — and it really is quite moving, even in just the demo.

Jes: And the demo is a lot darker than the game will be, since we had to compress the ideas of Spiral into it! But the whole thing is really about the tiny moments we take for granted, but those things we share with others. Those times we went fishing with dad, or were hiding from mom after doing something bad.

Graves: Are there any autobiographical stories that end up in the game from Bernard’s story?

Jes: There aren’t a lot of direct factual things that we took from our own lives to produce Bernard’s story. Our writer, Nicole [Cunningham], is going through a lot of our own memories in order to create those of Bernard. Though, interestingly, the name of Bernard’s mother is Monique, which is also the name of my brother and I’s grandmother. She is on the stricter side, while still being warm, and that’s her. We really wanted to have a part of her in the game, and that is her part that is being shown. Those are the kind of tiny things that a lot of people share, that we wanted in the game.

Graves: It’s a connected experience! So, would you say, then, that this game is primarily a connective experience? More specifically, what do you think the role is for games to connect others with each other?

Jes: There are many multiplayer games that do bring people to play together. But we want to connect them outside of that game. We want people to play the game and then reach out to someone and share their story. When we are at some place like PAX, a lot of people come and play the game, and then they are sharing their experiences; what their loved one went through. When your grandma is going through dementia, your mom, your family, they aren’t necessary the right people to talk to because they are going through exactly what you are, and might be suffering from it, too.

But if you have a game that can bring people together, get them talking with each other about their similar and different experiences, you can find community outside of the game. It can start a conversation, and give you someone to share what you and your family are going through.

Graves: And, truly, we see it here, we see it online, the power of gaming to let people come together as community. Not just to share a hobby together, but also to share these experiences and emotions. That really lets people come together as one thing.

Jes: Oh, we’ve found so many beautiful people just sharing the game! We have a wonderful community on Discord. And people are just so great, and so nice, and so wholesome. They want to talk about their own experiences, and they want to help others. It’s a cathartic experience, just letting people talk about things that we so often don’t talk about. And it’s so great to see our game be used as a focus for that. So great.

Graves: I couldn’t agree more. Your community great. And what a great place to celebrate community, here at PAX. This isn’t your first PAX, but it is your last one before the full release of Spiral on September 20th. What’s it like finally having a full, finished game to show people? Are you excited?

Jes: It’s so amazing! People always have a good reaction. And we are small; we don’t have a lot of reach, not a lot of contact, and so being able to be here [at PAX], people get to see us. And they are telling us that they think our game has meaning, and its useful to people, and it means something in the gaming industry. It’s beautiful.

Graves: It really does mean something in the industry. Video games as art used to be a topic of debate, but now they aren’t — people know they are art —

Jes: Yes, exactly! And I love that!

Graves: And that means that we are in an era where we can really, truly explore what it means to be art. Those unique experiences. Those new ideas.

Jes: And it is art! We can do so much with video games. We can do as much as with paint, or TV, or anything. And in different ways, new ways! We can talk, and make decisions. Use code as a medium of art. It’s fantastic.

Graves: And speaking of art, what are some of the artistic inspirations you are going for? Spiral has such a unique artstlye, I just have to know.

Jes: I’m going to say what my Art Director [Audrey Poulin] always says: ‘we wanted to go for something that looks like a dream, but isn’t a dream. It looks real, but you don’t have exactly the right line. Exactly the right color. Because when you’re thinking of something: you’re memory won’t be that you perfectly remember a tree, but instead, it’ll be as real as your memory of the tree. Designed for your memory.

Graves: It’s real, but it’s also hyper-real.

Jes: Exactly! It’s filled up with your memory. It’s filled with who you are. And our artstyle reflects that: it’s realistic, but it’s realistic as remembered by Bernard. As he remembers these objects, their form resembles him.

Graves: I picked up on that! A lot of the gameplay is centered around objects, as these kinds of foci of memory that Bernard interacts with. With this object-based gameplay and story, I am curious: what would you say is the role of these sentimental objects on memory?

Jes: Bernard is really into collecting his memories in this cabin, this house. And one thing we wanted to highlight is that however you interact with the object the first time, it will change how you interact with it and other objects next time. If you don’t take care of those people in the first few memories, things might be different in later memories. They might be cold toward you you. They might even be gone. And so it’s really about how you take care of Bernard, which is also how he takes care of other people.

These objects are his life, his memories. And for Bernard, memory is reality. It means the world to him. As you react with the past, the past reacts back. That’s part of the past! It really is!

Graves: I really do love the sentimentality of these objects, and of the game. To use them to ‘remember for Bernard’, as you told me earlier.

Jes: When we began working on Spiral, most people were telling us: ‘this isn’t a game you can sell. It’s an experience you want to do for yourself.’ And we owned that. We decided it was important for us, it meant something us. And if just one person felt it reached them, that it touched them, that would be enough. So we just went for what touched us, and what we wanted to tell as a story. And people are taking part on that journey! Are joining us!

Graves: I think that’s the key: it’s all about making something you want to see. And if you do, then other people will connect with it. People will buy it. It will reach them.

Jes: Definitely! It’s been so great seeing people connect so strongly with it. And with the game so close to our release [on September 20th, at which point you’ll be able to find it on Steam here], it’s been really overwhelming — especially with how little sleep we’ve got lately — for people to be recognizing us here at PAX, and to be excited for release. We are feeling a lot of emotion, and we are taking a lot of breaks to make sure no one falls apart, but we are so excited. I cannot wait to see what people think of the full game! I hope they connect with it like we have. I hope it helps people.

Graves: I think it will, based on what I’ve seen so far. My grandmother is suffering through dementia right now, and I was playing through the demo thinking about her. I gave her a call after I finished. And I think that will happen to a lot of players; I think you’ll really land with a lot of people who could use a game like Spiral. It really does bring back those memories, and puts them in that positive light. Helps us remember who our loved ones have always been, not just who they are right now —

Jes: I am so glad that it makes you remember your grandmother. In a good way, not in a depressing way. It’s too easy to remember the depressing way, so remembering these positive memories is so important. After all, once their memories are gone, we are their memory. We are their memory when they are no longer there to tell us about them. And every time I hear from someone about Spiral, I hear people who called their grandmother, or remembered their grandfather, and it’s just meant so much to us.

Graves: Wow. Yeah, I don’t think I can top that. That is just so true to the game, and so true to what your message is with it. I’ll conclude by saying that I’m really looking forward to Spiral. I’ve told all my friends to wishlist it, I’ve got it on mine. I cannot wait to see how Bernard’s story unfolds.

Jes: Well, thank you! Thank you! It has been great talking. Thank you again! We can’t wait to see how Spiral connects with people, and connects them together.

Spiral releases on September 20th, 2024, and — based on my experience with my demo and my incredible conversation with Jes, I highly recommend you put it on your wishlist on Steam if you’ve ever known anyone who has gone through cognitive decline. If games are art — and they are — Spiral is the kind of art we should all be rooting for. Thanks again to Jes Vaillancourt for the interview, and for being a part of making Spiral!