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Inspirations & Influences on Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
The who's who and what's what that helped Summerfall craft our unique world
Summerfall Studios
April 19, 2024
Hey folks! First things first; we were nominated for a BAFTA!! Needless to say we were absolutely thrilled - our Managing Director Liam used to joke that the only things he wanted for Stray Gods was a Grammy nomination and a BAFTA nomination; here we are with both and I think Liam might just have evaporated from this mortal coil from the shock! While we didn’t take the trophy home (huge congratulations to Venba and all the other nominees!) it TRULY is an honor to be nominated, and Liam and Elie had a fantastic time celebrating with the other nominees. |  They even got to eat a delicious little CAKE made to look like the BAFTA mask! |
Inspirations
In other news, we thought it might be a bit of fun to walk you through a smattering of the things that helped shape Stray Gods. So without further ado, lets chat inspo!
Muse Power = Music Videos?
When it came to visualizing Grace’s magical muse powers the team turned to an interesting inspiration point to help the audience’s suspension of disbelief: K-pop music videos!
"Have you ever noticed how in music videos they sometimes just swap through worlds? Like, someone will be having a little dance in the banana room and then suddenly someone is looking really grim sat in a chair surrounded by spikes and you're like 'that's normal. By utilizing the audience's cultural expectations about what music videos look like, we were able to plunge into that sort of storytelling, which was a bit of a risk but I think we pulled it off." - Summerfall Studios Art Director Benjamin Ee at GCAP 2023
Colour and Lines
Teen Titans - Gabriel Picolo
The art style for Stray Gods went through a number of changes during production, with various influences pushing and pulling us in different directions. The work of artist Gabriel Picolo, his slice of life work for Teen Titans was particularly inspirational for Ben, especially their energetic linework and nostalgic colouring.
Way Down Hadestown
We’re far from the only musical reimaging Greek Mythology - though we can’t quite hold Hadestown as a direct inspiration! The Broadway version of the incredible folk musical retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice was actually developed at around the same time as Stray Gods! We’re suckers for Greek Myth and musicals (obviously) and highly recommend a trip on the railroad to hell.
Want more? We spoke to ACMI last year!
ACMI is our local Australian Centre for the Moving Image, and celebrates film, television and video games with exhibits, screenings and events. For more on the influences and inspirations for Stray Gods check out this in-depth chat with Ben, David and Liam facilitated by host and ACMI curator, Jini Maxwell for Melbourne International Games Week in 2023.
Thanks for hanging out, chat again soon!
Summerfall Studios
Summerfall Shoutouts
Need a little brain teaser on your commute? From our friends at Studio Folly we highly recommend Gubbins, a seriously addictive word game that wont dismiss your swears! Many a morning in the office has been spent comparing our bespoke Gubbins art and high scores (Ethan’s currently rocking a 12k+). It’s Gubbin time!
Media we’ve been loving
‘Listening to audiobooks of Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy has been delightful! I devoured these books growing up but listening to Fitz's stories again now has me appreciating it in an entirely new way’
- Alissa, Junior Programmer