Mable and the Wood follows the story of a young girl who was resurrected by a cult to save the dying world she was reborn on. But what makes Mable and the Wood so interesting is that it is entirely up to you on how you play – will you be the savior of the world, or ultimately destroy it?
Thankfully I was able to speak to Andrew Stewart, the creator behind Mable and the Wood, on the direction of the game and Mable herself.
Be sure to check out Mable and the Wood on Steam and VGR for future coverage.
Aimee Hart: Tell me about Mable. We know she’s a shapeshifter, but do we know anything about her beyond that? Does she have a family, friends, etc?
Andrew Stewart: She has a backstory, but that’s something that you’ll discover different parts of depending on which characters you meet in the game. At the start of the game all you know is that you’ve been resurrected by a strange cult. As you explore the world, you’ll find out more about what that cult is and what they think they’re doing. You might also run across characters who know who you are, or think they know who you are, and you’ll learn a lot from the way they react to you and treat you.
AH: Women in games are very slowly becoming more accepted in video games thanks to games like Iconoclasts, Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted, etc and, as a woman myself, I’m intrigued by Mable being a savior and a villain in the same light in this world. Is there a reason why you portrayed her in such a way?
AS: I find it really hard to engage with characters who are supposed to be 100% evil or 100% good. It’s just so far from reality that I just find it impossible to connect. On the other hand, it’s getting a bit tiring that so many games now that see themselves as being gritty or dark all have the same ‘anti-hero’ template for their main character. I mean, if that suits your story then go for it, but if I were to tell the player that Mable was a ‘goody’ or a ‘baddy’ then it just wouldn’t work.
Without massively spoiling everything, you can play through the game killing the enemies and the bosses, which is what you’re being told to do, or you can try and play completely non-violently, uncovering the secrets of the world and finding different routes to the end of the game.
If I explicitly make one of these options good and the other bad, then I’m totally taking away any moral agency that the player has in the game. It’s up to you which sacrifices you’re willing to make to ‘save the world’.
AH: What do you believe the average completion time will be for Mable and the Wood?
AS: Well, I’m expecting to be proved wrong here, but I’m aiming for 6 hours for each route through the game. I feel like that’s the perfect time for this kind of game. People can take longer if they want to explore though! There’s lots of hidden mini-stories and character arcs that you can find and see how they play out.
The reason I’m expecting to be proved wrong, is that the average completion time of the EGX demo was around 15-20 minutes, but a particularly committed speedrunner managed to complete it in 3 minutes and 5 seconds flat. That was without relying on any bugs or glitches too, just knowing the shortcuts and taking advantage of some of the less obvious system interactions. It’ll actually be really interesting to see what people’s fastest times are when the final game is out!
AH: Carrying on from that, will there be any side quests in this game or is purely one way to do things and one way only.
AS: There are 3 main endings, depending on your actions at key points in the game and also the route that you’ve taken through. Whether you’ve followed the main path or discovered any secret routes. On top of those base endings, there are also other micro-stories that belong to different characters that you can meet. Some of these can also add a different perspective to each of the three main endings.
AH: I know Mable has abilities, but do they affect her in any way, or if not her, do they affect the world she’s in?
AS: Yes to both. They affect Mable in more of a mechanical way, but the way that people react to her can change quite a bit depending on her actions in the world. It also affects the world directly. An easy example is at the beginning of the game (and the EGX demo) where the wildlife in the forest area is just wandering and not aggressive towards you. Once you kill the first boss that’s found in the forest area, that changes and they start being much more aggressive towards you.
AH: Could you speak to me about choice in the game? Would you say that there are differences depending on how you decide to play?
AS: Yes, but the choices are woven into the metroidvania structure. Usually in a metroidvania you’ll uncover secrets that give you cool new abilities or power-ups, but in Mable those secrets lead to different routes through the game. A 100% pacifist run is actually quite the commitment. Not only do you need puzzle out the different routes, but you also need to be careful not to actually kill anyone! That’s harder said than done when you consider that they way Mable moves through the world is inherently deadly; she can’t move without potentially killing something.
AH: Currently, Mable and the Wood is just for the PC. Personally, from the look of it, I think it would be great on consoles. Is there a chance of that happening?
AS: Things are looking promising for Switch at the very least, which would be a perfect fit as it’s a game that’s inspired by SNES classics as well as Nintendo’s design ethos as a whole. I’m also in talks regarding the other consoles but I’ve got NDAs up to the eyeballs so I can’t really say anything more than that at this moment!
AH: Mable and the Wood got greenlit on Kickstarter. While it isn’t a direct question about the game, I’d just love to know what that meant for you, to see your work so loved and backed up by pledgers?
AS: It was very unexpected at the time. My campaign was awful and did a really terrible job of selling my vision of the game! Since the project was kickstarted, my backers have been absolutely fantastic. I’ve gone through some pretty awful stuff in my personal life while making this game, as well as some amazing stuff like my children being born, and my backers have been there the whole time cheering me on and offering support and reassurance when I need it.
Forget the money, it’s the backers that make Kickstarter such a special platform. Without them, I wouldn’t be making Mable now.