Lyara brings a sentimental experience through 2D platforms | Mundo Indie

If partners Júnior Costa and Bruno Caputo had continued in Mechanical Engineering at college and working in real estate marketing, they probably wouldn't have crossed paths with Mundo Gamer the way they did. We also wouldn't have Bolha Game Studio, nor the Lyara project, their first game. 

We talked to the boys to learn a little more about the studio's history, the journey to enter the Brazilian indie market, and of course, about Lyara, the 2D platform game that is being developed, promising to bring an emotional experience with challenging gameplay. 

What is Bolha Studio like?

Like many stories of the emergence of indie studios in Brazil, Júnior and Bruno's is quite similar: it all starts with a sense of dissatisfaction from both in their chosen occupations up to that point. 

Friends since childhood, Júnior worked as a graphic designer in the real estate marketing field; Bruno was studying Mechanical Engineering, but he wasn't sure if that was the right path to follow. 

The idea of working with games came from the latter: 

"it is quite common to find people in the industry who since adolescence think 'what if I made a game, how would it be?' I just didn't know, at that time, that it was possible to work with this," says Bruno. 

In 2022, both left their jobs, ventured into side projects, and after a game jam, they discovered their true passion: working with games, of course.

Bruno works as a programmer, while Júnior handles the artistic and sound design part. Game design and script are divided between them. 

Currently, in addition to the two partners, they have two more employees working in Marketing and community management. The goal of the hirings was precisely to get closer to the audience and disseminate the studio and Lyara to the entire gaming community. 

Despite all the work being done, technically, with four hands, the help of other professionals was important, even if indirectly. They sent the project to several studios and a large majority responded with feedback and insights that were and are essential for the polishing of the game. Júnior comments on this receptivity: 

 

"In the indie scene, especially here in Brazil, everyone faces many difficulties to move forward with their projects. That's why I don't see competition among studios, but rather, a nice openness for one to help the other. We were very surprised by the receptivity of everyone, from larger studios to those at our size and experience level. We feel embraced and it's gratifying to see this whole network of support, which ends up turning into a snowball, because today I am helped, tomorrow I can help."  

In addition, the game demo was present at Brasil Game Show in 2023 and the partners explain the feeling of being there: 

"the networking with other developers, seeing people playing and feeling what we want them to feel, during the 5-day event served a lot to reinvigorate our strengths and energies in this final stretch of game production."

The result of fulfilling a crazy dream, persistence, and even help from family members, made Bolha Studio bring the game Lyara to the world. 

The journey of Lyara

Lyara is a 2D platform game, inspired by Celeste and Hollow Knight, mainly. Initially, it was supposed to be a study project, but the narrative potential prevented it from staying in the drawer. Júnior and Bruno put other projects aside to focus on their "darling" product. 

Lyara's narrative is based on real experiences, with superficial references to Buddhism, making a metaphor of the spiritual world. 
The protagonist of the game is a girl who went through a traumatic event in childhood and now needs to overcome it to move on with her life. 

The stages are divided into worlds, and each world represents a chakra. As they pass through each stage, the chakras align, balancing the girl's emotions. 

In addition, we will have a mix of the spiritual world and the real world, especially in the collectibles part: one of them will be Lyara's diary pages, collected from the real world and that will serve as reflection for her in the spiritual world. 

Speaking of mechanics, we will have, in addition to the traditional ones of a platform game, the specific and necessary ones to pass through each world. As the game progresses, they become increasingly complex. 

Most interestingly of all: the game wasn't supposed to have this tone. Initially, the boys wanted it to lean more towards the Hollow Knight side than Celeste, but then they decided on the linearity of the story and the emotional narrative. 

 

"Indie always opens up space to be more out of the box, to be more sentimental. We wanted to put the maximum of our heart and emotional value into the player's experience," says Júnior. 

Release 

By the time of production and dissemination of this material, Bolha Game Studio has given us a release perspective for the first half of 2025. 

For now, we can enjoy the game teaser, add it to the Steam wishlist, and follow the news and behind-the-scenes of development on social media. 

Add Lyara to your wishlist on Steam.

If you want to know more about Bolha Game Studio, access their Instagram. 

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Author: Ana Lins