How a musical indie game went against the grain to explore the Deaf experience

Before I adjacent touched the demo of Harmonium: The Musical astatine Summer Game Fest earlier this month, I started bawling. It’s astir a young deaf girl, Melody, who wishes to enactment successful the philharmonic traditions of her proceeding family. That tendency leads her to an escapade successful the magical onshore of Harmonium wherever euphony and motion connection are the superior means of communication. But what truly got maine astir this crippled is the dedication from its improvement squad to not lone marque this crippled but marque it right — with each of the costs and risks that entails.

Harmonium is the latest task from The Odd Gentlemen, an LA-based workplace known for its revival of the Sierra Entertainment point-and-click escapade classical King’s Quest. Studio laminitis Matt Korba told The Verge that Harmonium was inspired by theatre troupes similar Deaf West that incorporated motion connection into their productions. But successful processing Harmonium, Korba said helium wanted a crippled that went beyond what helium felt astir studios bash erstwhile tackling representation. “Usually connected projects similar this, the publication volition beryllium written successful English, and [developers volition hire] a advisor astatine the past infinitesimal that knows motion language, and they’ll conscionable translate,” Korba said. 

To Korba, Harmonium required a “ground-up approach” that, from time one, integrated the radical with the aforesaid lived experiences arsenic the characters created for the game. That included engaging the Southern California Association for the Deaf and recruiting deaf developers and artists. This led Korba to Matt Daigle, a deaf artist, performer, and graphic decorator notable for creating the planetary awesome for breastfeeding and his webcomic That Deaf Guy depicting the mundane beingness of a mixed-hearing family. He besides recovered Søren Bro Sparre, a deaf animator from Denmark whose hiring introduced the situation of communicating not lone successful English and American Sign Language but successful Danish Sign Language arsenic well.

For Daigle, Harmonium is simply a mode to stock much of Deaf culture, including dispelling what helium called the taste story that euphony isn’t for deaf people. “I subordinate to Melody due to the fact that I grew up successful a household of musicians, and I played the clarinet,” Daigle signed successful our interrogation with adjuvant translation from his interpreter. “It’s bully to amusement that a idiosyncratic who was proceeding who became deaf tin inactive bask music, and that deaf radical bask everything successful their ain way.”

Though Daigle’s relation was to pass Melody arsenic a deaf character, determination were different elements of her quality that helium could not talk to. Melody is Filipino, Korba explained, and her experiences arsenic a idiosyncratic are influenced by her taste practice arsenic good arsenic her deafness.

“As we got deeper into development, we realized determination was a cross-cultural difference,” Korba said. “We had to laser absorption and effort to find radical with lived acquisition and the [right] background, truthful we ended up uncovering 2 actresses who are some deaf and Filipino that we usage for notation accuracy.”

That level of specificity took work; the game’s communicative had to beryllium rewritten 3 times. But Korba besides explained that each those small steps taken successful work to authenticity made the crippled amended than what it would person been without it.

“One of our aboriginal passes connected the publication had a batch of deaf struggles successful it,” Korba said. Originally, Melody’s begetter wasn’t going to usage motion language, emulating a communal occupation betwixt deaf children and their proceeding parents. But successful investigating this communicative with deaf participants, they recovered that contempt the information this was a communal script for deaf people, they rejected it anyway, telling the developer that “I don’t privation to spot that successful a video game.”

He said their deaf playtesters explained that they didn’t privation their children to turn up expecting to ever conflict with their proceeding loved ones. “We discovered it’s good to amusement challenges, but you besides person to amusement the benefits.”

That payment is thing Daigle explained arsenic “Deaf Gain” — a doctrine that shifts the position connected deaf radical to the unsocial things they tin bash versus what they can’t. “This is astir radical speaking with their eyes,” Daigle signed. In the opening moments of Harmonium’s demo, for instance, Melody is stuck wrong practicing for a recital erstwhile her person stops by to talk to her done her surviving country model — thing lone deaf radical tin do. 

Hearing astir each the things it took to bring Harmonium to life, I couldn’t assistance but wonder: “Isn’t this each prohibitively expensive?” Game improvement is time-consuming and costly arsenic it is, adjacent without Harmonium’s level of specificity. Expensive games that instrumentality a agelong clip to marque look a important situation to recoup that outgo and marque a profit. And adjacent then, simply being profitable isn’t capable to guarantee a studio’s survival.

Daigle and Korba credited their partners astatine Xbox and Netflix who encouraged their squad to proceed down their unique, if complicated, way adjacent though it ran contrary to modern crippled improvement sensibilities. “We person had clip to fto those things incubate and develop, bringing them to an assemblage that includes everybody,” Daigle signed. “Does that dependable expensive? It definite is. But it’s worthy it.”

Given each this, it feels similar a occurrence a crippled similar Harmonium exists — and its developers cognize it. “We each conscionable did it 1 measurement astatine a time,” Korba said. “And everyone’s like, ‘How did you get here?’ I don’t truly know.”

Harmonium is but 1 illustration of however diverseness and inclusion combined with authentically and empathetically executed scope results in better games — the benignant audiences volition embrace. 

I’m not deaf oregon Filipino, but I could inactive link with Melody and her story. I grinned similar an idiot erstwhile I solved 1 of Harmonium’s puzzles, matching Melody’s signed descriptions to their close instruments truthful I could unfastened a locked door. I laughed erstwhile Daigle explained immoderate of the Deaf wit successful the game, similar a gag astir a deaf histrion that wouldn’t autumn unless idiosyncratic signed “timber.” And it each made maine outcry due to the fact that adjacent though it would person been easier, cheaper, and safer for the developers astatine The Odd Gentlemen to not see immoderate of these things, they did it anyway.

“We’re not conscionable gathering a crippled for deaf people,” Daigle signed, “but a crippled that is amusive and engaging for everybody.”

Harmonium: The Musical launches successful aboriginal 2025 connected Netflix and Xbox Game Pass.