A Fold Apart tackles the trials of long-distance relationships through gaming
Released on Friday, Toronto-based Lightning Rod Studios brings a tale of a long-distant relationship through intriguing puzzle mechanics with A Fold Apart.
Available on Apple Arcade, PC, and all three major consoles, A Fold Apart is a wonderfully charming storm of emotions. Through solving paper-folding puzzles, players will help two people “make it work” during a trying time in a relationship caused by vast distances.
We’ll try not to make too many references to the current social climate. However, it can’t be ignored that a video game about distant relationships launching during a period where we are all in isolation is extremely timely.
The team at Lightning Rod Games has been working on A Fold Apart for more than four years. Although they are pegged as a Toronto studio, the team consists of members from Montreal, the Greater Toronto Area, and even Victoria. Needless to say, they have a lot of experience cultivating relationships without physical proximity.
But how did A Fold Apart come to be? Why make a game about such a straining topic, using a rather interesting puzzle? Well, LRG says that it was a matter of personal experience.
“That’s a funny story actually,” said Lightning Rod Games’ co-Founder Mark Laframboise to Daily Hive. Laframboise says that during his trying rookie years in the video game industry, a wildcard job opportunity took him to California, straining his relationship.
“It was extremely hard on us,” he said.
His partner at the time still in Ontario, the two had the unenviable task of navigating a difficult new normal in their relationship. “So, I wanted to make a game about long-distance relationships,” Laframboise said.
As for the mechanics of A Fold Apart, the founding duo struck gold during a Game Developers Conference Experimental Gameplay forum in 2017, when they revealed their “folding paper” mechanism. “You can bring two separate parts of an image together, if you fold it,” Laframboise exclaimed.
Spending the next few years fleshing out the game, A Fold Apart now inched to its launch as a highly anticipated debut from an independent Canadian team, featuring unique mechanics, a touching story, and an inclusive tale of love.
While the original tech demo was built highlighting a relationship between a male-presenting character and a female-presenting one, the final version of the game consists of options for both parties involved.
No matter the work and love put into the debut effort from Lightning Rod Games, it’s a story and struggle that comes to game stores during a time when the world is truly fighting to get over some of these very hurdles. Which could prove to wildly influence the success of A Fold Apart‘s launch.
“We never would have imagined that we’d be releasing the game in an environment where nearly all of us around the world are physically separated from loved ones and experiencing that loneliness firsthand,” Laframboise adds. “Whether you are self-isolating, distance learning, telecommuting, or keeping in touch online, we are all in one form of long-distance relationship or another.”
When asked if Lightning Rod would have considered development for mobile environments if a program like the premium Apple Arcade service wasn’t launched, Laframboise said, “It wouldn’t have been a priority, that’s for sure.”
Apple Arcade offers up premium mobile gaming experiences for a single subscription price, opening up more than 100 games, in their full form, to gamers on iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod Touch, and Apple TV. All for only $5.99 a month.
A Fold Apart launches today, on Apple Arcade, PC, and Console.
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