With the brilliant Manual Samuel behind them, the moment we heard Perfectly Paranormal would be continuing their ‘Tuesday Trilogy’ of games, we got excited. And as the weeks and months have progressed, movement on their brand new adventure – Helheim Hassle – has increased. With a Spring 2020 launch on Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch planned, and then a PS4 launch happening a little further down the line, now seemed like a perfect time for us to grab Ozan Drøsdal – the writer and project lead at Perfectly Paranormal – for a little chat in order to discover more about the game.
Hi. Please introduce yourself – what is your role at Perfectly Paranormal and on the development of Helheim Hassle?
Hello! I am Ozan Drøsdal, the writer and project leader of Helheim Hassle (and also Manual Samuel).
So, sell it to us… why should gamers buy Helheim Hassle?
If you’re into cartoony adventure games, metroidvanias, casual puzzle games, hard puzzle games (you’ll have to look for those though), funny narrative games where characters won’t shut up for five seconds, then Helheim Hassle is for you!
We also have lots of secrets and mysteries you can find, so if you’re the obsessive kind, this game should appeal to you as well.
We’ve been promised Vikings and bowl cuts, how well do you believe Helheim Hassle will deliver on that?
I can promise you that at least a viking or a bowl cut will be present for as much as 90% of the game!
How would you describe your titles, especially to someone who hasn’t played your previous game, Manual Samuel?
We like to make narrative adventure games that would be fine games on their own, but then we also smack a ridiculous and unique gameplay loop on top.
… and what have you learned from the reception of Manual Samuel that has helped you in development of Helheim Hassle?
We learned that a short and linear game might not be a very good idea in the age of YouTube and streaming. This is why Helheim Hassle also has lots of secrets, alternative ways of approaching a problem and some minor branching. We hope fans that check it out on YouTube or a stream get tempted to give it a go on their own.
How big a moment was it for you to see hugely popular YouTubers such as Jacksepticeye and Markiplier playing Manuel Samuel?
I’m not going to lie, I heard of them first when literally everybody I know sent me links to their Manual Samuel videos! I am a fan of them both now though! And I would really like to thank them, they had a big part in making so many people aware of the game! It would be huge for us if they decide to play Helheim Hassle!
And following on from that, do you think that Helheim Hassle will be as good a title for YouTubers to stream and create playthroughs?
Helheim Hassle will be better. Manual Samuel was very narrative focused, either the narrator or death would speak over those poor YouTubers trying to make their videos. I am sure they aren’t too into that. Helheim Hassle has a lot of narrative as well, but there are more pure gameplay bits in between all the narration, where content creators will have plenty of time and space to do their thing.
As someone who discovered the pleasure of playing Manual Samuel thanks to Xbox Game Pass, is there any interest in going down this route for Helheim Hassle?
We will super duper look into it! Xbox Game Pass helped us a lot!
We know that Manual Samuel and Helheim Hassle take place in the same universe on the same Tuesday, will we see any narrative or gameplay structure crossover outside of that?
There are some crossovers. Some of them are very subtle, some of them are obvious, some of them are confusing if you haven’t played Manual Samuel. Some of them are confusing either way, but will make more sense once we elaborate further on the next game of the Tuesday Trilogy.
Manual Samuel kicked things off and Helheim Hassle is attempting to take the series to the next step. Any word on the finale to the Tuesday trilogy?
There are so many approaches we can take on the next game. We have to wait and see how people react to Helheim Hassle before we make a decision about exactly how the next game will be! We are kind of into the idea of not having the next game be body part related though. From a gameplay perspective we want to branch out a bit, I am sure you understand!
Do you have any interest in bringing other titles to the universe in the future? Dudefish, perhaps?
First of all, HOLY FECES YOU’VE HEARD OF DUDEFISH?! And second of all, aw you heard about Dudefish that’s so nice! Thank you for bringing that up! 😀 And lastly, just between you and me, we have already started weaving in Dudefish into the Perfectly Paranormal universe. You can see some easter eggs in the background in the Death 4 Lyfe comic called “Gerbil Kill” featured on the Switch version of Manual Samuel.
The flash game we made all those years ago is not in the same universe as Sam and Helheim, but if we ever do revisit Dudefish it will be tied in to all the other stuff!
Will we see much more from Death and War in Helheim Hassle (outside of the second or so we see in the trailer)? But more importantly, will they be able to perform kickflips?
Death is very busy during that Tuesday so he might not show up much. War and Satan however do have some parts to play in the story!
Kickflips do get mentioned a lot, but the skeleton mascot of this story has other challenges she has to overcome.
Away from the standard base game, do you have any plans for post-launch DLC?
We have so many ideas for games both within the same Tuesday and within the same universe as Helheim and Sam that we would like to get started on those. But we did make Helheim in such a way that it is possible to give people more if there is an overwhelming demand for it. (Manual Samuel in comparison would be way harder to make DLC for because of the way the story is and so on).
As Xbox gamers the whole achievement and Gamerscore system is what keeps us going. Are you looking to add some stupidly fun cheevos to Helheim Hassle?
Ooooooh we have some achievements none of which you’ve seen before! We have no idea how people will react but yes, we have some achievements that will DEFINITELY raise some eyebrows and hopefully some smiles! Ohohoho I wish I could tell you more!
And finally, how perfectly paranormal is Perfectly Paranormal? 😉
I think we are about seven perfectly paranormals but that’s just because none of us are werewolves (yet).
Huge thanks go out to Ozan for taking the time out of his schedule to answer our questions regarding Helheim Hassle. With a recent developer commentated video released for the game, and that Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch launch fast approaching, excitement levels are beginning to rise even more. We’ll be sure to let you know once a confirmed release date is known.
