Video Gamers Podcast
REANIMAL & the Art of Fear – Interview w/ David Mervik (Tarsier Studios) - Gaming Podcast
Wed, 09 Apr 2025
Gaming hosts Josh and John sit down with David Mervik, narrative director at Tarsier Studios, to talk about his upcoming psychological horror game REANIMAL. Best known for his haunting work on Little Nightmares, David opens up about his path into video game development, what it takes to create lasting emotional dread, and how REANIMAL pushes his storytelling into even darker, more unsettling territory. It’s a chilling and insightful deep dive into the mind behind some of horror gaming’s most memorable moments. All the video game news, interviews, and eerie vibes you need—every week from the Video Gamers Podcast! Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Ol’ Jake, Disratory and Gaius Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/ Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What game are we discussing today?
hello fellow gamers and welcome to the video gamers podcast relaxing games life sims cozy games are not what we'll be talking about today the fact that video games can span all genres and types is incredible but what about those games that give you anxiety or mess with your mind The suspense a game can build is second to none.
And today we'll be talking about a game that is so creepy looking, it has us going, who the heck came up with this? But first, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh. And joining me, he's been our little nightmare about how much he's been talking about this game. And if he gets any more excited about this episode, we may need to put him in a cage. It's John.
Oh my gosh, guys, I am so excited. You could have just put me in a room by myself in a little 4x4 room and I would be able to talk about this endlessly. I'm so stoked for this. John did say he could do this episode all by himself.
And I would listen to me, too. And joining us, because I learned long ago, you never upset someone that can come up with ideas this dark and crazy. It's the amazing, the smart, the talented, the handsome and kind, totally awesome and nice person, the narrative director for Re-Animal, it's Murph!
I thought you were introducing someone else, then. I thought so.
That was quite formidable defensive posturing there, Josh. Please don't invade my brain. My mom taught me long ago, you'd be nice to everybody.
Especially the nightmare creators. Merv, how are you doing today, man?
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Chapter 2: Who is David Mervik and what is his role?
I'm doing okay, considering I haven't slept in the last four nights. But yeah, I'm going to try and string some sentences together. What's keeping you up, dude? Oh, that's my delightful young boy, Vincent. Oh, boy. Yeah, they make you work for it, these kids.
Yeah, that they do. Mine are older now. They just leave me alone. They're like, Dad, you can just play video games. We don't need you for... Oh, this broke, and can I have some money?
That sounds nice.
I'm willing to bet that staring at giant man tarantulas and goat-headed weird... creatures crawling around alleyways probably doesn't help either.
I mean, I only show them that stuff every other day, you know, just like once the tears stop, then we can show it them again. You know, you've got to just like drip feed the scars. I think.
How does this creepy pig make you feel? And they start crying. You're like, okay, we got it guys. Oh man. Well, Merv, thanks so much for joining us today. This is going to be a blast. Uh, you know, I hinted at it at the start, but John, uh, He has been shouting Re-Animal to anybody that will listen. Little Nightmares 1 and 2 are some of his favorite games that he has played.
I have played them as well. I have to say, Re-Animal is looking absolutely just off-the-wall bananas to me. There is such a unique style that you guys have that it's so memorable to gamers. It's like... I knew right away. I mean, if you just showed me a 10-second clip and said, hey, do you recognize this? I'd have been like, oh, yeah, I know that.
That's very cool. Thanks very much.
Yeah, so we're super excited to talk about Re-Animal and to just get to know a little bit more about you as well. So why don't we start there, Merv? You are the narrative director for Tarsier Studios. So can you explain a little bit more about what a narrative director does and kind of how long you've been with those guys?
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Chapter 3: What is the journey of Tarsier Studios?
i joined as a designer then i became a narrative designer and then you know you kind of you remain the only one and then you stay there for so long like i actually want to be a director um can you explain what the difference is between a designer and a narrative designer well design i mean i was uh i used to work in the lego games when i lived in england like so like a level designer you know um and so i for the first seven months i was uh
making stuff for the little big planet game you know um but i wasn't as good as the people that they got out of the community let's face it you know but they they knew even from my interview days that i really really wanted to be a writer and i'd done some of that stuff already for like lego rock band had done some stuff for them you know all of the writing on that and um so they knew
I was really jonesing to kind of move into that area. And they gave me a shot on Little Big Planet Vita, you know, so I ended up doing all of the script and the character stuff for that. And it's just been that way ever since, really, just trying to get better at what I do. And I think that as far as what a director does, it's kind of the same as what I've always done.
It's anything wordy, except now I've got no one else to kind of go, yeah, but you told me to do it. It's like my fault now. You know, if anything's rubbish, then...
it's on me you know so I've got that extra bit of kind of mandate to decide how we do things narratively and how we tell a story how we end all that sort of stuff so it's really mainly just about more responsibility and making those final calls which you know particularly when you meet people like you John who is kind of like super excited about it I'm just feeling that oh I'm not that excited now like oh god what if it's rubbish
I'm just the panic sets in like, yeah, it's on me. It's on me. So yeah, that's, that's just what you get the extra sleepless nights.
Well, no pressure, but yeah, again, my anticipation levels that at 11 right now. So I am, uh, I'm really curious. You said you started work with Tarsier Studios on LittleBigPlanet. How does working on a game like that ultimately evolve into working on something like Little Nightmares? Like, was that... Did that come out of... Yeah, but you know what?
There is... Did you just look at Sackboy and you're like, man, this guy is too happy. We got to put this guy through hell.
But, I mean, we'd always wanted to do our own stuff. And, you know... They were about nine people back in the day when Metronome was a thing and it just couldn't get done. The ambition was too big. The scope was too large. They couldn't do it. But what they did do is they got noticed by Sony.
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Chapter 4: How do Little Nightmares and Re-Animal differ?
More after this break.
You go, you go. I was just going to say something you said that's fascinating is you guys had this idea, but you didn't know the end result of this idea. And it's funny because as gamers, I think a lot of times we look at a studio or a game and go, they knew exactly what they wanted to make, you know, and then they just they got the right people in and they made this thing.
And that seems to be like it is very much not the case.
No, no. No, I mean, once we'd done the design documents, we did two. We did one that needed... It was about... We did, like, a one-pager to get them interested and then a ten-pager to get some money. And then this other foundation needed, like, a 35-page design document. So when you're forced to do that, you're forced to kind of solidify your ideas.
But, yeah, in the very beginning, it was kind of like... I... I was still desperate to make Metronome. I was just in love with what Metronome was in my head. And I think for each person in Tarsier who was around then, their idea of what Metronome is is probably a bit different. It's very personal. What is Metronome? It's very much in your head.
But I've been already toying around with that in my free time. What could it be if we turn it into something now, all these years later? So I had some ideas already and that's where the name Six had come in because I had created these characters and I was like, oh, I love this. That's a nice name, you know, because it was so androgynous. It was so mysterious and all of this.
And so that just, I think it was a boy in the beginning and then it became a girl and then it became kind of irrelevant whether it was a boy or a girl because it was more interesting that she was Raincoat and who is this person, you know. So it was all the way back then. So when these things need to be done, I'm like, oh, I've got this stuff that I've been working on. That could be quite nice.
But where can it take place? Oh, well, we've got this sketch of something which looks like a big kind of maggot that walks the sea. What do you think about that? All right, yeah. You know, and it is literally that. And so we didn't have a big plan. But what we always have is ideas. And it might be an idea that we'd had ages ago. Hang on, that might be nice here.
You know, we just bring it in and it's just... I like working that way. It's nice not having to... It's stressful.
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Chapter 5: What is the inspiration behind the horror elements?
Hmm. That's a good question. Um, did you guys have any like specific, not what we're doing now? Um, I think I can't wait to hear a lot about that. A big influence on those games was like the Ghibli, the Ghibli style and very specifically spirited away. Um, it's the best one.
And you, you kind of see that balance there as well with, you know, between this kind of horrifying, uh, imagery and this very kind of charming, hopeful, yeah. Whimsical that you say, um,
aspect you know and it's that balance that kids bring when putting these these uh very very alien places and it was just something that worked for that world we were creating and it's not something we slavishly stick to it it's always at the needs of the game dictate um and the way we felt with little nightmares was i think one of our pillars was um it's a child's perspective.
Always think about it in terms of a child's perspective and very much in terms of like rememberings, if you like, you know, like I remember I used to, the best way I could describe it was like if a kid wakes up from a dream or a nightmare and you can't, you say, what was it about? Everything's writ large, everything's more exaggerated.
Or even if, you know, they've been to the doctors in real life and you come back, it's like, yeah, but he had like really big hands. Because that's how they felt. They felt like these hands were so big. And so that felt really kind of pivotal to us as to like, let's reflect that in the world. That this is how kids feel in a world that wasn't made for them, you know.
And I think that's where that balance comes from in those games.
That is incredible insight into the games because one of the things that always stands out to anybody that has played Little Nightmares is the size and the scale of even the rooms that they're running through. I mean, everything is so... larger than life for them, including the really terrible creatures that are stalking them or something like that.
Especially them.
It's really neat because I never thought about that insight. So it's really awesome to kind of have you point that out. Maybe I'm just dumb, but it's like you're getting that childlike perspective where everything is larger than life. And so something that may seem normal to us as adults to a child is very much larger than life at that point.
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Chapter 6: What challenges did Tarsier Studios face with Little Nightmares?
Tarsier Studios is not producing Little Nightmares 3. No. What was it like handing that off?
I mean, we didn't really. I mean, it was just a thing that... It felt in the water anyway. We were kind of... As much as you love making something, we were always... Driven by creating new stuff. Creating new worlds. Figuring new things out. It's one of those. A bit like it was back in the day. With LittleBigPlanet. Do we step away from LittleBigPlanet. Which is just lovely. We know what it is.
We know how to make those games. Or do we do what we love doing. Which is creating new stuff. We made that decision to do new stuff. We were thinking similarly again.
um nothing nothing solid at all we had a great relationship with Bandai and you know and all this and so it was a great a great setup just like it was with Sony but then we were acquired by uh Embracer and then that decision was kind of out of our hands it was just like you know um Bandai owned the IP um and Embracer didn't so
it wasn't really a thing that we could do anymore simple as that so and again it was kind of like it took the pressure off that decision because you would have agonized over it for a lot longer like oh we really want to do something new but oh And all this, and so it's like, right, no, we have to do something new. And they wanted that for us. It sounds freeing in a way, yeah.
That's what I was going to say. In a way, yeah. We probably would have procrastinated for a lot longer.
Well, so, okay, I have to ask, I think this is the natural question that a lot of people are probably curious about, is that now you have a team that is working on a brand new IP, and you have this old IP that you had previously, you know, that, that you had formed and that is celebrated and you guys are kind of operating still within a very specific niche and design style.
What is it like sort of competing against yourself? You, you, you have a game that's coming out this year that is competing directly against a product that is, you know, a result of something that you had a hand in creating. Does that, do you have any feelings on that?
Um, don't really see it as competing i would say is my main feeling because there's not enough representation well let's say it's competing okay you you can say it's competing if that makes you happy it does yeah it does no but i mean it's not it's not out there enough you know i i and i am a massive 3d platformer fiend and
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Chapter 7: How does Tarsier plan to compete in the gaming market?
deprivation um there's like it's quality over quantity all the time god that would have been an absolute yeah Tasha is quantity over quality that's official that's me on the unemployment no it's like making these kind of really shorter more focused experiences because you don't want
things to feel like filler you don't want people to start losing just going yeah all right then and and they're like some of my favorite experiences as well like that oh i played this for a few days i loved it for those few days and it did what it did and it's done but when i look at a game it's sort of like ah between 80 and 100 hours i'm like oh really
And one new TV show, the first season is 24 episodes. I don't know if you've got that good a story that you've got 24 episodes worth.
That is something that we face. I mean, especially as older gamers, gaming dads, people with families and stuff like that. As much as I love an epic 60-hour game, you're 100% right. That if I look at a game and I go, man, this is an 80-hour game and it might be great, but I just don't have the time to put into that. That can actually be off-putting to people now. Oh, it is for me.
So these finer crafted experiences where a game is 10 to 15 hours, we've actually started saying that's kind of the sweet spot. And I think that we're seeing that in the industry where even large, these AAA studios and things like that are kind of pulling back a little bit and saying like, hey, people don't want to have to commit 60 hours to this game.
Right. It's like, you know what? I love a 90-minute movie. That's like putting my slippers on. When I watch a 90-minute movie, I'm like, go on!
You read my mind. I was literally just going to say that. I was like, give me a 90-minute movie over a three-hour movie. Give me a three-hour movie over a miniseries. Give me a miniseries over a big, long series. I feel like the longer these things go, most of the time, the further off the rails they go and produce a disappointing result. Yeah, totally. Game of Thrones looking at you.
So, Marv, you... You touched on something that I cannot wait to talk about, which is that re-animal, you kind of teased this, is leaning more into the horror aspect and kind of branching out. And I want to talk about that a little bit more, but we have to take a short break and we'll be right back. All right, we are back. Murph, you tease this so well.
So let's dig into Re-Animal a little bit more because you guys have the experience. You have the history. You have crafted these games with Little Nightmares 1 and 2 that have sort of given you the training and the expertise. You're like a ninja that's just been honing their skills their entire lives where it's like, We're ready. We're ready for this.
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Chapter 8: What can we expect from the new game Re-Animal?
It's still made by us. We've still got a lot of people from the early days here. But yeah, we just kind of had a feeling that this game needs, if we did it one way, that wouldn't be how to execute this story to the best of its ability.
Almost like an evolution versus like a pullback in a sense. Like let's evolve this into this direction versus like pulling back and maybe trying to make it a little bit more timid, so to speak.
Yeah. I mean, you know, we were probably guilty of the other way that we were worrying that like, oh, this is feeling like we're treading old ground here, you know? And it was kind of making us lose sight of how to judge things correctly. We should have been judging it like what belongs in the game because we illustrate things a certain way. That's the way it is.
But the way, like the stuff that we bring to the way we illustrate still needs to evolve to suit the game that you're making. But we were still kind of like, oh, does it feel a bit too much like this? And then we had to check ourselves a little bit saying like, forget about that stuff.
forget judging it against our past games we need to judge it against does it belong in this game and not you know not worry about whether we're emulating ourselves which is a very strange thing to um to accuse ourselves of, if you know what I mean?
Well, I don't think so at all. I think that being honest about what your talents and your passion are is an integral part of creating any piece of art. And honestly, it's an integral part of creating any sort of successful business.
Not to belabor the audience a bit too much, but there's an author out there named Jim Collins who describes something called the hedgehog concept, which is like the basic formula of to making a successful business has to be something that you can be the best in the world at that drives your economic engine and that you're passionate about.
And in the middle of those intersecting circles is what you should be doing. And so for you guys, it sounds like you, you know, you kind of realize that we don't need to be different for the sake of being different. We are really good and really passionate about something. And we've proven that we can be successful at it. Let's,
figure out a way to preserve that core and stimulate progress and create a new wonderful IP out of it.
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