Madeline is not only a character that feels great to play, but one with a lot of meaning and depth to it. We wanted to do Madeline justice through our character Petal and our gameplay.

While analysing both the character and game, we realized that each played a part in telling the story. Madeline is someone who suffers from depression and great insecurities, while the die and retry gameplay accentuates the feeling of failure and task completion that people with mental health struggles can feel tenfold.

For Petal, we also wanted the gameplay to push the character's struggles to the forefront. As many of our team members were people with ADHD and/or autism, we chose the theme of "masking" as our main focus.

From there, we created our main mechanic, the interchangeable mask that grants Petal different abilities whether he is wearing it or not. We were also inspired by the fox, who is often depicted in folklore as a being able to transform itself, and then came to mind the striking imagery of the japanese kitsune mask.

To support this gameplay and make Petal a more fleshed out character, Petal suffers from generational trauma, weighed down by the expectations his parents have of him to become a magical kitsune like them. Under the gaze of his father, Petal hides behind the mask to act as the perfect kitsune.

This allowed me to create levels where the player is forced to use the mask, even if it would have been possible to complete the level without it, because it is not a choice Petal can make.