Ivan Tatarnikova and “Dashing One-Eyed”

Ivana Tatarnikova, art director of the Morteshka studio, held a presentation of the game “Dashing One-Eyed” on the second day of Fan Fest. Moreover, a day earlier, on the first day of the festival, she participated in the “No Games – No Life” panel dedicated to the Russian gaming industry.

So I learned Ivana’s opinion on many issues without any interviews. For example, as a person who has worked quite a lot in the mobile market, she really appreciates the independent status of Mortyoshka, where when working on a game you can put your soul into the project and not be afraid that some experimental impulses will be rejected by the monetization or PR department.

Actually, “Dashingly One-Eyed” is her first project in Mortyoshka. Ivana did not study either “The Man-Ear” or “The Black Book”. She was hired by the studio specifically to develop a small project in the adventure/horror genre, which was supposed to serve as a kind of respite after Black Book, a fairly large-scale game for an indie studio.

For those who don’t know, the history of the Morteshka studio began in 2015, when Vladimir Beletsky and Mikhail Shevchenko decided to make a game based on Permian mythology for the next game jam. So initially Mortyoshka consisted of two people (Vladimir was responsible for game design and programming, Mikhail wrote the music).

And the studio’s first game was “Man Moose”, the same project from the game jam. However, only the beginning of the game was made at the game jam, so the developers spent another two years bringing the story to its logical conclusion. Along the way, even after conducting a little research, because Permian mythology is known only from fairly fragmentary information. Mainly based on archaeological relics, made in the so-called “Perm animal style”. In fact, the story of Man-Elk is one of only two(!) artistic reconstructions of Perm myths.

“Man Moose” was released on Steam in 2017, and a year later on consoles and mobile platforms. And delighted with the success (the game received generally positive reviews), the developers took up the “Black Book”. The new game was much larger, included more mechanics (card battles, puzzles, non-linear plot), so for the new project the studio grew to four people.

And finally, after the release (and success) of Black Book in 2021, the developers from Mortyoshka decided to develop a third project. The scale here has already been reduced, but the genre has been completely changed – now it was a three-dimensional “adventure” with an emphasis on storytelling and horror, with a small splash of puzzles. The game was called “Dashing One-Eyed” and was based on a fairy tale about how a blacksmith went to look for Likha. So, like the first two games, “Dashing” continued the studio’s tradition of drawing ideas from Russian (and primarily Perm) folklore.

Since the new game was supposed to https://winzcasino.uk/mobile-app/ be completely three-dimensional and have more detailed graphics, the developers began to look for an art director to join the team who would develop a three-dimensional environment for them, starting with concept art and ending with the actual detailed models. This art director was Ivana Tatarnikova, who had experience in both 3D animation (in particular, she drew concepts for “The Adventures of Alyonushka and Erema,” one of the first full-length cartoons with computer graphics in Russia) and in mobile games (she worked at both Nival and GameInsight).

Indie development turned out to be a new experience for Ivana in many ways. For example, she didn’t even imagine how much (and also quickly) the mechanics and design of the game could change.

So, at a certain point, “Dashing One-Eyed” had a mechanic with a transition between different “realities”. Similar to Twilight from Night Watch. In the ordinary world, the hero saw an ordinary hut, but closing one eye he began to see the insides of the body instead of the hut, and the stove from the metaphorical “heart of the Russian home” turned into a real pulsating heart.

But then they abandoned the “transition to Twilight”. But the model of the stove with cracks and veins, which were supposed to resemble heart vessels, remained in the hut, where the main character comes to look for Likho.

By the way, shortly before Fan Fest, a demo version of the game was available on Steam. In it, players could see and feel the atmosphere, appreciate the environment, even try out several puzzles that involve burning objects with matches (the hero finds a box when he gets into the hut) – the main game mechanics (however, not the only one).

By the way, about the details. In the hut you will need to find three parts of the key to open the path to Likh. So these parts are made in the “Perm animal style”, but if you look closely they also tell the story of Odysseus and the Cyclops. And yes, these three pictures about how Odysseus deceived the Cyclops are related to the fairy tale about Likho.

In general, when it came to actually asking Ivana questions, I didn’t have many left. In particular, I asked about what games she plays. Did she play Black Book??

Ivana admitted that in games she is most interested in the atmosphere and style. Including from a professional point of view. So she mostly "plays games on YouTube" where she doesn’t have to constantly solve puzzles and fight off enemies. And she also became acquainted with the “Black Book” through a video walkthrough.

In “The One-Eyed Dashing” Ivana tried to adhere to the same style that she had in Black Book and Mooseman. It seems that the game even has assets from the “Black Book”, although I personally didn’t notice anything like that, and in any case I don’t see a problem with this – rather continuity. Ivana also explained that since the environment in Dashing is more detailed (3D from the first person after all) than in the Black Book, the team would still not be able to transfer most of the models to the new game.

It’s interesting that despite the horror atmosphere, Ivana doesn’t consider Dashing One-Eyed an overly dark game. After all, the hero is still fighting against evil fate, and in general the ending (at least if it is close to the original source) sets one up for overcoming difficulties, not hopelessness.

As for the gameplay, according to Ivana in Likha, the developers will rather encourage the player to explore and experiment. There will be no danger of burning yourself if you throw a match into a bush where you are standing, for example.

There were quite a lot of "stubs" in the demo version of Likha. In particular, some of the blacksmith’s phrases sounded like inarticulate muttering, the meaning of which had to be read in subtitles. But Ivana says that everything will be voiced in the final version.

The release of "The One-Eyed Dashing" is scheduled for next year. Ivana doesn’t dare say more precisely – given the current geopolitical situation and the recent ups and downs with Unity (Morteshka works on it) and the generally difficult conditions of indie development, too much is changing so unexpectedly today that it makes no sense to think ahead.

However, if the release goes well, Mortyoshka plans to take on a new game. This time on the scale of the “Black Book”. Maybe it will even be “Black Book 2”, in any case, the new project is planned in the same spirit and style of Perm myths as the previous ones. There seem to be even some plans to release merch for the games, perhaps some figures in the “Perm animal style”. But this is again from the realm of distant plans, which can change several times.