Monument Valley designer Ken Wong releases interactive comic mobile game, Florence

Monument Valley lead designer Ken Wong has launched Florence, an interactive graphic novel-like game for mobile. The game follows a young woman through her daily life, as she brushes her teeth or rides her bike, while she navigates a much more complicated journey – her first love.

Ken left Ustwo Games, which made Monument Valley_, to return to his native Melbourne and later founded games studio Mountains with Kamina Vincent (The Warlock of Firetop Mountain_), Sam Crisp (Movement Study 1) and Tony Coculuzzi (Cuphead). For the studio’s first release, Ken says he “felt a lot of pressure to come up with another hit game,” but tried to put that out of his mind and focus on creating something “meaningful”.

Florence is therefore about modern love. As the story and relationship develops, it is dotted with small, relatable vignettes which the player can dictate, for example which emoji to send to her boyfriend, and later, more poignant decisions.

“Romantic relationships form such an important part of my life, and the lives of the people around me,” Ken continues, in an interview with Apple. “With Florence, I wanted to tell a story that could explore all the facets of being in a relationship in the form of a mobile game.”

“It’s terrifying to be making such a weird game, that feels so familiar and everyday, but also so unconventional and experimental”.

Florence is now available to pre-order on the App Store, ahead of its official release on 14 February 2018.