Team Honeybeak are four, but they show one face: Bokki the penguin, hero of the game “ForeFeathers”. In presentations and pitch decks, he wears a hat and a camera, but he’s never fully dressed without a smile. He's very cute. Who wouldn't go on a journey with Bokki? 

The combined power of a team of four artists is hard to miss. Every design and concept art of “ForeFeathers” attracts curiosity. The flying island ruins look inviting and yet mysterious, while Bokki just radiates cheerfulness. 

Working in the clouds 

For this team, a strong presentation just comes with the territory: Christina Luntz, Elisabeth Altmaier, Shenghui Cheng and Melanie Obers have all studied Virtual Design at University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern. There they met, became friends and developed a common vision. Now everyone participates in the art department while also working on their own area of specialization. 

Together they create a “creative bird world”. The happy little penguin is stranded with a tour group of land critters on a mysterious group of islands deep in the clouds. Here he explores the ruins and meets ghosts of his flying ancestors. 

“ForeFeathers” does have a lot to show, but it also has something to say – Melanie classifies it as a “story-rich exploration game”. Young Bokki encounters the civilization of his ancestors, something he no longer remembers. Honeybeak allude to the tension between new generations and old traditions. A central idea of “ForeFeathers” is “cultural appreciation”, explains Christina - a message that resonates not just with children, but with people of all ages. 

Rooted in Reality 

Everyone is involved in the look in one way or another. Despite their shared background in Virtual Design, each member of Honeybeak brings unique strengths and specialties to the table. 

Melanie works on game design and is responsible for Honeybeak’s social media efforts – a crucial role for any indie game studio. She knows the job, having worked as a social media manager in her part-time job.  

Christina Luntz concentrates on coding and has her hands in most of the writing. Shenghui Cheng is the team’s animation specialist, but right now she is mainly occupied with creating smaller illustrations and with designing presentations: “I also do pitch layouting now.” Elisabeth Altmaier tackles game design and character creation.  

While each team member boasts distinct areas of expertise, there's a strong spirit of collaboration within Honeybeak, and a high willingness to work together in the field that is most important at any given time. For the incubator period, they all moved to Hamburg and share an apartment, which has proven to be an asset for communication and cooperation. Christina identifies facial expressions and gestures as effective “communication tools” for avoiding misunderstandings. She knows the difference first-hand – during the COVID pandemic, the four have successfully worked remotely as a team. By now, all four are “on the same wavelength,” Melanie judges. Her colleagues nod in agreement. 

They may have envisioned a coherent world together, but their project still faces open questions. The clear genre definition with exploration as the main feature has just emerged from Cassia Curran’s workshop on market analysis in the incubator. Elisabeth explains that Shenghui and Christina have sat down again in recent weeks to work out the story with a focus on meaning and message. After all, some of the topics are “very sensitive” – young, naïve characters encounter the traces of a lost culture with a deep connection to themselves. 

Elisabeth also gets to sum up the group's current plan: “Build a solid framework so that the ceiling doesn't fall on our heads afterwards.” With good planning, production pitfalls can be avoided. That’s a remarkably realistic way to go about constructing a cloud city.