Whale of a tale – Harold Halibut's big undersea adventure – Special Report

Inside the 14-year journey to hand-craft Harold Halibut’s big undersea adventure

- By Wes Fenlon 

Harold Halibut has been gestating for a long time. When the project began, art director Ole Tillmann wasn’t married – indeed he wasn’t even dating his future wife – and definitely didn’t have a three-year-old daughter to bring to the office in Cologne as indie team Slow Bros put the finishing touches on their uniquely handmade game. “She recognises the models – she’ll come to the office and be like, ‘Oh, Harold’s here!’” Tillman says with a laugh.

Across more than a decade of development Harold’s team has gained and lost a publisher, done side jobs to stay afloat, moulded dozens of models out of clay and wire and tiny hand-sewn clothes, constructed elaborate sets for a sprawling underwater habitat, and learned how to bring them to digital life with photogrammetry and motion capture. Then there was a matter of combining all those things into a videogame. “Ole and I both lost our hair in that time,” jokes game director Onat Hekimoglu.

They’re a well-matched pair, and not just for the clean-shaven heads. Hekimoglu vibrates with enthusiasm and drove the team forward with unending positivity; Tillman admits he’s the more critical one, but they both were deeply committed to finishing a game that at one point had seemed like it might become “a forever project”.

In the beginning