Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale is a narrative-driven adventure from indie developer Quillo Entertainment that wraps deeply personal themes of loss, trauma, and emotional growth in a deceptively colorful, cartoonish exterior. Recently, we sat down with Onon Ng (aka Andy), director and co-founder of Quillo Entertainment, to talk about the emotional foundations behind Apopia’s design, the grueling realities of an eight-year development cycle, and how balancing logic with raw feelings shaped the game.
Tech-Gaming: Beneath a colorful surface, Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale deals with powerful emotions. How did the idea of using game development itself as a form of personal catharsis shape the story and mechanics?
Andy Ng: I believe that the core element for every type of media is Emotion / Feeling.
No matter how advanced our technology is, our desire to feel is never satisfied. Or even getting worse. I think that is also the goal of games. It’s a form of media that lets us feel. And for developers, it is a media to deliver our emotions and feelings.
During the development, before designing the gameplay and layout of levels, what I think first is:
What do I want to deliver?
What is the emotion of this scene?
That’s the way I design every scene and game mechanic. They are tools that help me efficiently deliver my message and emotions. I have a belief that players will connect and relate to emotions when I’m true to myself and sincere enough.
T-G: When a project is deeply personal, how do you balance emotional authenticity while still crafting an engaging, playable experience?
AN: I think it is an ability tied to the background of the developer.
Thinking back, I think I was born as a very emotional and artistic person. But all my friends around me were into science and math studies. Growing up, I had a very difficult time. Sometimes my mind will be an emotional catastrophe, but there’s no one to talk to since they won’t quite understand. And my family life wasn’t a place that allowed open discussion, so I had to keep a lot feelings to myself.
But still, my family and friends urged me to always think things through logically instead of emotionally. I think it shaped the other side of the mind.
When developing the game, it felt like I could automatically shift between my emotional mind and logical mind. Merely focusing on my own feelings won’t be relatable, and making decisions based on logic won’t get players excited. I believe the beauty of game development lies in balancing both mindsets.
T-G: What changed most about the project over Apopia’s eight-year-long development cycle? I’m thinking about elements like tone, mechanics, narrative focus, or your own perspective as a developer.
AN: Yes, just like you said. I think what changed most is my perspective as a developer. Which then influenced the tone and narrative focus of the game.
Over the years, there have been so many ups and downs. I changed from a single young man that only cares about myself to an engaged man that understands more about empathy and genuine caring. This change granted me new perspectives on life. You can probably also see how the tone and manner changed from Prologue to the full game.
T-G: Long development cycles can be emotionally and financially draining. Were there moments when you struggled to keep the game going?
AN: Yes, certainly.
T-G: Where did you find the motivation to continue?
AN: The motivation came from the belief that “this experience is gonna speak to a lot of people emotionally!” Some may say it is like brainwashing myself. But I think it is the only possible way to make anything successful.
I’m a huge fan of Rocky. The story of Sylvester Stallone has always been one of my biggest sources of motivation. I can fully feel the emotions and struggles during his darkest days and it gave me the iron will to withstand any challenges. This also helped show me how powerful emotions in a media can influence others.
Also, the support from my family and especially my fiancée. Sometimes when I start to lose faith, she always encouraged and believed in me.
And finally, it is my faith in God that helped me gone through this period. A man’s will is limited. When I was at the darkest hour, it was faith that saved me from it.
T-G: What does the name Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale signify, and how does it reflect the game’s themes?
AN: Apopia is a word made up by me. The word is combination of Apocalypse & Utopia, which pretty much explained the world setting already: A story about finding Utopia in an Apocalypse.
It is called Sugar Coated Tale because the things that need to be sugar coated are often bitter inside. Just like the nature of this game. I used a cartoonish fancy cover as the surface. As the players get deeper into the story (the bitter tale), the darkness behind the sunshine and rainbows starts to emerge.
I think it is just like life itself. In our childhood years, everything seemed simple. Eventually, you learn about loss, responsibility, hardship, and more. But these aren’t “bad” things, they are just parts of our lives. What we should do isn’t to avoid them, but to learn how to face them. That is the only way to become stronger mentally. That’s the very reason I made this game and used this name.
T-G: The game contrasts cute or colorful aesthetics with heavier undertones. How did you determine the game’s visual style?
AN: Just like what I mentioned about my decision making in the development process. To me, visual style is a tool to deliver my message.
The cute and colorful style is an entrance for people to enter the world of Apopia. I intentionally used a style that doesn’t belong to a particular era of cartoons. But more like a mixture of different eras. Because I want the visuals to be relatable to a wider range of audience.
Meanwhile, the heavier style of Dark Worlds reflects our mental status. We all appear normal and stable on the surface, but inside our inner world, it is often looser and sketchier.
T-G: Does the game feature branching paths or multiple endings? If so, how much do player decisions shape the outcome?
AN: There are a few endings for players to discover, but I don’t want to give away too much!
T-G: What do you think makes Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale distinct from other narrative-driven adventures?
AN: A very good question. This is something we spent quite a long time exploring and solidifying.
There are many games out there with mind-blowing gameplay mechanics and stunning graphics. But there are seldom games with our level of deep narration.
Our game explores themes like relationships, emotions, trauma, and loss. There may be games that explore similar issues too but without a world setting and characters with depth in the unique way ours does. As far as I know we are the only game that went this direction.
Others often can’t do this because it requires too much time to achieve and doesn’t make sense business-wise. Therefore, this isn’t something most sane people would do. Fortunately, (or maybe unfortunately), we are crazy enough to make it happen!
T-G: Happinet is a prominent publisher with an eye for talent. How did the publishing agreement emerge?
AN: We began communicating in 2022 after we released Apopia: Prologue. Our first showing of the game received very positive reviews when released, which probably what caught the eye of Happinet. We had several meetings to discuss our vision and the roadmap for the game and eventually came to an agreement that worked for both of us.
In 2022, all the events had been moved online, which also led to our first meeting with Happinet. Looking back, I am so grateful that they had faith in our game. They have always been a very supportive team to work with, and I feel that this game isn’t merely a title they invested in, but that they share the same vision that I do.
