Being stalked by a creepy serial killer is always one of the biggest scares in movies, but also in video games. Even more, if that killer is a grown man dressed as a baby. Several games tried to replicate the feeling of 70s-80s Slasher movies, but not many tried to be truly sandbox or open world. This is when the Lakeview series moved exactly in that direction. Lakeview Cabin and its sequel are incredibly addictive homages to slasher movies. Each level works as an independent horror movie, with different rules, characters, and of course killers. Lakeview Cabin 2 brought this to the next level, creating a violent rogue-like Mad Max-inspired level, and another focused on time travels… and a colossal killer chicken. The great idea behind this game is leaving the player to figure out everything on their own, without much guidance. This while offering the total freedom of interacting with every object to create impossible combinations and traps. Seriously, the player has a sandbox movie to experiment with dozens of strategies to stop the killers.

Lakeview Valley is a departure from the main series, providing a more connected story, deeper RPG elements, and an even more open-world structure. This time, morality is your only limit, as you can be the most nefarious murderer that this peaceful town has ever seen. Or not, maybe you can just attend your garden and help the townspeople. In fact, Lakeview Valley was described as a “murderous Stardew Valley,” where you can kill everybody but still improve your house and garden. But this catch is not the only identifying element of Lakeview Vally, because the game is full of lore, secrets, and gameplay elements. Seriously, between a hellish pocket dimension accessed by sleeping in a bed, weird characters judging your actions, and a day/night cycle bringing huge (and dangerous) changes during the night, the game has a lot to offer. Oh, and did I forget to mention time loops? Have a look at my analysis to have an idea: A peculiar and violent hell in Lakeview Valley: power-up while murdering and send the town to Hell [Evil Quests]

The town is alive and full of characters, each with a specific task and secret to discover. Sure, you can murder everybody, but can you do that without being incriminated by the sheriff? Because this is also an ending in Lakeview Valley. Plus, dark creatures will reward the player with special powers for each homicide. Seriously, there is a lot to talk about, but you can read better in the article Towns with a Dark Secrets, also featuring Lakeview Valley: Towns with a Dark Secret: the most hermetic, cryptic, and bizarre communities at the core of open-world games — Surreal and Creepy

Roope Tamminen is the developer behind the Lakeview series, including Lakeview Valley. Both Lakeview Cabin games are great horror games that are pure fun to play (that you should try!), but for me, Lakeview Valley has a special place, a niched and hidden gem. For this reason, in the following interview with Roope, we will focus more on Lakeview Valley. Of course without forgetting about his influences and future directions. Together with Roope, we will discover the secrets behind Lakeview Valley, a game with an important and unexpected message intrinsic to its development. If you are curious to know more, I suggest you read the following interview.

Q1: Thanks, Roope, for the opportunity to discuss with you. Lakeview Valley was a huge surprise, a game really full of lore, secrets, and many things to discover. How did you decide to go toward a more open-world structure compared to Lakeview Cabin?

A1: How I choose my projects varies a lot, but I’ve noticed that a big  part of my decision making comes from what I felt was “lacking” in  my previous release, be it a gameplay element, or something in my  own workflow. So for instance, Lakeview Cabin games don’t have written dialogue. So I had this creative urge to try my hand at writing conversations, so I already knew that my next game would be very text-heavy. 

From a technical standpoint, I was basically just testing out some of the new 2D tileset tools for Unity, that weren’t available for the engine version used in Lakeview Cabin. And that initial prototype just grew and grew, until it was very clear that it was going to be an actual game. 

So while I like to act that I’m just shooting from the hip when it comes to decision making, its actually a mix of careful planning and allowing my day-to-day feelings affect the “art” part of it all. 

Q2: Maybe it was just me, but I had huge vibes from Harvester (which I found great) while playing the game. Which were your main influences for Lakeview Valley?

A2: Yes I’ve hear that before! But it’s actually been a bit embarrassing  for me to admit that I had not heard of Harvester until someone made that same connection. I grew up in the 90’s as a video game loving  kid, but somehow that had slipped under my radar, even through my  teenage years of trying to find the darkest games possible after the  introduction of The Internet.  

But I generally try to get my influences from outside the world of video games. While the gameplay itself might be easily recognizable as some genre of game, I try to think of it as more of a pastiche to  frame my own feelings, or just to channel some inspiration I’ve felt  while consuming other media. 

So back to the actual question, Twin Peaks played an obvious part. Groundhogs Day made an appearance in my mind a lot… I also read the entirety of Berzerk manga during the development, which influenced a  lot of the decisions regarding the underworld.  

But other than just films, books and music, I also wasn’t in the best possible place mental health wise during the development. I’ve  been a depression subscriber since my earliest memories, and while it may sound kinda cliché, I do pour a lot of that into my work as a sort of therapy. But I still think Valley got the brunt of it, and in hindsight I’ve realised that the game as a whole is this sort of  a metaphor for how depression feels, at least for me. An endless loop through life where nothing really matters, where evil seems to be rewarded and every good deed will be forgotten in a week or so. 

Q3: From Babyface to Piggy, the disturbing serial killers, present especially in Lakeview Cabin, became pretty iconic. If you were given the option of directing a slasher movie about one of your killers, which one would you select and why?

A3: That’s an interesting concept to think about… If I had to pick just one of the enemies, it would have to be Babyface. A grown man in a nightgown and a babymask has some serious cinematic potential.  But of course, if Lakeview Cabin ever made a jump to the silver screen, Red would have to be the main character, and his questionable morals could make for some interesting tension building. So there’s more room for him to grow as an anti-hero. But the most interesting thing about it would be trying to adapt something that already parodies the thing you are adapting it into. So the movie would need to be self-aware, and play with the slasher film tropes in some clever way, and while that sort of thing has been done many many times, especially in the slasher-genre (X,  Tucker & Dale, Cabin in the Woods, Happy Death Da-this list could go on and on…), I still feel like there is an approach that would work  in Lakeview Cabins favour, with the amount of fourth wall breaking I like to do… 

But yeah, It’s not like I have thought about this that much, not waiting for a call from A24 at all… 

Q4: Changes during the night, hidden treasures, and a bed that literally drags you to hell: the town of Lakeview Valley is full of mysteries. Which was, according to you, the most secret and difficult-to-discover element that you hid in Lakeview Valley?

A4: You know… The whole development ended up becoming quite a challenge  to finish, I remember frantically jumping from one thing to another to get everything connected, adding references to tiny little things that might explain a question someone might have… And in all of that  crunch, some stuff might not have ended up working as I had intended. 

Which brings me to one specific thing that a lot less people have mentioned than I initially expected, and that has to do with Morgos past, and how he came to be the way he is when you meet him. There’s  a hidden storyline involving his affair with Mary, who’s death is mostly only hinted at. 

So I did a cutscene of her dying in labor while giving birth to a giant fly, Morgo’s new form. I think I did it as tastefully as possible, but I still expected more players to mention it. Even if only for the fact that it adds some tragedy to Morgo’s character,  since he only wanted to come back from the underworld to be with  Mary again.  

Q5: Lakeview Valley doesn’t go soft in allowing the player to do some very evil deeds. What was your most evil action when you were testing the game? Was there a character that you “preferentially” chose as the murder-testing victim?

A5: I think my most evil act might’ve been just making the game? Well maybe not, and actually there is a reason Little Bobby comes to your home more easily compared to other NPC’s. It helped me test things more easily, so he definitely got the worst of every possible weapon  in the game.  

He is also a completely despicable character by design, so he probably gets killed the most by every player. I tried to add an  aspect into every NPC where it subtly makes you want to kill them, but in Little Bobby’s situation there is nothing subtle. He is there to nudge you into playing the game how it is meant to be played. But as a slap to the players face, he is the only villager who seems to thrive in the underworld, even though he is the one you want to suffer the most. 

Q6: During the night, the town definitively shows its creepy side, with huge changes not only in the threats but also in the townspeople. How did you develop the night world and what were the rules behind its creation?

A6: Not so much rules, but I do remember thinking of it in terms of the themes of the story elements. There is this overlaying theme of becoming something else, wearing a mask to fit into the society. How  we all have a hidden side, or maybe something we aspire to be, but can’t show to the world. And that’s presented in the game with actual metamorphosis happening, with people turning into an animal form after escaping from the underworld, or appearing as butterflies during the night.  

But the moths themselves that appear… While thinking about animals and insects, I started to think about what insect has given me the  biggest heebie jeebies during my life. And I remembered how I really hate that frantic fluttering of a moths wings… Gives me chills just thinking about them. What’s that about then? 

Q7: The Preacher, the Dweller, or the Scarecrow: the town of Lakeview Valley is full of disturbing and mysterious creatures. If you have to define the iconic “cryptid” for the town, which creature will you choose and why?

A7: While in a way the most plain of them all, I still like the Dweller. I like the simple aesthetic, and how he/her/it kinda emulates the frantic fluttering I mentioned earlier.  

But the main thing is how the Dweller is my way of explaining why  the game works like a game. In the end, every single game ever made is a groundhogs day situation. You can always try again. So the  Dweller is my attempt to explain that very simple game “rule” that everyone knows, and give it some reason and connection for the  player. There is a lot of fourth wall breaking in the Valley, with  its endless time loops and talks of infinite possibilities. In the end, the player itself is indicated of being the main reason why all of this evil is happening. All because they want to play the game, and how it only exists while it is running.

Q8: The Upper League is a group of especially evil creatures wandering the town. How was this evil league born? Were there other possible members during the development?

A8: It might’ve been this subconscious urge to create this sort of  “villain team” after reading Berzerk, and being a huge fan of the  Metal Gear series. I don’t think any of them were left on the  drawing board, I tried to design each monster as something that  might compliment the other ones, in areas that they might be  lacking. 

The whole human/animal-hybrid thing also played nicely into the  themes of evil being rewarded in this universe, by having the worst  of the people become even more powerful beasts. The animal inside of  us being shown to the outside world.  

Q9: Are you thinking of developing a sequel or a side story for Lakeview Valley?

A9: It does sometimes cross my mind, thinking of what a sequel might include and how I might be able to surprise the player. But in the  end, I’m also happy to leave it as it is. In a way, it’s already a “spin-off” from the main series. So I’d much rather make something  new in the universe instead of a straight up sequel to Valley.  

Lakeview Cabin 2 already continues some of the story elements, some characters from Valley return, but for now the Lakeview-universe will stay as it is. Although I do tease where the series might be  going, in Lakeview Cabin 2’s epilogue… 

Q10:  According to a recent tweet, your next game could be totally different, including not being related at all to Lakeview. Could you give us some hints about your future directions?

A10: Yes indeed! I talked earlier about how I’m choosing my projects, and how the previous project affects the next one. And right now, it is the Lakeview itself that I need to get away from. So my next game won’t have anything to do with the Lakeview-series, I guess in a way to prove to myself that I have more in me. 

So I’ve been working on my take on an immersive sim. In a nutshell, your goal is to escape from a prison in 1700’s France. It’s a complete departure from my previous games, and it’s evolving into this fusion of old school point & click adventures and more modern type idle-clicker games. A point and clicker? All I know that I’m very excited about it, and I’m happiest I’ve been creatively in a long time!

Final Remarks:

I would like to thank Roope for the nice opportunity and really interesting answers. I didn’t expect that there was such a personal journey behind Lakeview Valley, and now that I can see it, I appreciate the game even more. And I cannot wait to see what the 1700’s France prison game will be. While waiting for Roope’s next game, you can find Lakeview Valley and the recently released Lakeview Cabin 2 respectively HERE and HERE.