By Patrick Garratt

"Transmediality" has become something of a topic du jour, thanks in no small part to the continuing horrors of the game industry's myriad financial and employment woes. With the carnage surrounding western developers and publishers continuing, as evidenced this week by Epic discarding 1,000 staff, multi-team, multimedia deals are an obvious goal for those seeking to maximise IPs both in terms of reach and revenue. Arkane, the celebrated Netflix League Of Legends cartoon produced by French studio Fortiche Production in conjunction with Riot, is a good example of the power of the transmedial approach.

But not every IP owner arrives at this situation intentionally, nor is transmediality reserved for huge productions based on market-leading products.

The Day I Became A Bird, written by French author Ingrid Chabbert and illustrated by Raúl Nieto Guridi, is one such example. Originally published in 2015, this poetic children's picture book has since been adapted into an animated short directed by Oscar winner Andrew Ruhemann and London-based Passion Pictures, and is now being developed into a cozy game by Dundee's Hyper Luminal Studios. Far from the measured strategising of larger IP holders such as Riot, Chabbert had no idea of the transmedial potential of her book. She couldn't even get it published at first.

"No publisher wanted this story," she tells Knowledge. "We sent it everywhere. It was a tiny Spanish publisher that gave it its chance."

The book follows Frank, a young boy struggling with his first love for a classmate, Sylvia, who is obsessed with birds. He decides to start behaving like a bird in order to attract her attention, building a nest and wearing feathers. It's a touching story of love, identity and transformation.

A first edition, released by A Buen Paso, a Barcelona-based independent book publisher, was the start of a long, ongoing journey for Chabbert's story. Overseas rights were sold by her agent, with the book being translated for "every continent." At this stage, literary publishers weren't the only media businesses taking note.

"We had a proposition from Passion Pictures," says Chabbert. "It was completely unexpected. And after that was the videogame. It's a waking dream, as we say in French. It's beautiful revenge for a story that no one would believe in apart from Raúl and I. It's awesome, incredible."

When the idea of a videogame was initially proposed, however, Chabbert had reservations.

"At first, to be honest, I was very doubtful when I was told, 'We want to turn it into a videogame.' I didn’t understand. I was like, 'Why this book? It's not Super Mario.'

"Then they explained to me what cozy games were, and I saw the first attempts and I was just, 'Wow.' I didn’t actually realise that people could enjoy that kind of game."

While the author may not have immediately realised the interactive potential of The Day I Became A Bird, Hyper Luminal Games quickly saw it as a close fit to the studio's culture. The developer had already shown its commitment to gentler games with 2024's Pine Hearts, an unashamedly cozy title that forcibly eschews combat.

"We make stuff with real heart, and we're genuinely trying to use games that aren't too gory or too scary," says Hyper Luminal art manager James Law.

"But they're still powerful, right? They can pack an emotional punch. Bird was like a perfect marriage. We felt it could be really mechanically deep. And it was just kind of a beautiful little story by itself."

Interactivity is, of course, the principle addition afforded by any game adaptation, and Hyper Luminal faced base questions in that regard. Delivering a unique take on Chabbert's whimsical narrative intentions while preserving its message was always at the centre of the game's conception.

"How can you use mechanics, interactivity and lingering in space to tell the same sort of emotions? How do you make storybook rules apply to a game world?"

While Hyper Luminal took great care to deliver on the promises of the book – making Frank stumble every time he walks to display his awkwardness, for example, and aiming for a resolutely hand-drawn aesthetic – the development's transmedial aspect underlined the fashion in which partners in this type of set-up interact. Or not.

"I've not even spoken to her or met her, unfortunately," says Law when asked about the studio's relationship with Chabbert. "But we heard about midway through that we had her blessing, that she'd seen the progress and was really, really happy."

Passion project

Hyper Luminal's main point of contact in the development process was Passion Pictures, which had created the animated short in Unreal Engine and had therefore already transferred the book's concept to 3D. The game developer had no rights to use anything directly from the book, including its illustrations, accentuating the potential restraints involved in this type of work. Hyper Luminal, however, understands perfectly the intention of transmedial development.

"The game was like the third leg of a stool," says Law. "It didn't replace either of the other legs, but could enrich them. You could watch any leg, and each one of them can overlap and help the other, like three tunes that harmonise."

The final track of this particular harmony is about to be sung. The Day I Became A Bird doesn't have a firm release date as yet, but we're assured publisher Numskull Games will announce one "quite soon." The game will be in the official selection at the London Games Festival, on April 13–19, and will eventually release on PC (a demo is available via Steam), PS5 and Switch.

Despite the closing of this chapter of Chabbert's "little" story – one that became a globe-spanning book, an internationally recognised animated short and a cross-platform videogame – the author has clearly been marked by the experience. Writing will always be her focus, but the transmedia concept has widened her outlook.

"There are some big gamers among my colleagues, so they're very familiar with videogames and what's going on in that space," she says.

"That wasn't the case for me, so I'm a bit like a bird fallen out of the nest when it comes to this. But at the same time it’s wonderful, because it means I can bring a slightly innocent perspective to it, almost like I'm discovering it with a child's eyes. Which works well, since we're talking about children.

"So, yeah, it really amazes me to be part of all this. And that's why it makes me want to ask, if I ever have this opportunity again: 'Please, could I be a bit more involved?'"

(French-English translation by Patrick Garratt.)