How Hirogami’s Story Explores the Trend of Technology Replacing Traditional Art

A Hirogami developer recently explained some of the upcoming platform’s narrative themes and what the team’s mindset was while crafting the story. This story puts players in the role of Hiro, a “folding master” looking to redeem himself by saving the paper-crafted world of Hirogami from a mysterious entity known as the Blight. To do so, Hiro must utilize his paper-folding abilities to navigate the world around him.

As shown in the free Hirogami demo currently available on Steam, players can transform into such alternate modes as a rolling Armadillo form to break through obstacles and attack more organic enemies, or a simple piece of paper that can float on air currents and glide short distances. In contrast to Hiro’s more traditional paper abilities, the Blight appears to be digital in nature, and this conflict ties into Hirogami’s themes and overall narrative.

Game Rant recently spoke with Hirogami‘s creative director Yandhie Pratopo and lead game designer Yi Hang Yong, with the former explaining that the dev team didn’t start the project with any specific philosophy. Instead, it began with the concept of the origami world seen in Hirogami. Pratopo explained that, from there, came its narrative: Hiro and the paper-based characters represent history, imperfection, and organic creativity, while the digital Blight emodies cold precision, replication, and sterilization.

Hirogami’s Story Balances the Extremes of Nature

This comes from a different take on good versus evil than what’s normally seen in video games. As Pratopo said,

“We wanted to explore what happens when one force tries to overwrite the other, not because it is evil, but because it deems the other unnecessary or obsolete.”

Pratopo continued by saying that Hirogami isn’t just a reflection of the rise of digital technology over more traditional art like paper-folding. Instead, the game’s themes pay tribute to the Japanese notion of wabi-sabi, or appreciation of impermanence, imperfection, and transience. Overall, it is about finding beauty in creativity and the incomplete.

Hirogami’s Steam Next Fest demo has garnered plenty of attention, which offered early access to a variety of new titles coming to Steam, but those who haven’t tried it out yet should. Hirogami is set to launch on September 3, and a free demo of the game’s first level is now available to download and try out. Fans of the hand-crafted art styles of games like Paper Mario might be interested in Hirogami’s platforming and paper-folding gameplay, which serves a story that looks into the balance between old and new, and how the two can co-exist in a constantly evolving world.