Bilkins' Folly dev reveals the games and TV shows that inspired the adventure
Plundering from the greats
Bilkins’ Folly is a narrative adventure game about a boy and his dog. In the game, you team up with your canine best friend to uncover every nook and cranny of this region. With the help of Percy’s expert cartography skills, you can customize your map to help you solve puzzles and unlock other secrets. But be warned: some puzzles in this world are harder than others, and you might need to return to them later in your journey.
In a new interview with Game Informer, Webbysoft’s Luke Webster shared all sorts of insight into Bilkins’ Folly, including the various games and TV shows that helped inspire this retro-influenced adventure.
Zelda is probably the biggest inspiration for me, specifically Link’s Awakening. I recall trying to track down all the seashells in that game and thinking how annoying it was that I had to stop all the time to deal with the enemies that kept attacking. I thought, “If I make a treasure-hunting puzzle game, I’m not having any enemies!” I’ve always thought of Bilkins’ Folly as a bit of a Zelda clone in general; if I gave the player a sword, I think that’d be more obvious.
Another big one was The Outer Wilds – one of my favorite games ever! I loved the way puzzles worked in that one. This time, there’s no enemies to get you side-tracked, I actually really like that.
Outside of games, there’s a TV show that had a bit of an impact on the game too. It’s called The Curse of Oak Island and documents the progress of a small team in Nova Scotia who are tracking down a mysterious treasure that’s supposedly hidden on the island. The metal detectionist is a bloke called Gary Drayton and he’s regularly finding junk buried on the island. In Bilkins, I named the dog Drayton as a nod to Gary.
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