Fellow Traveller has a strong reputation for publishing impressive, story-rich narrative games, so their involvement with Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo immediately signals you can expect a great title, what we confirmed in our review: “This isn’t just a video game, it’s a profound work of art with impactful storytelling that touches your heart and soul in unexpected ways”. The brothers behind the game, Paulo and Pavel Lara from Galla studio, have undoubtedly proven their talent with this title.
Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo is a 3D adventure game where you embody Kulebra, a skeletal snake, in a Latin American-inspired afterlife called Limbo. Under the guidance of a mysterious Old Lady, you’ll explore papercraft-style settings, solving puzzles, gathering clues, and using stealth to aid the residents in moving on. Crucially, these souls are trapped in a 24-hour time loop, repeating their days due to unresolved regrets, trauma, and loss.
We explored brothers perspective on Game Pass and the indie gaming scene, what players can expect from Kulebra, and the core message they hope players will take away. You can find Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo on PC via Steam, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
Can you share the origin story of Galla Games? What inspired you both to leave the Dominican Republic and pursue game development in the United States, and how did that journey shape Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo?
Originally we started the studio in the Dominican Republic, over the particular coincidence of me (Paulo Lara) being an artist, who had a strong affinity for video game art. And Pavel Lara developed a strong interest in programming at the time, completely focused on video games.
Besides us being huge video game “nerds,” we had very similar tastes when it came to media in general. So we decided that this was a great opportunity to explore the idea of developing games. And so we gave it a chance, starting with something fairly simple.
Then through our mother, the opportunity to come to the United States became a possibility. It seemed like a great place to expand as developers, since the video games’ market in the Dominican Republic was non-existent back then. So we decided to take the opportunity and continue with our project here in the United States. And after some failed projects, reinventing ourselves in many ways, and some good surprises… Here we are!
An important question, as brothers, did you ever have disagreements or arguments when you were working on the game together?
We’ve had our minor differences here and there, but honestly, nothing outstanding. And thankfully, none of those have come from a bad place. We always try to push our ideas in the belief that will increase the quality of the project. And as time goes on these disagreements have become less common and less impactful when it comes to game making decisions. It’s important to be flexible and open to each other’s opinions in order to have a proactive flow as developers.
Which games, films, or other media inspired Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo? Were there specific titles that shaped its cozy yet emotional tone or its focus on helping others?
I can surely mention games like Ace Attorney, Paper Mario, and Professor Layton. But our main inspiration for the game was The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask. Especially the side quest elements of said game. They set a level of immersion that we can only hope to achieve.
From the changes in the environment as the time goes by, to the characters’ many surprises around this same schedule. One that may surprise you is Resident Evil as an inspiration source. A lot of the puzzle elements in Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo come from Resident Evil, believe it or not! I’ve personally noticed that once you remove the horror elements from this puzzle structure, it can make for a very cathartic experience when solving puzzles.
So we try to achieve a similar result through our game. Having difficult puzzles is not our goal in this case, but to make them engaging and fun as the player uncovers the story of the game.
Latin American folklore, particularly Day of the Dead aesthetics, plays a big role in the game’s world. Were there specific cultural elements you wanted to highlight?
I wouldn’t say so, the elements are there, but we’d much rather prefer to use the cultural elements as a vehicle to flesh out our characters and how each one of them have their own worlds within this shared environment and culture. Although most of the game’s cultural influence has a Day of the Dead theme, we take some elements from the Dominican culture as well! I won’t spoil anything, but I sure hope some Dominican players get to spot these!
What is the game’s core message, and can you briefly introduce us to the main mechanics?
The game’s core message focuses on both the power of empathy and kindness, and the importance of doing the right thing, despite the sacrifices that it may bring. As for the main mechanics of the game, we have the time-loop and your trusty notebook.
Each soul trapped in Limbo has a set routine throughout the day, and you can gather information and items by talking with them and exploring the world. At the end of a day, everything resets, but you get to keep your knowledge and most of your items. Your goal will be to use everything you gather to figure out what’s needed to help the souls with their issues. You can think of it as doing some “detective work” in the afterlife.
There will also be many extra challenges on top of what I mentioned before that will give each of the game’s chapters their own flavor.
How challenging will the puzzles be, and what kind of stealth gameplay can players expect?
As briefly mentioned in a previous question, I would say that the puzzles do not focus on being challenging, but they’re more about having fun while you uncover the mysteries around Limbo. But I’m sure that our puzzles will have some cool twists to keep the experience fresh and interesting.
The stealth is a fairly common element in the game, more than we would have ever expected during the early days of development. The stealth is quite varied, in the sense that you may find some stealth sections to be very casual, but others may be the difference between “life or death”. So you can’t always let your guard down when exploring the world of Limbo!
How does the day/night (or time) cycle impact gameplay?
A lot! In fact, most puzzles, and probably all the detective work that the player will be doing will in one way or another roll around the time mechanics. In order to properly understand how to progress and help the souls of Limbo, you have to truly understand their schedule, and what elements of these you may manipulate in order to make them move closer to your goal.
I can think of many examples, in which in many cases in which the problem in hand, requires you to experience the cycle of a character in order to understand what leads them into breaking their respective patterns.
You may see a character stuck through the day looking for an important item to solve a problem, but as it turns out, they would only come to find the item they need when it’s already too late to address the issue. The player may see this as a chance to instruct them early in the day’s cycle on where to find what they’re looking for, and so this breaks part of the pattern that keeps the character stuck in a loop. It’s all about creating cracks in the cycle of each character to help them get out.
But instead of me going into obsessive detail, I can surely say that a lot of this is present in chapter one of the game. Which is available as a free demo, in case anyone is interested!
The papercraft aesthetic gives Kulebra such a distinct look, what inspired this visual direction?
Earlier in production the 2.5D aesthetic came from certain limitations. We wanted to have a 3D environment that felt natural to explore, with a substantial amount of elements to interact with. So, in order to achieve this within our small team, we decided to simplify the complexity of character assets to 2D to make sure they wouldn’t become a detriment to the development of the game.
With that, we also wanted to make the character renders to stand out, leading us to sacrifice some level of 2D animation to have more complex renders for our characters. Then with these limitations in mind, we centered all the visual elements into a “Pop-up book” like visuals. Emulating a subtle feeling of storytelling throughout the whole game.
How did your partnership with Fellow Traveller come about?
As far as I recall, it all happened little after our First Kickstarter for the game. We did not meet our goal, so we were looking into ways to continue the development of the game. Thankfully, soon enough one of the scouts from Fellow Traveller discovered our team, and they proposed a partnership. After a few nice meetings, and getting into an agreement, everything was pretty much set!
Thankfully we couldn’t have asked for a better partnership. Fellow Traveller has been a blessing in the development of the game, and we can’t stress enough how much of a game changer this has been for us!
What’s your perspective on the current state of the gaming industry, especially the indie scene?
That’s a very interesting question, but when it comes to the indie game industry, things get a bit complicated. Since it’s hard to pin the things into a specific state or category, given the flexible nature of it. Composed of countless backgrounds, budgets, and personalities developing all sorts of ideas. Anything goes in the indie market, and this makes for a very fertile environment for creative ideas of all kinds.
But one thing hasn’t quite changed throughout the years, and our opinion may not be uncommon, but we can certainly say that the current state of the industry brings its own sort of challenges. As you may know, there are more ways than ever to become an indie developer, and in the past two decades that has only become more prominent, but so is the constant struggle that comes with trying to reach an audience in such a rich and saturated industry.
All this makes up for a fairly volatile and hostile market when it comes to trying to establish a sense of stability, for any studio. So given these factors, to anyone willing to give this industry a chance, even if it’s just to make a dream project come true, they have our respect.
As developers, how do you view Xbox Game Pass? Do you see it as a sustainable model for games like yours?
As the model sits currently, yes. It can guarantee a decent degree of success within the Xbox platform, especially for low profile studios. All this while maximizing the exposure of the game to new players, since it would be the equivalent of a “free game” to the players in the program. It can be a win-win depending on the position of the studio.
In the end, do you want players to walk away feeling like they’ve had a cozy experience, or an emotional journey they’ll reflect on?
We would say the latter. Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo is a game that sets a platform for introspection. In the end we want the players to experience the power of empathy, and what this can bring to their lives, and others. While understanding the sacrifice that may come with it, but knowing that despite it all, it is still worth it.
Hrvatski 
English (UK)