Mulaka was birthed from the idea of 'Zelda in Chihuahua,' devs talk about making games with impact

Mulaka is definitely one of the most visually-striking games on the Switch eShop, but those visuals are steeped in some serious research and lore. The entire game aims to tell the story of a people, and was quite a labor of love for developer Lienzo. In an interview with Variety, Edgar Serrano, Lienzo studio director and head of research for Mulaka, talked about creating a game that aimed to have an impact.

“We want to make games that are ours, we want to make games that have an impact – what better way than to start something that’s local, something that’s dear to us and something that speaks to the Mexican folklore and also stays away from the clichés. We don’t want to do piñatas, and Dia de Muertos and Cinco de Mayo and all of that, and this was the perfect opportunity to do something like that.”

Just how did the original idea for Mulaka come about? Turns out one of Nintendo's classic franchises was the impetus.

“I told [a coworker] ‘What if we do a Zelda but placed in Chihuahua?' That was the seed that planted the idea into all of us. We started playing around with the idea about what we could do, what we could add, what it could be.”