“PlayStation Always Holds Us to a High Level of Quality”: Suri: The Seventh Note Developer on PS5 Game Development, Regional Pricing, and More

Tathvamasi lifts the lid on making a PS5 game with Sony's support.

Developer Tathvamasi describes its debut title Suri: The Seventh Note as “2D metroidvania set in mythical India with a rhythmic twist”. It’s an interesting spin on mashing up two genres and after it was revealed as part of Sony’s first batch of India Hero Project titles, I was curious. Naturally, I had to reach out to studio founder and creative director Glen Martin to know more. What followed was a fascinating dive into Tathvamasi’s origins, some colour into how Sony structures its India Hero Project deals, regional pricing, and a whole lot more. Some responses have been edited slightly for clarity and length.

1. For the uninitiated, could you give us a brief background of your game development journey?

I do not have a formal game development background, I learned Computer Science. I started learning Unity during the COVID lockdown because I was always interested in making games and I had a lot of time on my hands. I was an avid gamer in my school days but I stopped playing single-player games regularly after I went to college.

I used to play a lot of Dota 2 with my friends. Before COVID, my wife gifted me a PS4 with God of War and that brought me back to gaming. It is pretty funny as the first game that really got me into gaming was the original God of War on PS2. With my passion re-ignited I decided to start learning how to make games.

I took a Udemy course and made a couple of prototypes. It was around this time that I started watching a lot of gamedev videos on YouTube and the world of indie games opened up to me. Hollow Knight was one such game that struck my imagination and I got hooked on metroidvanias. I wanted to make a metroidvania now, so I talked to a couple of my friends and decided to start making a metroidvania.

We prototyped a couple of ideas and when we landed on the rhythm hybrid idea that felt cool. We played a couple of rhythm games and 140 really stood out to us. We felt that we could make a metroidvania out of it. So we decided to get serious and we got some more folks and started building.

2. Why did Tathvamasi apply for the India Hero Project?

We applied to IHP because of 2 reasons. Firstly, we get development funding without a lot of strings attached and there was no equity dilution whatsoever. The deal terms and the support being offered over and above the funding were far superior to other similar programs. Secondly, I had always dreamed of getting a game I have made to release on a PlayStation. PlayStation has a special place in the hearts of many people i grew up with and mine too.

3. What's Suri: The Seventh Note about and what can players expect at launch?

Suri: The Seventh Note is a rhythm hybrid metroidvania. It is set in mythical India and you can expect things like rhythm-based platforming gameplay, an interconnected world with progression gated by ability unlocks, intense boss fights, and dramatic escape sequences set and synchronised to an amazing soundtrack.

4. What are the inspirations for Suri: The Seventh Note and how long has it been in development?

SURI is inspired from games like Hollow Knight, Rayman Legends, 140, and the Ori Series. We want to create a world where you can move fluidly through it, if you manage to find the right rhythm. We have been developing this game in different forms for about two years now. We were prototyping a lot of different ideas and lot of different kinds of presentation as well, however Suri in this form has been in development for just more than a year now.

5. The description for Suri: The Seventh Note on the PS Blog says that this is a game that deals with "Indian mythology-inspired narratives". What's the reason for choosing such a theme? And which narratives have influenced the game?

We were sure from the absolute beginning that Suri has to be inspired by the indian ethos. Whenever I play metroidvanias or games in general, I could not relate much to the environments and locales because they would always be Western or Far Eastern in their setting or presentation. We wanted to make something that would feel distinctively Indian. It started out with trying to bring Indian art, architecture, and music into our references and inspirations so that the outcome has a unique Indian identity.

Later when we got into world-building, we wanted to include stories from our mythology but it was hard to adapt some of them directly into the story we wanted say. So we decided to spin our own story which is set in the lands of mythical India, where you might meet certain classes of mythical characters like Gandharvas, Danavas, and some Rishis. We are trying to avoid bringing in gods and demigods directly into the game because we feel that we may not be able to do justice to them. So we create a world where all of these exist and where our main character's story and journey unfolds.

6. Moreover, how'd you go about simplifying or making such narratives understandable for global audiences?

We are developing a story for Suri that is not connected directly to any stories from mythology. We are creating a world where characters, places, concepts from the Indian mythology exist but we dont use any stories directly. We are always keeping the global audience in mind. We think that if the story that is said is universal enough, it should be relatable to everybody irrespective of where they were born. We are also taking special care to introduce and explain characters in the narrative, if they are related to the Indian mythology. We are also ensuring that you dont need to have an in-depth understanding of Indian mythology to understand, appreciate, and enjoy the story and narrative. We’re toeing the line between being different enough to feel fresh and interesting, but not so different that it becomes alienating or confusing.

7. While it's early days, what's it been like working on PlayStation hardware such as the PS5?

Setting up the devkits was a straightforward procedure and pretty simple. The tooling around it is also pretty robust , you just have to find out the right set of tools for the right situation. As part of the India Hero Project, there is a dedicated support team from Sony which supports all the IHP studios. We are using FMOD as the audio middleware and we are doing some pretty interesting things with it to make the underlying rhythm synchronisation and rhythm detection system. We had some issues with the custom glue code we had written to sync up FMOD and Unity and it just wouldn’t run on the devkit. The folks from the support team sat with us and dove deep into our codebase to debug this problem and solve it. They are literal superheroes.

8. Will Suri: The Seventh Note support for PS5-specific features like adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, and activity cards?

Suri: The Seventh Note is a game about music, rhythm, exploration, and platforming. Our goal is to get the players to a state of flow as early and as quickly as possible. We have used both visual and sounds to make it work , but the opportunities that the DualSense provides is immense. It lets us use the tactile medium as well to bring about a rhythmic experience. Suri is still in very early stages of development, but we are excited about the possibilities that get unlocked with haptic feedback. We are currently not using adaptive triggers, however we have plans to try it out when implementing a certain mechanic later on. We're considering additional features like activity cards and challenges as well.

9. What's it like working with PlayStation as an indie developer?

It has been amazing so far. The most amazing part of this program is the mentorship that you get once you are in the program. We have got extremely experienced folks who can answer your questions and take a look at what youre doing and help improve your skill set. We feel like our collective skill level sky-rocketed after we got into the programme simply by asking for help. PlayStation always holds us to a high level of quality and its great for us because it pushes us to take our game higher levels of polish and quality. For Sony its all about the game's experience and they will help you achieve your intended game experience

10. Finally, Suri: The Seventh Note is coming to PC as well. While I understand that it's still too early to talk pricing, Indian audiences usually expect a lower price tag on Steam. And while you are probably still deciding how much to charge, I'm curious to know, as a developer, what are your thoughts on regional pricing?

I absolutely support regional pricing. I have been a game developer for a year, but I have been a gamer for a long time. When I was a kid, my parents could not really afford to buy games because they were pretty expensive and I think the case is the same for most of our country. I had to resort to sailing the high seas [piracy] when I was a teenager to get my gaming fix. It was tedious, sometimes frustrating, and you would have to reinstall windows every now and then.

Steam changed the game quite a bit and games suddenly became more available and cheaper that we could afford them. That led me to play more games than before. Gabe Newell said that piracy is a service problem and not a pricing problem, but in India it’s both. Steam can solve the service problem, but it’s up to the developers to solve the pricing problem. I want everybody to play my game and if regional pricing helps a kid buy my game by saving up some pocket money, I would consider that a big success.

Suri: The Seventh Note is playable at Indie Game Utsav this weekend from April 12 to 13, 2025 along with 40-plus other PC and console indie games including Fishbowl, Kamla, and more.