Little Nightmares III Will Have A Friend Pass, Says Producer Coralie Feniello

Little Nightmares III will feature a Friend Pass system, allowing you to play online with other players without necessitating both of you buy one copy of the game each.

We spoke with Coralie Feniello, Producer on Little Nightmares III about all things The Spiral- while she kept a lot of plot details under wraps, she did talk a lot about the ways players would be to enjoy the upcoming title, particularly its dual protagonists Low and Alone.

One very important thing she did highlight, however, was the Friend Pass system present in Little Nightmares III- like many co-op games released in the past decade you’d only need one copy of the game to play with another friend despite the online-only nature of the game.

Playing Little Nightmares III With Friends

Here, Coralie goes into detail about the game’s co-op- such as the existence of the Friend Pass system for Little Nightmares III, the lack of couch-co op and the ability for the title to still be played even if you’re romantically challenged (Or your partner would just rather watch you instead of dealing with a jumpscare).

Could you tell us more about the co-op in the game?

Coralie: Yeah, so it’s only online Co Op, you can only play with a friend and two players. So we also have a friend pass so you can only buy one copy of [ Little Nightmares III ] , but still play with a friend.

What about for those of us who don’t have someone to play with?

Coralie: The game will be also playable in single player. So you still can enjoy it in single player with someone if you want in your house, but we are making sure that the game is both like the best experience in co-op and single.

The first two games were a single player game so we are making sure that it is as good experiencing single payer as multiplayer, because we want to keep people who liked the way the Little Nightmares 1 and 2 was in single player.

I will say that the AI would be a bit similar to how Six was behaving in Little Nightmares II as an AI behaviour, but we don’t want it to play for you, we don’t want it to solve the puzzles for you. So it’s really a tricky balance that we are implementing here and we are still working on it to make it the best possible.

Were you ever worried about the limits of a side scroller series like Little Nightmares?

Coralie: Well, right now I think that the online co-op is making us explore a whole new part of that. So it’s not a risk that we have right now in mind.

So part of the problem with puzzle games is how often you can just get stuck, preventing you from moving forwards until you figure out a puzzle. Has the team found any kind of way to ease people through this process?

Coralie: I think that co-op will also let you talk with your friend, and so you might get unstuck thanks to that. But then in a very design point of view, the bow and arrow and wrench are doing different stuff, so sometimes you need one, sometimes you need the other one, and so your friends will need to do the right thing.

You will still be able to use the call like we had in Little Nightmares II when you can call Six, and so that can help you also to tell your friends like “Hey, look, here, there’s something.” But yeah, we don’t have anything specific implemented.

Some of us have partners who, well,  let’s just say their love of horror outweighs their prowess on a controller. Considering the previous Little Nightmares games had some moments where the execution could be a bit difficult, are there any kind of accessibility options for our less skilled partners?

Coralie: We have not defined all the accessibility options yet, but there will be some accessibility options. We’re not sure about implementing something about the skill, I would say it’s more important for us to concentrate on things like disabilities and stuff like that. But this is an option that we’ve considered, we just don’t know yet.

 So is it possible to cross play between PlayStation and Xbox players?

Coralie: No, it will be only on the same manufacturer platform. So Xbox Series with Xbox One and PS5 and PS4.

Technical Questions

Just a follow up, is there anything that’s very uniquely Supermassive to this entry? Aside from the co-op, does it more or less follow the same DNA of what was already established for Little Nightmares?

Coralie: We are doing our best to follow the same DNA, and we have a team that worked on the previous games. So we are making sure that it makes sense for the license and we are not going too far away from it. And we are also implementing some, like new elements that may be more specific to Supermassive Games such as the co-op for example, we know that they had an extensive knowledge of multiplayer.

Will there be a graphic setting specially for a console like choosing between framerate or resolution? If not, will the game run at native 4K 60 fps or maybe 120 fps for next gen consoles.

Coralie: It will depend on the platforms, but here we have a feature of having a beauty mode for 4k and the performance mode for 60 fps. Then we are tailoring the game for next gen with our current gen consoles, so PS5 in Xbox Series, but we are making sure that we have the best experience for our older players across all platforms.

Fitting This Into The Little Nightmares Universe

Could you let us know if this is sort of like a standalone entry that’s separate from the story of 1 and 2? Is this still closely related to the story of Six? And can you tell us where in the timeline of Little Nightmares this happens?

Coralie: It is a brand new story, so we have some links. But now we want to tell the story of Low and Alone in the Spiral. So yeah, as I said, you will be able to do links because it’s still the same universe and we really want to make sure that everything has a link and everything is like making sense all together with the three games.

Can we expect to see any returning faces?

Coralie: Little Nightmares 3 is a brand new game, so you will not need to play the previous two games in order to understand everything. But still, we love making little secrets, and for the most experienced player from the previous games, they will be able to see some cameos and elements that they will recognise.

Little Nightmares is known for its really unique setting. Could you talk a bit about Little Nightmares III’s use of the setting as well as the upcoming podcast?

Coralie: In Little Nightmares 3 you will discover new places, which is the Spiral, so the Necropolis is the first chapter then you will go through different places that are still in that same area, I would say of the Nowhere. So the Nowhere is the place where the Little Nightmares games are taking place. It’s basically the nightmare world but then we also have another world like the countries, which is the real world where the children are coming from basically and that’s more what will be explored in the podcasts and in some of the transmedia. So yeah, basically it’s showing that whole new part of the lore that we have never seen before.

Little Nightmares II infamously had collectibles that could unlock a secret ending. Can we expect something similar here?

Coralie: Yeah, there will be something similar that we don’t want to spoil.

The First Step To Crafting A Horror Experience Is A Huge Baby

Personally, one of my favorite things about the Little Nightmares series is its unique visuals. While Supermassive Games might best be known for its more realistic slasher film-style horror a la Until Dawn, Little Nightmares III debuted with showing off Monster Baby- a massive infant out to cause physical harm to Low and Alone and terrorize the Necropolis.

Here, we talk to Coralie about both Monster Baby and Supermassive’s own approach to horror in general- explaining the team’s approach to keeping the player terrified in ways only Little Nightmares can.

So every Little Nightmares level is characterized by these major enemies, and in what you’ve shown of Little Nightmares III we got to see Monster Baby. Could you talk a bit more about this giant, barreling baby creature?

Coralie: So as you have seen Monster Baby is a bit different from the other enemies because she’s so big, but she’s not really in the room with you. In the rest of the game, we’ll have all the enemies that will be more similar to the previous games. But for now, the Monster Baby, she is not really a bad person. I would say more that she’s so clumsy and so weak that she’s very dangerous. So that’s what makes her so scary.

In the process of creating her, that’s coming from that place the Necropolis, and this is one of the places of the Spiral, so you might have seen that some people are statues are around so these are the dwellers who were here before and creating that metropolis, but then the most? arrived and she just kind of made the Necropolis what it is right now.

Does Monster Baby attacking the player mean we’re going to have these big enemies start interacting with the player?

Coralie: Monster Baby is the only one like that, she is very unique and then the other monsters will be more similar to what we already know in Little Nightmares 1 and 2 so they are in the room with you and just whole new enemies with new skills that i cannot tell you about right now.

What can you tell us about the Necropolis?

Coralie: Necropolis is a very specific place. So most of the people that lived there before had been impacted by the arrival of Monster Baby and there is now no living thing except for the Beetles that you have seen as well, and the Monster Baby too, of course. So yeah, that’s very specific to that chapter. Then in the other chapter, we are also feeding our worlds with new smaller enemies, and that go along with the bigger enemies, I would say be similar to be the teacher and then the bullies. So yeah, that’s something that will be more present in the other chapters for the Necropolis itself.

Before this title, Supermassive was more known for like the kind of photorealistic works with Until Dawn and and all that stuff. Now, you guys are handling Little Nightmares 3 solo, which is more of a surreal kind of horror. So how does it feel like shifting gears?

Coralie: I think the experience of Supermassive Games on a more traditional horror is also super useful for us. It’s really helpful to have that, and with Bandai Namco we are making sure that we keep the DNA of Little Nightmares. So yeah, I do think that the experience is really useful. And also with everything related to multiplayer. On the more technical side, I would also say that Supermassive Games worked on the LittleBigPlanet for the Vita version, and some of the team have worked on that one, so that’s closer to the Little Nightmares. So I do think that we have a good balance of skills in the team.

Unlike Until Dawn though, there’s no need to tag the game with a gore warning, was that a good creative exercise for you guys as well?

Coralie: Yeah, i think it’s really important for us to stay that atmospheric type of horror, so we really don’t want to go on the gore side. And that’s not the intention of Supermassive. They really understand the franchise. So that’s great.

I think the one very good reason for Little Nightmares’ appeal, as someone who comes from Southeast Asia, is that everyone has their own idea of what a horror is. Somehow the Little Nightmare series taps into a very good universal sense of horror. Could you talk about how you accomplish that?

Coralie: Well, I think that’s very important indeed for the license to make sure that people can recognise themselves and we are playing with the fears of each person.

Even with the Necropolis might be a bit far from that, we have the giant baby kind type of doll that I think is kind of a universal fear.

As you might have seen in the trailer in the other places, also some things that are maybe a bit more reminding you from daily life or fears. And yeah, that’s something that we really think a lot about when developing the game. Then on the process of that our fingers coming from like, everyone has their own fear. Everyone is sharing and like it’s just a natural thing that is emerging when you think about it.

Between the tense atmosphere , surreal visuals and ability to play with your friends via Friend Pass, it looks like Little Nightmares III is set to be another beloved entry in the horror franchise.

The title was revealed last night as part of gamescom Opening Night Live, with a release window of 2024. Our thanks to Coralie and Bandai Namco Entertainment for sharing more information about the game, ahead of its release on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.

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