Ed: Hello, everybody! This is Eddie from Boss Rush Network. I’m here at Team Crescendo’s booth at PAX East 2026 with their debut game, Memoria’s Wake. I’m here with the director of Memoria Wake. Can you introduce yourself?

Cole: Hello! I’m Cole. I’m the creative director of Team Crescendo. I do a lot of the writing and gameplay, and I also do a tiny, tiny bit of the music in the game. 

Ed: Yes, well, before we get into it, I want to ask you, how did you get into video games, and how did you get into game development?

Cole: So, getting into video games, I just grew up playing an obscene amount of video games. I was a Nintendo kid. I grew up in the Wii generation. I’ve probably spent an excessive amount of hours playing Mario Kart Wii, and somehow, I never unlocked Rosalina and other secrets.

For game development, I actually got into game development through this team. We all met in college. We attended Carnegie Mellon a few years back, and this was our first project, actually. It looks nothing like it does now, but yeah, we started with Memoria Wake. It had a very different development name at the time, but now we’re here two and a half years later at PAX East. 

Ed: Oh, that’s awesome. Now, I gotta ask, while I am seeing Memoria Wake at the moment, and a lot of people are going to probably ask you this question. It looks like there are some influences from Death’s Door and Tunic. Have you played both games, and what were your thoughts about those games? Here at Boss Rush, we love those games. 

Cole: I love Death’s Door. Our biggest inspiration for the visuals of the game came from Tunic. I’m not sure because our technical director started the game. I presume that he played Tunic, and that was the visual awakening for how we wanted the game to look. Then we started playing Death’s Door a few months into developing Memorial Wake. At first, I was a little afraid because I’m like, “Oh my gosh, this is super similar to Death’s Door.” Then we started making sure that we could be inspired by Death’s Door, but we really wanted to make things super different gameplay-wise.

So our game is super combat-heavy. We do have puzzles, but they’re more meant to introduce a much larger arsenal of tools that players can use to defeat bosses, because we want to make combat very personalized, so people don’t have to use every single tool. They can test all of them out and then find what’s their favorite to defeat the very challenging bosses in the game. A lot of games do use Tunic and Death’s Door design. 

Ed: Of course, for us older gamers, we think of The Legend of Zelda because it’s an action-adventure kind of game. Has any Zelda influence also played a role in making a Memoria Wake? 

Cole: So? I didn’t play any Zelda games until Breath of the Wild because I’m basic. (chuckles) I think that, both through aesthetic and gameplay, when you think of adventure, you think of Legend of Zelda. It’s almost impossible not to be inspired by that series when you’re creating your own adventure game with your own story. In our story, we’re tackling human problems through the writing and characters, even though visually, it looks very fantastical and nonsensical throughout the entire game. 

Ed: Well, before we continue, can you break down Memoria Wake? What is the premise for the game?

Cole: So you wake up as a protagonist in a dream world where all of the environments are sculpted based on memories, but they’re distorted and augmented like a lot of dreams are. So things that the character was afraid of as a child in the first level, for example, come to life as enemies in the game. So Jack in the Boxes or Monkeys, that look very similar to that one from Toy Story 3, or a neighborhood cat, has turned into this giant monster cat in the dream world that he was very afraid of. Those are the enemies that you’ll be fighting, but of course, it matures as you go forward in time.

The second level takes place in college, right before the protagonist drops out, and he sees all of his co-students as mice, and his college advisor as this giant evil cat that gets to torture mice all day. Basically, going forward, all of the memories take place non-linearly over time, and they completely shake up the aesthetic and the metaphorical physical representation of all of the enemies. 

Ed: Are you planning to have some comedy bits and stuff, while adding some emotional parts like heartache, happiness, joy, and sadness?

Cole: Yes. The overall scope of the game, the entire story pertains a lot to self-improvement and overcoming codependency, gaining independence, and self-reliance. We want to tell this story through friendship, specifically the friendship between our protagonist and a long-lost friend. I don’t want to spoil too much about the story, but I would say it’s a very big coming-of-age story when it comes to self-responsibility. As far as heartache goes, it’s not romantic, but it’s definitely reliving and trying to repair past regrets about friendship and independence. 

Ed: Okay, so how has the development been going? Of course, development has some good times, some bad times, but has it been a great learning experience? Even if there are things that haven’t worked out, is there something that you guys as a team have taken and learned from it and said, “Maybe we could use this for our next game because it didn’t work here?”

Cole: Yes. Yeah. We’ve been working for two and a half years now, but I like to say two years roughly because, like our first year, what we had looks nothing like how it looks now. We improved so much over time. We were definitely finding our footing as a team. It definitely feels like Voltron, where you all have to be a responsible member and learn how to work together and make sure you’re not just seeing other team members as their respective roles, but also who they are as individuals.

In a more technical sense, we’ve also found so many more ways to be efficient in our workflow that I cannot wait for our next project, where we get to start with those workflows instead of constantly revising them through this project. Of course, we’re always going to keep improving. It’s definitely been a crescendo in workflow as well, which I guess helps build into the prophetic name Team Crescendo.

Ed: Have you guys as a team been wowing each other, for example, when you see something from the art team or your art director, and say “whoa”, but your art director might hear something in the music, or your programmer might be like, this is a cool storyline.

Cole: As one of the designers, I literally write down a ton of text, maybe make mood boards depending on what I’m supposed to be delivering. Then I talk to either the artist, the musician, or the programmer about what it is I want in the game. It could be something like two days later, I get this response where it’s finished, and it’s nothing like what I expected, but it’s so much better than what I expected.

I’m just blown away every time. Getting concept art and getting music tracks and seeing gameplay come to life, it’s like Christmas every day. It’s so awesome. I love being a designer. I am always so afraid every single time I want to deliver something. I’m so afraid that I’m not communicating it correctly. My team always proves me wrong. It just requires a lot of patience and making sure I’m not insecure with my own ideas. A lot of trust, I should say.

Ed: Have there been stuff that you’ve seen and been like, “Ooh, we could make merch out of this?” 

Cole: Yeah. Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, tragically, there’ve been scrapped characters that I love. Yeah, but then there are characters that we could definitely make merch out of. Our first level is literally toys. I think that’s not too difficult a prophecy to fulfill. I think that merch-wise, if we ever get the funding to make merch, we can make some really fun merch. So buy the game in a year. For example, the mask or the Skarsgården. Our bear NPC that you meet in level one could also be one. There’s a lot of merch that we can make. 

Ed: That’s cool, that’s cool. Speaking of music and everything, do you guys feel like when all the tracks are finished, you’re thinking of doing a digital album or releasing a physical CD?

Cole: Yes, there will be something. I’m unable to discuss it due to contractual obligations, but there will be a way to access the music without playing the game.

Ed: Oh, okay. We definitely love our collectibles, and soundtracks have become big for indie games. When it comes to development, we don’t really talk about music in games. When we hear it, we want that soundtrack, or even if there’s a concert that may feature that music. Would that be something that you may hope for in the future at Team Crescendo?

Cole: Yes, that would be a dream. I was a music student. I graduated with a degree in electronic music. I love music. Yeah, I’m obsessed. What I love about games is that there’s so much art in one bundle. There’s so much music, there’s so much extra artwork that, sure, its used for the game, but also could be its own standalone product and for people to enjoy outside of the game as well.

I would love it if we could have collectibles or some kind of deliverable for people where they could listen to the music or just get to have an art book on their own. We don’t have plans, but of course, I would love to do it. You know, it’s definitely on my priority list, and I want to convince the team. I don’t know if they’re convinced or not, but I would love to convince them that it would be a cool goal to reach. 

Ed: Hopefully, you could do a remix album. 

Cole: Yes. Yeah, our remix album would be an EDM remix of Memorial’s Wake.

Ed: I WOULD BUY THAT QUICKLY!!! Before we get to the end of the interview, would you like to see gamers play covers of the music with their own interpretation and in different genres?

Cole: I would love to. I love experimentation, and I love accessibility. So if people were to make covers on the strangest instruments or the strangest platforms ever, like when people build like analog synthesizers and then cover songs, that is my favorite stuff ever. If people were to do that, I would be blown away and probably in tears. If someone did a cover of a song, for example, on spoons or glasses or something, that would be awesome. Yeah, I would just love to foster a community of artists surrounding the game. That would be a dream. I would be so amazed and enamored if that were to happen. 

Ed: Are you glad to get the feedback from players who are experiencing the game, maybe for the first time, who are just learning about it, and they’re giving you feedback about what they like, and what they didn’t like? I believe this is your first PAX. 

Cole: This is our first PAX East. 

Ed: First PAX East? Okay. Were you at PAX West? 

Cole: We were. 

Ed: WHEN? 

Cole: In August, we were at PAX West 2025. That was our first PAX. That was our first convention, actually, which was PAX West 2025 in August. 

Ed: How did I miss you? 

Cole: We were super small. I don’t know. We’re still, I mean, we’re still small, but, like, that was our first thing ever. 

Ed: Oh no, I’m so sorry. I feel bad. I was at PAX West 2025, and I had a lot of appointments. I don’t know if I got an appointment for you guys or anything. 

Cole: We were all the way in the back. I mean, our first PAX went so well. Preparing for it was the most stressful thing on this planet, especially the day before the convention hall opened, because we knew we had a booth, but we had no clue how to decorate it, and we had no clue what to do. We were literally running laps between here and the target on that street in Seattle and the convention hall. I’m glad that you’re here at PAX East because I feel like we’re definitely more prepared physically in the booth. We do have more exclusive content here as well, which is very fun. We did have content at PAX West that was exclusive, but here we have even more exclusive content that people get to play. 

Ed: Nice, nice. Well, I just got two more questions before I go. This year, I plan to do a project called The Beauty of Video Games. This year is focusing on Personal Interest. It’s celebrating media that means so much to that person. You know, it’s their personal interest. They find beauty in it when others don’t. Is there a game that means the world to you? That you found beauty in it that many others might not know of or have heard about? If it’s not a video game, it could be a movie, it could be artwork, music, or it could be whatever. What do you feel like is a personal interest in that? How did you find beauty in it? 

Cole: Oh my gosh, this is such a tough question. I think, okay, I do have a pseudo video game. It’s like a game that doesn’t exist. It’s a game manual for like an old retro game that doesn’t exist. It’s called Apple Quest. I love it. It’s so cute, and it’s so aesthetically coherent and pleasing, and I would do anything to make a game, let alone a manual, like that. I’m obsessed with reading through it over and over and over again. 

I think it gives me both so much nostalgia for what I love in video games, which is combos and creature collecting. I know it’s not a creature collector, but it’s like there are so many quirky characters throughout that manual, and it seems random, but it also feels like there’s so much story conveyed in so little text per page. I love that, and I want to become more skilled at using fewer words to convey more stories. I want visuals and art to tell the story, rather than having to read stuff. 

Ed: That’s The Last Guardian for me. How Team Ico was able to tell a story through visuals. Even Neva by Nomada Studios. I love Nomada Studios. With Nomada Studios having two games out, they tell such a compelling story just through the visuals. 

The Last Guardian just had me in my feels. Well, my last question is, what is your go-to snack? Maybe you’re working on the project. Maybe it’s the weekend. You get time to relax. What is that go-to snack for you? It could be a comfort snack. It could be a new snack that we don’t know about that we should check out. What is that go-to snack for you? 

Cole: Okay, tragically, I love mixing things up, but in the past, I used to be absolutely addicted to seaweed. On average, three times a day. Then one day, something snapped within me, and I couldn’t eat another leaf of seaweed.

It’s been a few years since then, so I think I’m going to pick it up again. Just the plain salted seaweed. No flavors, just the plain flavor. I love seaweed.

 Eddie: I need to try it again now that I’m talking about it because it used to come in the bag, right?

Cole: Yeah, it’s like little trays of 20 sheets of seaweed. Yeah, I devoured those. 

Ed: That’s good. Where can people find you, and where can people find the team and learn more about this game? 

Cole: Yes, so we have a website for both Team Crescendo and Memorial Wake, but we’re also on Steam. We have a page for the official game, and we do have a demo of level one that you can download and play. It’s about an hour to two hours. Yeah, please play it.

Please leave feedback. Of course, reach out to the team. Join our Discord. We have a community Discord that you can find on the website. If you did come to PAX and you grabbed a postcard, we have QR codes for all of that. 

Ed: Yeah. Are you thinking of bringing the game to console in the future? Maybe Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation? 

Cole: So I would love to. I can’t guarantee anything. I won’t say that we’re definitely not trying. 

Ed: I could tell you right now by looking at the game, oh, this is an Indie World Direct title I would love to see. 

Cole: Yeah, I agree. I agree. Yeah. Hit us up, Nintendo. Hit us up. 

Ed: Well, everybody, please check out Memoria Wake on Steam. Go wishlist this game. Follow the team at Team Crescendo. Cole, thank you so much for this interview.

Cole:  Thank you so much for coming to our PAX booth. I can’t wait for you to try out the game.

You can wishlist Memoria Wake and download the free demo here.

Does Memoria Wake look right up your alley for a game? Let us know in the comments or on our Discord.

Featured Image: Team Crescendo

Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast about Video Games

The Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast about Video Games – is the flagship show of the Boss Rush Network and Boss Rush Media. Each week, hosts⁠ Corey Dirrig and LeRon Dawkins⁠ are joined by friends, fellow creators, indie developers, and industry veterans to discuss the latest in the world of video games, including news, rumors, new releases, and what they’ve been playing. They also answer listener questions, debate important industry topics and Boss Rush Banter discussion points, and feature a rotating weekly segment. New episodes post every Monday.

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