Nearly everything in Hirogami is made of paper, which makes Hiro, “a fan-wielding master of the art of ‘folding,’” as publisher Kakehashi Games puts it, especially powerful. Even Hiro himself is made of paper, able to stretch out as a crinkled, single sheet to slip under a small gap or fold up into an expertly creased paper airplane to soar over large distances. When a mysterious, digital entity called the Blight threatens the fragility of the setting, it’s Hiro who must restore peace to Hirogami’s world.

Hirogami was created by a small team of seven full-time developers at Bandai Namco Studios; it’s part of an internal game development initiative that lets small teams at the company develop their own games. The developers, who work at Bandai Namco Studios’ Singapore and Malaysia offices, stepped away from supporting the company's Tekken or Ace Combat games to create an original indie game: Hirogami. Hirogami, which is set to be published on September 3, is a 3D action platforming game that draws inspiration from the Japanese art of origami. When the Blight hits, Hiro heads out to fight the invaders using the nature and versatility of paper to his advantage, folding or unfolding into different shapes to complete puzzles or fight enemies. 

The nature of paper—it’s a humble, natural, and fragile thing—makes Hirogami especially compelling. “A world made of paper invites wonder and conveys an impression of raw creativity,” says Creative Director Yandhie Pratopo, “and it naturally speaks to themes of impermanence and transformation, which resonated deeply with our narrative goals.” He adds that the team knew from the beginning that origami would shape the world and Hirogami’s core identity, but found it “tricky” to balance tradition with a reinvention of the art form. “There were times we felt just as crumpled and worn as Hiro himself, but the beauty of the project came from that imperfection,” Pratopo says.

The studio wanted to create something unmistakably origami-inspired in the way Hiro’s transformations fold and unfold. “Our design mantra was always ‘gameplay first,’” says Lead Game Designer Yi Han Yong. “Every fold, shape, and silhouette needed to support what the character could do. When we designed the character, we didn’t just chase cool visuals. We made sure each form functioned in harmony with its mechanics. Gary Choo, our art director, was meticulous about how joints and folds would work in motion. He ensured, for example, that the paper is folded in the right place, allowing for clean, expressive attacks and smooth transitions in animation.”

Yong says that paper’s flexibility to fold, roll, or crumple gave the team lots of gameplay options, too. Paper can often look soft or delicate, and that fragility had to be balanced against the weightiness of a world that feels grounded and real. The tension between the delicate nature of paper and the vibrance of a living world is “at the heart of Hirogami,” Pratopo says. 

“We leaned into the fragility, the creases, the texture, the wear, and made sure it felt authentic,” he adds. “To balance that, we brought in vibrant colors (at times strategically worn out and faded), bold characters, and dynamic animations to keep the world lively and expressive.” 

The studio animated the world and its paper characters in a stop-motion style, something that Yong says they expected to be simple and fitting for Hirogami. But it turned out to be a major technical challenge to keep paper folds consistent across Hiro’s different transformations. “Finding a way to blend gameplay with that handcrafted look took months of iteration,” he says.

What the team ended up with is a world that feels alive, like “a place with history, culture, and soul,” Pratopo says. Hirogami should give the player a sense of “quiet wonder,” he adds, “like they’re unfolding a forgotten memory.

“The story isn’t just about saving a world, it’s about appreciating the beauty in flaws, and finding resilience in an imperfect self.”

Hirogami unfolds on the Epic Games Store on September 3.