What is Somerville? It seems to be an Another World-type 2.5D platform/side-scroller with heavy adventuring elements. Great aesthetics and graphics and effects for the genre, heavy doses of atmosphere and mystery, even the sound seems fantastic from the brief trailers that have been released. It's true that the studio's founder, Dino Patti, previously founded Playdead and worked on the underwhelming Limbo and Inside, but he seems to improve with every game, and this certainly looks like a massive improvement, even with what little of it we've seen.
There's an interview on RPS, but it doesn't give much away.
‘Mystery is important’ - Inside’s co-creator won’t tell us the secret of Somerville
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/0 ... omerville/
Brendan Caldwell wrote:It’s set in England. That’s all I learn about gloomy sci-fi adventure game Somerville while talking to Dino Patti, producer at Jumpship. For all those hiding under rocks which are secretly giant spiders, Patti is the former co-chief of Playdead, the studio who made Limbo and Inside. The flagship games of the sad-boy-goes-right genre. Somerville is likely to have similarities to those quiet puzzle platformers, admits Patti. It will be lacking in overt voice acting, for example. But it will also play with perspective a little, he says, in that it won’t be viewed from a solely side-on viewpoint. Apart from that, he isn’t giving much else away. Even after a thorough grilling about the mysterious name.
“It’s a sci-fi adventure,” he tells me at Gamelab Barcelona. “That’s the best explantaion. We try to keep it pretty open. We’re still playing a lot around with genres, and the interesting aspects you can have when you don’t lock down to one specific genre.
“Of course there’s a lot of concepts that we developed with those games [Limbo and Inside] that I’m keeping. And especially around the way we produce the game… We’re trying to keep things super simple. Keeping controls and stuff at the minimum, highly accessible.”
There are only a couple of teaser trailers to look at so far. One of which suggests another sideways jaunt under the threat of an unknown force. But Patti says they will likely play with different views.
“It’s full 3D and we will play around with that, also giving the game new dimensions,” he says. “I don’t feel that side-on is important.”
The rest of the interview is padding.
No platforms have been announced yet.
Official site: https://jumpship.co.uk/
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/jumpshipstudio
Teaser Trailer #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJwdc4TH4-E
Teaser Trailer #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wecsb0EiPc
TBA.
