Over the past few years, gamed -designers gradually developed the tradition of driving the player by the hand, give him tips at every step and protect him from any difficulties. All complex decisions in the fate of certain heroes are made somewhere on the side, by the gods-scenaries, and we can only burn on the buttons in time and observe what is happening.
The Spanish team of Destructeam developers acts on the contrary and creates a game where everything is entirely dependent on the actions and decisions of the player himself. We are entrusted with the lives of strangers who find themselves in a difficult situation, and we choose which of them to live, and to whom – to die.
"Gods" will be silently observed.
[[Videoid_12470]] no_desc [[/videoid_12470]]
Threw themselves on indie
Idea Gods Will Be Watching It arose after a foreign game jam Ludum Dare, where each team is given for three days, for which you need to blind the game from scratch. Gods Will Be Watching, of course, noticed, the game took second place and received enthusiastic reviews from both the press and from the players. The developers were inspired, requested 8,000 euros from the audience to create a full -fledged project – and collected one and a half times more.
The quest consists entirely of making decisions in stressful circumstances. In the version for Ludum Dare, for example, such a situation was presented. A modest group – a dog, a robot, a doctor, a psychologist, an engineer, a soldier and captain – found herself on a snowy planet, where Medusa’s deadly virus bears a beast. The team broke the radio, by which they could cause help. It's Scarab Wins sister sites okay, the team knows that in forty days a friendly ship will fly past the planet. During this time, you need to have time to fix the radio and try to save the crew members in good health. However, it is not so easy to do it.
► torture scene. Our heroes get in full. To survive, you will have to weigh every solution.
The second day on the planet. The whole group died due to negligence, and the engineer looked like Jack Torrence at the end of the “radiance”-the same dead and stiff. It turns out that fire in the fire must be constantly maintained so that no one died from frostbite.
A new attempt. This time we ignite the fire and begin to monitor the provisions. There is constantly not enough food, only soldiers and dog can get it. Unpleasant details are almost immediately being clarified. Firstly, the team can catch the virus. Secondly, it will not be possible to actively hunt-wild animals sometimes attack the camp at night, and if the soldier was removing all the cartridges for the production of food, wait for trouble.
All this is fraught with a severe psychological climate in the team: people are afraid, nervous and look and look in a panic where their eyes look, leaving all the hopes for salvation. Only an engineer and a robot can repair the radio: the piece of iron is not very good, and a person is weak in body and spirit, it will not be easy for him to last forty days before the arrival of transport.
► Here you need to hack the enemy system and get data from it, simultaneously controlling the situation with the hostages.
We act on behalf of the captain, and it is we will have to resolve all the problems that have developed. Every day we can make only five decisions, and the next morning we are faced with their consequences. Forgot to light a fire? All are dead. Fuck people hunger for now? Oh, someone died of exhaustion (the game is like a person without food can stretch much longer than a couple of days). They did not notice how someone picked up the "Medusa"? Watch the funeral march. The game does not forgive mistakes and this reminds something Hotline Miami, where for the successful completion of the level it is necessary to replay many times, since everything can happen.
The group perceives any loss among comrades very painfully. If the misfortune happened with someone, Stiring someone ailment to take a bony-the members of the detachment instantly fall into depression, begin to roll up tantrums and give up their hands. It’s good if the psychologist is alive – she is able to conduct a session of group psychotherapy, and she immediately feels like it, but all the daily goals will go to it, which can lead to catastrophic consequences, especially if you launched the farm in the camp on a duckling.
► How we create a saving antidote, one God knows.
God is the judge to you
What is curious, the game does not have an interface in the usual sense. To evaluate the situation and understand what is happening around, you will have to pay close attention to people's behavior. All that we have is a dialog box where actions are selected; otherwise there are no tips and no help. They did not notice that the soldier behaves strangely and stopped trembling from the cold – the next day he will die from the virus. They did not talk to the nervous engineer in time? In vain, he will run away and will not repair anything.
► What does this symbol mean, we can only find out in the full version of the game.
This makes the game rather complicated, and not everyone will be able to cope with it from the first or second time. If in the first week everything becomes incredibly sad, then it will be completely dreary: the thirtieth day, there are no cartridges for hunting, there is no food too. A psychologist helps a little, and indeed an extra mouth … to get at least some chance to survive, we kill our subordinates. Most of all, this upset the engineer – the girl was his wife.
That is why the Gods Will Be Watching will have two complexity modes – one simpler, for those who are not used to jumping above their heads, but who is interested in the plot; And the other for those who are ready to dig the earth with their nose for the successful completion of the task, no matter what it costs.
► Situation with broken radio. Try to allow it to be allowed all comers completely free by going to the official website of the game.
Survival on an unfriendly planet does not limit yourself. There will be six scenarios in the game, and all of them are very different from each other. In one of them, we are interrogated by the abductors who are trying to find out valuable information and use it for their terrible purposes.
Here we will again have to stretch a certain number of days, having gotten into the role of the prisoner. It is impossible to tell the whole truth, otherwise we will be killed as unnecessary, but it will not work endlessly either, because we are tortured, knee cups are crushed, they shoot in our hands – we can easily die from injuries.
The notorious decisions come into action again: how, when and what to say, who, after the next day, torture the medicine delivered to us by a secret ally. Or maybe instead of drugs we will want to get information from him that we can use to powder the enemy brains? It all depends on you.
► Statistics prototype, where you can track the decisions we have made and other players.
In the manner, the game looks like The Walking Dead, Only there there was an illusion of choice and key solutions were taken into account, and in the project from the Spaniards each action has weight. Are you ready to kill and eat your dog or any of the members of the detachment for the sake of survival of the rest of the group? Do you kill the hostage to intimidate all others and prevent a possible riot? You will look for a vaccine, experiencing a virus on yourself or on someone else? The developers themselves call their game a thriller, which is quite reasonable. Difficult questions arise literally every five minutes.
* * *
Since the action of each of the scenarios occurs only on one location, the plot in the GODS Will Be Watching has a key role. Another thing is that while there is no coherent story in the game, this is just a set of situations and heroes. Much will depend on how deeply it will be possible to work out and humanize the characters. The game primarily takes an unusual approach, providing freedom of choice and without setting the framework. The barrier here is more psychological and is built by the player himself. Could not creatively approach the solution of a particular problem? Said the psychologist to the dog? Shot the hostage? Fixing the radio is more important than curing a deadly sick soldier? Well, God is a judge.
Stage of development
The game is almost ready and comes out in two weeks.
We will wait?
Unusual presentation and interesting situations. We hope that Gods Will Be Watching will not turn us into monsters.