Outer Wilds
| Outer Wilds | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Team Outer Wilds |
| Publisher(s) | Team Outer Wilds |
| Director(s) | Alex Beachum |
| Producer(s) | Sarah Scialli[1] |
| Engine | Unity |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Linux, OS X[2] |
| Release date(s) | TBA |
| Genre(s) | Open world exploration |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Outer Wilds is an open world exploration indie video game. It won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Excellence in Design at the 2015 Independent Games Festival Awards. It has no scheduled release date and is in development for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and OS X.
Gameplay
In Outer Wilds, the player-character is an astronaut with twenty minutes[1] to explore a "quirky and condensed galaxy".[3] The player starts on a small planet, looking at the sky. The view tilts to show a rocket, which needs launch codes from an observatory close by. There is a tutorial sequence in a nearby zero gravity cave. After launching into space, the player can explore the local solar system. For example, the player can land on a water planet and swim with jellyfish, or land and wander on a "space geode".[4] If the player accidentally dies, they respawn on the home planet.[4]
Development
Outer Wilds began as Alex Beachum's USC Interactive Media & Games Division master's thesis and grew into a full-production commercial release. He started the project in late 2012 for his yearlong thesis and "Advanced Game Project" assignment. Beachum had previously made a three-dimensional platformer out of Lego bricks as a kid, and was uninterested in a career in games until applying to the Interactive Media program. The original team members were University of Southern California, Laguna College of Art and Design, and Atlantic University College students.[1]
Beachum's original ideas were to recreate the Apollo 13 and 2001: A Space Odyssey "spirit of space exploration" in an uncontrollable environment, and to make an objective-less open world game where exploration would satiate the player's questions without feeling "aimless".[1] They started by working with "paper prototypes" and a "tabletop role-playing session" to brainstorm a narrative. The team built the game in the Unity3D game engine. They later wrote the game as a text adventure in Processing. After Beachum's graduation, the project hired members full-time to work towards a commercial release, with Beachum as creative director.[1]
As of March 2015, the game was in alpha release and available for free download from the developer's site.[3] The development team were writing a central conceit into the game.[4] No release date has been announced.[4]
Reception
At the 2015 GDC Independent Games Festival, Outer Wilds won in the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Excellence in Design categories. It was an honorable mention in the Excellence in Narrative and Nuovo Award categories.[5] The game was still in alpha release at this point.[4]
Multiple critics compared the game's time-limited concept to that of Majora's Mask.[4][1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Cameron, Phill (January 27, 2015). "Road to the IGF: Alex Beachum's Outer Wilds". Gamasutra. UBM Tech. Archived from the original on March 11, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
- ↑ http://outerwilds.com/downloads/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Savage, Phil (March 4, 2015). "Outer Wilds wins IGF grand prize". PC Gamer. Future Publishing. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Warr, Philippa (March 5, 2015). "Lunching In Space With IGF Winner Outer Wilds". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on March 11, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
- ↑ Pitcher, Jenna (March 4, 2015). "OUTER WILDS LEADS THE 17TH ANNUAL INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL AWARDS". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on March 11, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
External links
Media related to Outer Wilds at Wikimedia Commons
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