Superhot

For the Fahrenheit album, see Super Hot.
Superhot

Developer(s) SUPERHOT Team
Engine Unity
Platform(s) Windows
OS X
Linux
Xbox One
Release date(s)
  • WW June 2015
Genre(s) First-person shooter
Mode(s) Single-player

Superhot (stylized as SUPERHOT) is an independently-developed first-person shooter (FPS) video game, created by Piotr Iwanicki and SUPERHOT Team as part of the 2013 7 Day FPS Challenge. The game, as developed from the challenge, was originally released as a browser-based game in September 2013; a full release is currently under development. While the game controls like a first-person shooter, with the player attempting to take out enemy targets, time within the game only progresses when the player moves; this creates the opportunity for the player to assess their situation and respond appropriately, making the gameplay similar to strategy-based games.

Gameplay

In Superhot, time only moves forward when the player moves, giving them situational awareness to alter their course to avoid the path of oncoming bullets.

The web demonstration of Superhot sets the player as an unnamed agent in a minimalistic office environment, taking out characters that are trying to kill him. Weapons picked up by the player have limited ammunition, requiring the player to rely on defeating enemies to get more ammo, or making melee kills. Taking a single hit from an enemy bullet can kill the player, requiring them to restart the level. Though the game mechanics are typical of most shooters, the distinguishing feature is that time only moves forward at normal speed when the player moves the character, otherwise time moves very slowly. This gives the player the opportunity to alter their actions as to avoid the path of bullets or to better assess their current situation. The game has been referenced as the "Braid of first-person shooters", in which the time mechanic makes the shooter more like a strategy game than a shooter.[1] The developers have captured this mechanic in the game's simple instruction "time moves only when you do".[2] The game has been compared thematically to The Matrix film franchise and the Max Payne video game series,[3] and with environments described by Wired UK‍ '​s Philippa Warr as playing "through Quentin Tarantino's version of the Mad Men opening credits".[4]

SUPERHOT Team has stated that the full game is expected to be as long as Portal, and has planned to add in more weapons, explosives and subsequent explosions that can harm the player, and enemies that have similar awareness as the player and can dodge the player's bullets.[5]

Development

Superhot was developed for the 2013 7 Day FPS Challenge, held that August, in which teams of programmers were given a week to develop complete, functional prototypes for games. Iwanicki was inspired by a Flash game, "Time4Cat", in which the player controls a cat trying to collect food on a busy road intersection; time only moves when the player moves the cat.[2][6] They also considered the music video for the 2013 song "Bad Motherfuckers" by the Russian band Biting Elbows, which shows, from a first-person perspective, a special agent escaping from a hostage situation through parkour and gunplay.[2][7] They combined these ideas for the Challenge prototype. The name itself is based on considering the two words "super" and "hot", alone, are "positive" and "intense" and made for a good mantra within the game.[2]

The Challenge prototype only featured three levels across three computers, which to meet the deadline the team strung together in 3 separate applications and called the game episodic.[2] They since refined the game and released it as a free browser game in September 2013, upon where it received a great deal of attention from players,[2] along with placing the game on the Steam Greenlight process.[2] Within a week, the game had been successfully approved for later distribution by Valve, and was the fastest game to be processed through the Greenlight system at the time.[3][8]

In May 2014, the development team launched a Kickstarter campaign to make Superhot a full release, including improve of the art design, new levels and challenges, and support for the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift.[9] They had planned on starting a Kickstarter drive to fund publication after their success on getting through Steam Greenlight, but wanted to give the game more polish before offering the crowdfunding opportunity. This included tuning some of the gameplay, such as adding a katana that could be used to cut oncoming bullets in half. When they went to start the Kickstarter, they ran into problems being from Poland, a country not supported by Kickstarter at the time. This gave the team more time to improve the game while the issues were resolved, allowing them to continue to build up the art assets for the Kickstarter promotion.[10] The Kickstarter met its goal within the first day of going live, allowing the Superhot team to identify additional stretch goals including improved animations and replay mode.[11] Luke Spierewka, a programmer on the team, believed the success of their Kickstarter was in part due to the availability of the browser-enabled demonstration that allowed potential funders to experience the game's concept hands-on.[10] The campaign ended with more than $230,000 in pledged funding, allowing the team to add in New Game Plus+ mode. Cliff Bleszinski is designing a level for the game since he pledged for the Kickstarter tier that lets a backer to co-design an arena stage.[12]

An early prototype of the game using Oculus Rift support was shown during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014. The Rift-enabled version included the added gameplay feature of allowing the player to lean the character to side by leaning their bodies, and rotating the character's view separate from their bodies motion. Many journalists that played this demonstration compared the experience to being like the characters of Neo or Morpheus from the film The Matrix, exemplifying the game's use of the Rift as innovative compared to other Rift-enabled games.[13][14][15]

Superhot was listed as an honorable mention for the Nuovo Award for the 2014 Independent Games Festival Awards.[16]

At Gamescom 2014, Microsoft announced that Superhot would be available on Xbox One via ID@Xbox.[17]

References

  1. ↑ Crabtree, Dan (2013-09-14). "The Braid of First-Person Shooters Is Totally Free". Kotaku. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Polson, John (2013-09-16). "The origin and future of frozen time FPS hit SUPERHOT, and the positive crunching behind it". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Souppouris, Aaron (2013-09-19). "Play this: 'Superhot' is an FPS and a bullet-time puzzler rolled into one addictive game". The Verve. Retrieved 2013-09-19.
  4. ↑ Warr, Philippa (2013-09-11). "Superhot -- a super cool FPS with a relaxed attitude to time". Wired UK. Retrieved 2013-09-19.
  5. ↑ Matulef, Jeffery (2013-09-21). "Superhot is an FPS where time only moves when you do". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2013-09-21.
  6. ↑ Ligman, Kris (2010-09-10). "'Time4Cat': Of Time, Perception and Fatality". Pop Matters. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
  7. ↑ Naishuller, Ilya. Biting Elbows - 'Bad Motherfucker' Official Music Video. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
  8. ↑ Savage, Phil (2013-09-16). "SuperHot dodges its way to Steam Greenlight for an expanded version". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
  9. ↑ Savov, Vlav (2014-05-14). "'Superhot' seeks $100,000 to become the next great first-person shooter". The Verve. Retrieved 2014-05-14.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Sarkar, Samit (2014-05-22). "How Superhot's playable prototype led to Kickstarter success in one day". Polygon. Retrieved 2014-05-22.
  11. ↑ Savage, Phil (2014-05-15). "Less than 24 hours after launch, the SUPERHOT Kickstarter is funded". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
  12. ↑ Hall, Charlie (11 July 2014). "Cliff Bleszinski's next game level is being made in Poland right now". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  13. ↑ Hamilton, Kirk (2014-06-11). "An Oculus Rift Game That Let Me Be Neo From The Matrix". Kotaku. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
  14. ↑ Lahti, Evan (2014-06-12), "Superhot on the Oculus Rift made me feel like Neo from The Matrix", PC Gamer, retrieved 2014-06-13
  15. ↑ Gilbert, Ben (2014-06-12). "How I got stabbed in the chest at E3 2014 (an Oculus Rift tale)". Engadget. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
  16. ↑ "2014 Independent Games Festival announces Main Competition finalists". Gamasutra. 2014-01-07. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
  17. ↑ Welsh, Oli (2014-08-12). "Space Engineers, Super Hot, Smite, Goat Simulator head Xbox One indie charge". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2014-08-12.

External links