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PlaySide Studios, Australia’s largest indie recreation studio, introduced the psychological thriller digital actuality recreation Shattered for the Meta Quest 3 and 3S VR headsets.
The Melbourne-based studio payments the sport as a groundbreaking mixed-reality labyrinth of escape rooms and mind-twisting puzzles. The intent is to enshroud gamers into an immersive expertise the place actuality and reminiscence intertwine, difficult each notion and problem-solving abilities.
Shattered is a single-player recreation set to launch late 2024, and you may see an unique have a look at the gameplay within the video.
I spoke with Jamie Bentley, vice chairman at PlaySide; govt producer Ivan Ertlov and recreation product advertising and marketing supervisor Aaron Krause at Meta.
“Put together to lose your thoughts on the planet of Shattered, the place actuality is only a puzzle ready to be unraveled,” mentioned Bentley. “We’re excited to be working with Oculus Studios to convey this gripping escape room thriller that blurs the strains between reminiscence and insanity to Meta Quest customers. This December, immerse your self in a recreation that transforms your actuality—actually.”
Distinctive gameplay
Shattered invitations gamers to step into the footwear of a non-public investigator named Jessica, who’s tasked with unraveling the darkish secrets and techniques of a twisted psychological well being facility. This mixed-reality journey transforms your residing house right into a dynamic playground, permitting you to work together together with your setting in unprecedented methods. Navigate by way of eerie vignettes full of intricate puzzles and unsettling situations, all whereas exploring the fragmented recollections of the enigmatic Jessica.
In Shattered, actuality is only a puzzle ready to be unraveled. Trapped in a mysterious psychological well being facility, your perceptions can’t be trusted. To flee, you will need to flip your bodily house right into a labyrinth of escape rooms and manipulate objects throughout digital and combined actuality to resolve complicated puzzles. Examine and alter recollections to bend actuality itself to your will as you accumulate the mandatory proof to show the secrets and techniques of Greyvale and escape to security.
Shattered doesn’t put you in a state of psychosis or trigger psychological discomfort past the same old suspense in a thriller. Relatively, Shattered lets the participant expertise distortions of actuality and subjective recollections by way of the eyes of the protagonist (Jessica), whose notion of actuality appears to be closely altered. This may be in comparison with our inspirations just like the basic psychological films Shutter Island and Inception. The query of what’s actual and what not is one for each the protagonist and the participant.
Ertlov famous he was a psychologist earlier than he bought into recreation work. On this recreation, the story delves into the idea of subjective recollections, which signifies that your recollections aren’t dependable and are constructed in some sort of biased means.
The investigator Jessica experiences outdated recollections which are distorted, and she or he has to control the setting to be able to come to change the recollections and get to the subsequent stage.
“Now we have totally different ranges of actuality, and none of them is dependable,” Ertlov mentioned. “You need to continually query what’s actual. What’s a reminiscence? What is a crucial reminiscence? And if I modify one thing within the reminiscence, how does it have an effect on the subsequent degree of actuality?”
It’s a bit of just like the movie Inception on this means, with mind-bending puzzles, Ertlov mentioned. The crew labored on the mission for about 2.5 years. For elements of the sport, it may possibly solely be achieved in VR, Bentley mentioned.
“There’s no combined actuality recreation like this,” Bentley mentioned. “We will hold you engaged for six to eight hours in combined actuality.”
I noticed a little bit of a demo of the sport. You possibly can see your individual room by way of the combined actuality imagery of your VR headset, however there are issues like cracks within the partitions that offer you a window into one other place. It seems to be actual as a result of the digital room aligns with the size of your bodily room.
The sport takes place in a metropolis like Boston within the Nineteen Nineties, so there aren’t any ubiquitous smartphones or digital recorders and such.
You possibly can Wishlist the sport now and discover extra details about Shattered on the official Meta Quest
Retailer. Shattered is meant for ages 13+. Rankings range by area. The sport will promote for $20 within the U.S. and the equal value in different nations. It doesn’t have a launch date but however is coming in December.
Background
PlaySide Studios has made video games akin to Age of Darkness: Ultimate Stand, and the Dumb Methods to Die franchise, and it’s the writer for Mouse, Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown and Dynasty of the Sands.
Following greater than a decade of video games improvement, and over 70 titles launched throughout cell, PC, and
VR/AR, PlaySide Studios’ latest authentic IP launches have included the award-winning RTS Age of Darkness: Ultimate Stand, and have seen the studio acknowledged as Studio of the 12 months on the Australian Sport Developer Awards 2023.
The corporate was began by Gerry Sakkas as a cell studio in 2011, with hit video games like Catch the Ark. The corporate expanded into work for rent. It added PC and console video games, after which moved into VR. It labored on video games for others like Dumb Methods to Die and extra. It began working with Meta as the corporate launched its Meta Quest headsets and financed lots of VR and combined actuality video games.
In 2020, PlaySide went public, and it has since grown to a few studios and 370 folks in Australia and New Zealand. Recently, it’s doing extra authentic IP than work-for-hire video games. This specific crew had about 50 folks on it. In VR, you may make that sort of funding and get an excellent return, the corporate believes.
“It’s a brand new ocean,” Bentley mentioned, concerning VR. “The ecosystem for the headsets is getting extra secure. There are hundreds of thousands of headsets on the market.”
The sport doesn’t actually go too far into horror, as that may inhibit demand. It walks a stability between compelling narrative and thriller moments.
Krause at Meta mentioned, “It is a distinctive title. We all know our viewers actually loves new experiences. That is one thing that hasn’t been achieved earlier than, but in addition is one thing that individuals will respect — those that love puzzles, love escape rooms, love the thrills and one thing utterly totally different.”
