037PREVIEW
The world’s burning around you as
cataclysmic storms bear down on
the environment. Do you search
for the cause of the problem?
Quest for the mythical MacGuffin
that will put the world back
together? Not exactly. You’re Sugar Glider, a flying
possum, and all you care about is finding a safe
place for your family, and nibbling on sweet sap.“It’s important for games to have messages, and
I think what’s really interesting is nowadays more
and more games are doing this,” says Breaking Walls’
André-Paul Johnson as we sit down to unpick Away:
The Survial Series. “We see games as one of the
most immersive mediums out there, and so it’s an
opportunity to explore important topics in a deeper
way. And so for us, a really important topic
is the issue of climate change and nature
preservation [...] it’s an issue that gets
talked about a lot, but we haven’t really
seen that conversation explored in the
world of gaming.”ANIMAL WELFUR
In the game this translates into the basic
need to outrun the oncoming storm and
find a place to survive what’s coming.
Inspired by nature documentaries like
Planet Earth, the game apes the style of
that format in order to present an emotive
struggle for survival. It’s a story you can feel
involved in and take at your own pace.
Johnson explains: “I think it sticks much
betterwhen it’s something that you feel immersed in
rather than a one-way interaction. For us it’s a great
opportunity to get players, and people in general, to
see first-hand what the world might look like if we
don’t address the issue of climate change.”
Away is set in our world, but a future one. As
Sugar Glider you discover past civilisations and ask
who these ‘creatures’ were and what went wrong.
You can do ‘gamesy’ things such as finding golden
relics and exploring the ruins of ancient structures,
but the real objective is to see our own civilisation’s
failings writ large, and be judged through the eyes of
a sweet-toothed flying furball.As well as uncovering the ‘message’
of Away, you also need to survive long
enough to see Sugar Glider’s story
unfold. There’s a complete ecosystem
in here where you can hunt and be
hunted. As the furry hero you can leap
and soar in the tree tops and take in
the world’s broad map.SHIFTING DEERS
Yet that’s not the only way to
experience the game’s world. There are
over a dozen other animals to play as
in Away’s side-missions, and they all
control in unique ways and enable you
to experience the game afresh.
“That forest that you explore as
the sugar glider will be the same
forest that you explore as as a smaller
creature. And so it’s, by and large, all
the same environments that you’re
getting to interact with, just from
different perspectives,” says Johnson.
The challenge has been to make
the game’s world look good from the
perspective of all the game’s wildlife.
When you’re scurrying around as a
beetle every blade of grass has been
modelled, but playing in the hooves of
a deer you won’t even notice the grass.
“It’s a completely different scale.
And that meant that, at least for our
art director and our art team, that the
attention to detail required to be able
to make a game that looks good at
such a small scale was tremendous,”
says Johnson, adding: “With these
various scales of animals and
perspectives, we had to put a bit more
time into making sure everything
looks good at the microscopic and the
macroscopic scales.”
Whether following the narrative
or roaming off the beaten track to
uncover the mysteries of Away’s world,
there’s a level of detail in here most
indies shy away from.AWAY: THE
SURVIVAL SERIES
Bringing animal magic to your PS4
FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2020 / PUB BREAKING WALLS / DEV BREAKING WALLSFACTRICK
The soundtrack has been
created by Planet Earth’s
composerMikeRaznick,and
heaskedtodoit.1.NATURECALLSThe game features a
working ecosystem, and
thereareover 20 animalsto
encounterin theworld.
2.OH,BEEHAVEThe team is made up of devs
who have worked on Prince
Of Persia, Far Cry, and
Assassin’s Creed.
3.UBI-UBI-DO