111166 JJUULLYY^2202200 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|IISSSUUEE^38899
item,Iknowthischaracterbehavesinthis
way,soifIdothisthenIchangethe
behaviourofthatcharacter’,”Cecilsays.
“We’renotlookingtofrustratethem.”
Hegivesanexampleofahackable,
internet-connecteddrinksmachineinthe
newgame.
“It’spossibletoswapthelogicaroundso,
by default, the machine would figureif
someone had permission to get adrink and
dispense if so or refuse if not. If you tilt the
machine,itcould set off an alarm.
“Byalteringthe logic, the player can have
the machine set off the alarminstead of
dispensing adrink, drawing over asecurity
droid who might be guarding something else.
The person who expected his drink is
surprised because what theyexpected to
happen hasn’t happened. The world is
temporarily disrupted.”
CREATING AWORLD
The world is also looking better than ever.
Beneath aSteel Skywas astylish game
thanks to the work of English comics artist
Dave Gibbons who,with writer Alan Moore,
developedtheacclaimedminiseries
Watchmen.Hedesignedtheoriginaltitle’s
backgroundsandcharacters,aswellasa
stunningintrothatwasreplicatedina
printedcomicbundledinthegame’sbox.
Gibbonshasbeeninvolvedwiththesequel.
“Ourvisionistocreatealookwherea
singleframeappearsasifithascomefroma
comic book,”Cecil says.
“Wealsohaveour own proprietary
software called To onToy. What this does is
take an object and effectively ink it in real
time.Itputs an ink line around the outside
and we control howthick and what colour
that line is.
“This is done very much to mimic the art
style of acomic book, and it has the
advantage of making the backgrounds much
cleaner to look at, which means players can
look around foritems that maybeofuse.
So yes, the aimwas to createalook that is
beautiful and feels like an interactive comic
book to assist players and help them
overcome puzzles.”
At the moment, Cecil is unsure when the
game will be released. It was announced in
March 2019 duringtherevealofApple
Arcadebut,asCecil,whoworksfroman
officeinthehistoricShamblesinYork,
tellsus,thecoronaviruspandemichas
hitdevelopment.
“It’sfeasibleforustobedevelopingfrom
home,butourofficeiswherewedothe
designandthescripting,workingwith
externalpartners,”hesays.
Thereweremurmursthatitwouldbe
outinearly2020,butitwillnowbealittle
later.Evenso,Cecilreckonswe’llbepleased
withtheresult.
“Iwasbeingtoldthatadventureswere
deadinthelater1990sandwewere
strugglingtofindpublisherstofund
developmentofnewgames,butherewere
arein 2020 withasequel,”hesays.
“Whatwehaveisanopportunity.We’re
not constrained by shelf space any more
because we’re distributing digitally and we
already have aloyalfan base.There’s still
going to be amix of the dramatic and slightly
ludicrous, as there is in all of ourgames. It’s
also going to be entirely possible to play
Beyond aSteel Skywithout having tried
Beneath aSteel Sky.”
That said, it’s still worth revisiting Beneath
aSteel Sky. The game was released as
freeware forthe PC in 2003 and it can be
played without charge by visitinggog.com
today. The sitealsoallows you to download
the manual and the comic.
“It’s worth giving it ago, because much of
what existed in the original has repercussions
in Beyond aSteel Sky,”saysCecil.
“I think people are going to love it.”
⬆Thegameissettobeamajorreleaseforthe
AppleArcadeplatform,anditwillalsobereleased
onPCandotherformats
⬅Althoughitdoesn’texplicitlysayso,thegame
issetinafuturisticAustraliaandincludesthe
outback,or‘TheGap’asit’sreferredto
