Early AccessAttract Mode
12 / wfmag.cc Tamarin has Mario 64
and Banjo-Kazooie to
thank for inspiring its
explorative elements.Early AccessAttract Mode
Chameleon Games’ platformer could be a return to a Rare-like golden age
he rise of 3D games in the 1990s
represented a sea change among
the industry’s leading developers.
Rare, with its offbeat brand of
humour, iconic characters, and
excellent mechanics, emerged as one of the
era’s shining lights of the British industry.
The ever-changing face of the gaming
landscape meant that Rare’s influence would
wane in the years to come, but its legacy
remains an inspiration. Tamarin, Chameleon
Games’ upcoming action-adventure platformer,
wants to build on Rare’s heritage and revisit
what made the Banjo and Donkey games
so great.
“If you look at SNES and N64 games then
they’re the most celebrated era of what they
did,” Omar Sawi, Tamarin’s creative director,
explains. “What’s really fascinating about them
is that they had a variety of games that aren’t
around anymore. They had shooters and
platformers and, later on, they had titles thatmixed the two. Blending Tamarin’s cute graphics
with the adult themes is something that I was
inspired by, and is a celebration of those games.”
Tamarin sees players take control of a baby
Tamarin – a small monkey, basically – that sets
out to protect its family and home from an
invading horde of intelligent ants. Comparisons
to humanity’s impact on the natural world
are evident from the get-go, with the ants
ransacking the Tamarins’ habitat and consuming
their resources. It’s a core theme that drives the
game’s plot despite not forcefully pointing the
finger at players.
“We’re not a preaching kind of game, but I
wanted a game that appreciates those parts
of the world that can disappear if we’re not
careful,” Sawi says. “I think that’s something that
humanity can think about a bit more than we do
currently as it might come back and bite us.
If you have to go to the zoo to see a certain kind
of animal, I think it’s a really serious issue.”
Tackling such an important topic from
a realistic visual standpoint wouldn’t have
accurately represented the adorable and
humorous tone that Rare had become
renowned for. Tamarin’s aesthetic quickly
changed, then, after numerous ex-Rare
employees joined Chameleon’s cause.
“If you have a movie or entertainment
product, it’s always nice to have a star,” Sawi
says. “I looked at all the animals that nobody’s
made a game about before, and ended up on
Tamarins because they’re really cute. I spoke
to some people who worked at Rare before,
because they made some really famous
characters, and worked with them to createA Rare
spring in its step
T
GENRE
Platformer
FORMAT
PC / PS
DEVELOPER
Chameleon Games
PUBLISHER
Chameleon Games
RELEASE
17 JulyInfo