Two Point Campus
PREVIEW
24
must, completewith dartboard and
perhaps apinball machine if I’mfeeling
generous.Yes, that’ll do nicely.Class
grades are rising, as is the mood, and
that’sa success in my eyes.Just don’t
look at mybank account.
My campus is hustling andbustling. It’s
gone from sleepyto full on curriculum
chaos. Koehler talks about some ofthe
animations that go intomaking the game
feel likethis, saying thatthe team were
given very little direction, andjust
understood the concepts right away.She
says, “They’re so fun, thereare so many
tiny little animations thatif you just lookat
what’shappening in front of you in play,
everything is really spot on.”
Amusingly, when I asked theteam
about the firstlevel’ssetting, it turns out
Freshleigh Meadows was based on areal
place. Huskins andKoehler revealed that
the location was based onan artist’s
home town from when he grew up.
Huskins laughs,“In fact we hada meeting
and we went on Google Street View to
where hegrew up and then we were like,
‘Hang on a sec,there’s thecanal.’”MERRY OLD ENGLAND
That classicBritishness flows through Two
Point Campus. It had been a long time
since I’d heard someone say “bully for
you” before this hands-on, for one.
Although there are masses of
Americanisms in aesthetics, from lockers
to sports flags, deep down TwoPoint
Campusis hilariouslyBritish.
Huskins says, “The game is inevitably
going to have thatBritish twiston it just
because of who we are and the sorts of
things thatwe do. I mean TwoPoint
Campusitself is meant to bea bit of a mix
of lots of different DNA. As youprogress
through the gameyou get to go to
different locations. And so although you
start offwith thisveryquintessential
British rural areayou jump aroundthe
map of new and old locations established
by Hospital. And not all of them havethat
British feel to them, but you’ve still got the
radio and the announcer.”
As I’mtoiling away on my campus,
assiduously placing posters of fictional
pop-stars and frowning at smelly students
yet to take a shower, the radio and Tannoysystem inthe game are throwing out jokes
and jibes. Contact lenseslost inlasagnas,
mysteryradio plays about world class
detectives, and tannoy reminders
reminding students to set reminders are
all on themenu. I chuckled along in
between the jovial tunes and snappy clips
and clops of placingand moving my newly
purchased furniture.
The team at TwoPoint had already
thought about their nextgame as they
worked on Hospital, and a school
management sim felt right as thenext
step. “We have loads of different ideas for
potentialTwoPointgames now”, Huskins
says. “I rememberwhile we were making
TwoPoint Hospital, we had a list on a
whiteboard.But we latched onto that
education setting partly because itfelt like
a great opportunity to get to know some
of thesecharacters better. Studentsare
going to spend that bit longer with you
than a patient within ahospital.
“Wealso felt like itwas a cool setting
from the point ofview of,everyone’s got
some experience of education. Even if
they didn’t go to college or university,
everyone’s got those memories from their
eccentric teacher or that classmate that
used to eat crayons.”
“It’srelatable,isn’t it?”, Koehleradds.
And I couldn’tagree more.SCHOOL DAZE
Playing just a little bit of TwoPoint
Campusdid makeme thinkback to my
school and universityexperience. Even
though a sim is very different toattending
classes and studying, I did want to provide
a great college experience to these
students. Oh and nothing was more
relatable than findingmyself insome debt
I was struggling to pay off,am I right
student loan companies?
Plainly, from what I experienced, Two
Point Campusis shapingup to bea tightly
knit bundleof fun.As someone unfamiliar
with the systems of TwoPoint Hospital, for
example, the mechanics were clear andI
could instantly seemyself losing so much
time managing theselittle campuses. The
pride I felt whena room came outthe way
I wantedit to wassplendid.And the jigsaw-
like fitting of elements together was
impressive. When I askedmyself if I could
fit a plant in the corner, a drinking fountain
on the wall, or a bench by a tree,the
answer wasyes. That satisfactionof
seeing your vision for a room come to life
and seeingthese little peopleuse it as
intended was just swell.
Imogen MellorTHE GAME IS INEVITABLY
GOING TO HAVE THAT BRITISH
TWIST ON IT
You’d think culinary
students could make their
own food and drinks.