So yeah, that Reset trailer. Its sumptuous eye candy feast reduced the Internet to a slack-jawed chorus of “oooos” and “aaaaaahs.” Pitter-pattering raindrops, gently wavering foliage, and a blinding sun holding two giant scoops of intrigue turned the “single-player co-op” puzzler into the talk of the town. It had a lot of graphics, I suppose, is the short version of what I’m saying. And yet, all of that heart-wrenching, gob-smacking robot-on-a-car comtemplaction came from a two-person team. Two. So then, the obvious question: how? And, perhaps more importantly, why put so much work into visuals so early? I spoke with Theory Interactive’s Alpo Oksaharju about avoiding Dead Island trailer syndrome and why there’s more to Reset’s debut than meets the eye. For instance, that robot? Totally not a robot.
But first, how? Is it all smoke-and-mirrors? Can a game coming from such meager means really look like that? Theory Interactive is a witch coven, isn’t it? That has to be it. And yet, Oksaharju sounded pretty human, all things considered.
Which sounds fairly reasonable, all things considered. Knowing that, I wasn’t entirely surprised to hear that Oksaharju and his partner in eyeball-caressing crime, Mikko Kallinen, met while working at benchmarking mastermind FutureMark. Granted, there’s always room to grow.
So obviously, Oksaharju and Kallinen have big plans for the future, but what of the present? Reset’s proven it can do pretty, but how does it work? What is this vaunted “single-player co-op” we’ve been hearing so much about? While Oksaharju wasn’t ready to provide specifics, he did fill me in on the basics.
Granted, it is a bit perplexing – especially seeing as Reset’s blog notes that the next big development milestone will focus on gameplay. In the land of development, that’s a bit, er, backward. There is, however, a method to Oksaharju and Kallinen’s apparent madness.
Of course, moving too far in that direction can lead down a rather one-sided path, as evidenced by such prolific sadvertisements as Dead Island’s not entirely accurate debut. Reset’s obviously in-engine, but could a similar fate be in the cards if it fails to back up its claims? Oksaharju – in spite of gamers’ notorious cynicism about these sorts of things – isn’t losing any sleep.
Hmmm. Could this mean asymmetrical sometimes-human, sometimes-exosuit single-player co-op? And where will time travel enter that picture? Anyone care to put on a long, wispy costume beard and spend some time with me in the vaguely suggestive speculation corner?
Tagged with feature, Theory Interactive, Reset.