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Somerville | Sci-fi episodic cinematic platformer about war hero John Somerville

M

More_Badass

Member
civilian_rigs_poster_smaller.jpg


http://somervillegame.tumblr.com/
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=45926.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snS7dJKWgvE

Been following this game for a while. The developer has a background in movie animation, did work on Age of Ultron, so the animations are really nice. I especially like the sound of the narrative framework

SOMERVILLE at it's core is an episodic cinematic platformer with responsive shooter mechanics. It draws influence from my beloved days of grinning through Eric Chahi's Another World but dragged through a nice contemporary wash. Expect a core mechanic that borrows a little bit of Treasure shooter, a smidge of rhythm action, bookended by a fleshed out adventure game experience.

Told through a series of narrated chapters from a primary school teacher to her class. The book chronicles the life of author JOHN E. SOMERVILLE. A key historical figure that rose from the wake of a devastating alien occupation of earth.

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Ghost_Messiah

Ghost_Messiah

Member
Loving the presentation. Sleek, super cool and futuristic. The dark science fiction mythos is interesting too. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this.
 
GavinUK86

GavinUK86

Member
Very War of the Worlds like. Those animations are beautiful.

The way the thread's titled made me think I should know who John Somerville is, didn't realise that's the fictional war hero. Bit weird.
 
F

Fushichou187

Member
So... a modern take on games like Another World and Flashback where platforming and exploration, not necessarily combat, is emphasized? I'm in. The art style looks right up my alley as well.
 
H

HueyFreeman

Banned
Christ, this looks wonderful.

I really don't understand why more developers aren't able to capture the gameplay style of Another world/Flashback - quests, objectives, task based gameplay in a 2D world, with a small amount of combat to mix it up. Why is it so rare to come across?

Really hope they consider consoles.
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
So great to see more games going for that Another World vibe. Definitely keeping an eye on this one.
 
S

Saucycarpdog

Member
Has the dev stated a release date for the first episode? Also is this game going to lean more on the cinematic elements or the stealth/action elements?
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Saucycarpdog said:
Has the dev stated a release date for the first episode? Also is this game going to lean more on the cinematic elements or the stealth/action elements?
Click to expand...
Dev did quite a bit of work on the platforming and movement
Sliding.gif


So I imagine there'll be a good amount of platforming and scripted chases and such. Combat is supposed to be kind of shooter meets rhythm game, since you need to match shield and ability colors with enemy colors. There also seems to be a little adventure game-ish aspects from interacting with items and people

Dev also plans for you to get high-tech alien gear and abilities
8c0300c43317cf0ab8df0daff1393a4f
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S

Saucycarpdog

Member
More_Badass said:
Dev did quite a bit of work on the platforming and movement

So I imagine there'll be a good amount of platforming and scripted chases and such. Combat is supposed to be kind of shooter meets rhythm game, since you need to match shield and ability colors with enemy colors. There also seems to be a little adventure game-ish aspects from interacting with items and people

Dev also plans for you to get high-tech alien gear and abilities.
Click to expand...
Wow. Sounds like it'll be juggling a lot of different elements. Pretty ambitious for the dev size.

But I'm in. The aesthetics are just so delightful.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Saucycarpdog said:
Wow. Sounds like it'll be juggling a lot of different elements. Pretty ambitious for the dev size.

But I'm in. The aesthetics are just so delightful.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the dev is a visual effects animator/artist who did pre-vis work on Age of Ultron and Edge of Tomorrow, worked on Heavenly Sword as an animator, as well as movies like Iron Man 2 and GI Joe

So he has the background to do quality animation and aesthetics like this

He's been working on it since at least 2014. The TIGSource devlog was started in January 2015, and he already had done a lot of prototyping, animations, movement and shooting gameplay system by then.
 
Melchiah

Melchiah

Member
More_Badass said:
So I imagine there'll be a good amount of platforming and scripted chases and such. Combat is supposed to be kind of shooter meets rhythm game, since you need to match shield and ability colors with enemy colors. There also seems to be a little adventure game-ish aspects from interacting with items and people
Click to expand...

Sounds a bit like Housemarque's Outland, which also had platforming.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Hoping he finds a publisher/investor/etc.
As a supplementary to the playable prototype and a number of other documents I also cobbled together an in-engine trailer. I'm holding off releasing it to the general public for now so I'll just post some wip snaps and screenshots of the final edit.

And that's it really on the visual front. The GDD has gone through a number of changes and I'm carving out the story treatment every day. For now I'm sending off a giant pitch package to all interested parties who want to help me make this project a real thing. Fingers crossed it turns into something in the future but I'll be sure to report back here of any progress on the investment front and will eventually be posting the trailer for public consumption.

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StereoVsn

StereoVsn

Member
Animation looks amazing and the game premise sounds interesting. I wonder why he doesn't try for a Kickstarter once he has a bit more play videos and samples.
 
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