HomeFeaturesOut There: Oceans of Time
Out There’s sequel isn’t a roguelike anymore, but it’s “much more approachable"We chat with the game’s creative director about Oceans Of Time’s switch in genre and new exploration tools
We chat with the game’s creative director about Oceans Of Time’s switch in genre and new exploration tools
Out Therehas been described as everything from a “pacifistic take on FTL” to “Gravity without the chain of astonishing coincidences” in the halls of this parish. Having originally begun life on mobile devices back in 2013, this combat-free space exploration and resource management game arrived on PC two years later as part of a snazzed up Ω Edition, putting you in the shoes of a lone astronaut trying to survive on the fringes of deep space. It was also bloody difficult, with a punishing brutality lying beneath its serene and comforting surface - something that developer Mi-Clos Studio’s founder and creative director Michaël Peiffert has been keen to address with its upcoming sequel,Out There: Oceans Of Time.
Out There: Oceans of Time - Galactic Exploration Gameplay Trailer 4kWatch on YouTube
Out There: Oceans of Time - Galactic Exploration Gameplay Trailer 4k
“At first, I wanted to mix the sense of wonder and exploration of Out There, but also a character-based story like Chronicles,” he says. “It required quite a lot of iteration to get the balance right. For a while, the game was both a roguelike and an RPG but wasn’t any of them either. At some point, it was clear we had to make a drastic choice. As the characters develop relationships and make meaningful choices in the story, we had to accept we were working on an RPG, not a roguelike. From there, we tweaked the difficulty and the pacing accordingly.”
The jump to 3D makes the whole game seem much grander and more dramatic.
“Expeditions was the new feature I wanted to add since the inception of the project,” he says. “Historically a pacifist franchise, Out There is about fighting against the most hostile environment to living beings: space. Being able to explore those barren planets, overcome environmental hazards and discover mesmerizing secrets was a natural evolution to the series. Our artists did a great job to make the weirdest biomes that look both amazing and threatening. That’s what exploring space is about.”
Resource management is much the same as before, tasking players with juggling key pieces of technology with spare minerals they’ve picked up.
I didn’t have a chance to try it out during my preview build, but Out There: Oceans Of Time will also see players engage in diplomacy and negotiating with other alien races to help you track down Archon, a trait that may be familiar to players of Mi-Clos' most recent game,Sigma Theory: Global Cold War. While not set in space, Sigma Theory is a turn-based futuristic war sim that sees you take control of a spy network to win the emerging tech race. When I asked Peiffert if Sigma Theory helped to inform Out There’s diplomatic elements, he said that it wasn’t so much the game he drew inspiration from as the people around him.
Expeditions will see your crew step out of their trusty spacecraft and venture out into the wild unknown.
“If you look at all the games I’ve made, you’ll see that they reflect my own conditions through the years as a game developer,” he says. “During the development of Out There, I was working remotely, completely isolated and with very little resources to buy food and pay the rent. Then I had to recruit and manage talented people around the world to work as a team on a bigger project – my A-team. That was Sigma Theory. Finally, Oceans Of Time, our most ambitious game to date, required me to hire a full team that would gather around and stick together on a collective goal. That’s exactly how you would manage the crew of a spaceship. All on the same boat.
You and your crew mates will be chatting with lots of different alien races in Oceans Of Time, in additon to other text-based story events.
“I’m naturally an introvert. But my journey as a game developer taught me a lot about human relationships and interaction and how beautiful and harsh it can be. And I think I’ve, unintentionally, included those lessons in my games.”
Those experiences have also allowed Peiffert to finally make an Out There game that was PC first, rather than being built for smartphones.
“If Out There came out on mobile first, it was an accident,” he says. “I always wanted to make PC games from the get-go. But, at the time, my limited skills only allowed me to develop on a very simple game engine (called Corona SDK – RIP) that would only work for mobiles. Eventually, that technical limitation turned out pretty well as it was a huge success on mobile. But the little kid in me still wanted to make PC games, where I come from as a gamer. When free to play became the norm, I decided it was time to move on PC… and hire a proper programmer. Then we made a buffed-up version of Out There for PC (Ω Edition) and I’ve never looked back since. Except for Out There: Chronicles. But who knows, Chronicles might come to PC someday.”
Indeed, Peiffert is far from being done with Out There. “I think I could work on this universe until my old days,” he says as a parting note. “It’s always a pleasure to come back to it, as it is a unique and personal take on the sci-fi genre. I’m really excited to keep exploring the expansive lore we’ve developed in any form or media. The fact that I can simply ask myself, ‘how could we make Out There bigger?’ is such a privileged position, I’m cheering it as much as I can.”
As for Commander Nyx and her quest to capture the tentacled Archon, we won’t have to wait long before we can scour the galaxy for him ourselves, as Out There: Oceans Of Time is due to land onSteamon April 7th.
