Metroidvaniä! Iä! Cthulhu Fhtagn! Jotun Dev's Sundered
Lovecraft meets Metroid
After having players duff up frost giants and slide down the roots of Yggdrasil in their first game, Jotun, developers Thunder Lotus Games seem to be going possibly even bigger in their second. Today they announced Sundered [official site], set in a vast ruined world filled with "eldritch horrors" - things with too many wings, teeth, and tentacles. Some of them are flipping ginormous and all. See that wee speck about to be crushed underfoot in that picture ↑ up there? That's you that is.
Thunder Lotus call Sundered a Metroidvania, meaning it's set in a big ol' world where gaining new powers will help you access new parts. It's also got a touch of procedural generation in the world, meaning it'll be generated fresh each time, and Thunder Lotus mention having "dynamic encounters against hordes of enemies".
Something more unpredictable than your traditional Metroidvania could be a lark, and would fit with that whole "ruined world overrun by unspeakable horrors" idea.
Creative director William Dubé said in a post for those PlayChaps:
"Sundered is a game that builds on the strengths of Jotun: hand-drawn art, epic boss battles, and great immersion. However, we know Jotun was far from perfect. With Sundered, we've added more complex mechanics, tons of replayability, and meaningful choices. We've gone into a darker universe heavily inspired by Lovecraft's writings."
I hope that means more it's inspired by the vast dead worlds of stories like The Rats in the Walls rather than meaning e.g. you get to biff Cthulhu in the chops.
Thunder Lotus plan to release Sundered on Windows, Mac, and Linux some time in 2017. Here's the announcement trailer:
