Surgeon Sim Creators Prototype: Worlds Adrift

In the wake of Kickstarter and its crowd funding brethren, the last couple of years has seen a trend of asking communities to give feedback during development, and even to contribute ideas. But a phrase I haven't heard a lot during all this is, "is it worth us continuing working on this game or not?" That's the bold question being asked by Surgeon Sim creators Bossa Studios of their new project, Worlds Adrift. You can see the grapple-hooked, ship-building shared world in very early action below.

Gosh, the games I wish I could have had such input into that I've seen over the years. Being asked, genuinely, "Should we bother with this?" for games that are so clearly doomed, rather than staring silently into the enthusiastic eyes of the excitedly hopeful and knowing. However, in this particular case, cor, yes, keep going! It's got grappling hooks!

Bossa are of course the mad scientists behind Surgeon Simulator and the mad peculiarity of I Am Bread. They want to continue the physicsy strangeness of their games, but this time in multiplayer. Something they say is too lacking.

"Think about it: from deathmatch arenas to MMORPGs, you don’t really play with physics. There’s no throwing a player against another to have both falling to the ground; no chopping down a tree to squash a passing-by creature; no having vehicles crash into parts that fly away and hit everyone around. No crumbling buildings with dangerous debris, no explosions throwing people in different directions… These kind of things don’t exist on multiplayer games, your sword barely grazes your enemies when rampaging through a dungeon with friends."

That is, of course, complete rubbish. Physics in multiplayer are as old as the GMod hills. But there's certainly ample room for more of it. But a co-operative world of physics strangeness, with apparently group-built giant airships, and most of all, swinging about on ropes, has much potential for buddy-buddy fun. It's all a bit vague at the moment, but they promise more details on which people can decide the game's fate next month.