Mike Bithell (originally of Thomas Is Alone fame) clearly likes his surprise launches. His previous game, the short-but-sweet sci-fi mystery adventure Subsurface Circular launched onto Steam with zero fanfare or warning, but racked up no shortage of praise and awards. Today, its successor – Quarantine Circular – quietly released onto Steam, and it looks similarly great. It’s not quite a sequel, though, more a spiritual successor sharing many of the mechanics and themes of the original, but telling its own, entirely new sci-fi tale.
After telling stories about shapes then even a teenager, the fella behind Thomas Was Alone and Volume has taken another step up the consciousness scale for his next story with a game about robots. Bithell’s studio today both announced and launched Subsurface Circular [official site], a short text adventure starring a robot detective investigating missing robots. It’s a text-based story-o-puzzler where you gather new words rather than items, an expanded vocabulary opening new opportunities. While it’s all wordy-like, it does have some nice pictures to go along with it. Read the rest of this entry »
Volume [official site] is a third-person, sci-fi stealth game, in which you direct a little dude around VR-styled, maze-like levels, dodging guards with wits and with gadgetry, with the aim of grabbing all the loot and getting out again. It’s out now.
I hope Mike ‘Thomas Was Alone’ Bithell’s new game wasn’t hoping to pre-empt any ‘turn down the…’ gags by hiring a celebrity voice cast, because sadly it wasn’t long before I started muting things. Read the rest of this entry »
I like Thomas Was Alone, Mike Bithell’s melancholy tale of identity and shapely destiny, but I wasn’t particularly surprised by the backlash. I’m referring, of course, to this quote from Bithell himself.
I thought I was writing a competent story with an amazing platform game. It turned out it was the other way around! I didn’t realise it would get the attention it did, which is lovely. But odd.
That’s from an interview back in 2013 about Thomas and Bithell’s follow-up Volume [official site]. The trailer below confirms that Volume, a stealthy sci-fi interpretation of the Robin Hood legend, will be released on August 18th.
“It will probably be the only time in my life when I have no responsibilities, didn’t owe anyone any money, didn’t have staff that I had to worry about. Absolute freedom to do what I want. I wasn’t going to use that to make a sequel to a reasonably well-received puzzle-platformer.”
I’ve asked Volume lead Mike Bithell if he’s been worried about over-reaching himself. 2012’s Thomas Was Alone was one of several break-out indie hits around that time – a era of Steam that many of today’s PC developers are increasingly worried they’ve missed the boat on – but it was a simple game.
It was, as the man says, a reasonably well-received puzzle-platformer, and it blew up because it was charming and funny, effectively anthropomorphising the textureless, two-dimensional rectangles it starred thanks to well-judged narration and very human writing. Volume, by contrast, is a full-on, 3D stealth game which will ship with around 100 levels, features an array of tricsky sci-fi items, has a full level editor and has hired Andy Serkis to voice its lead villain. Conceptually, it’s a huge leap.
When I last spoke to Mike Bithell, we were in the café at the National Media Museum in Bradford. He had just delivered a talk about his upcoming Virtual Robin Hood game, Volume, but we found time to discuss Thomas Was Alone as well. Bithell said – and I agree – “I thought I was writing a competent story with an amazing platform game. It turned out it was the other way around!” Presumably, the previously Playstation-only prequel episode, now available on Windows and Mac (Linux build soon), elevates plot over platforming. A cursory examination reveals a possible interpretation of the Icarus myth, with an AI in place of daddy Daedalus and a jetpack in place of waxy wings.
Mike Bithell, creator of Thomas Was Alone, knows a lot about Robin Hood. As we sit in a Starbucks five thousand miles from either of our homes, his tank-like laptop greedily drinking electricity from the coffee store’s wall, I find myself scribbling notes not about his upcoming stealth puzzler Volume, but about how it wasn’t until King Henry VIII took a shine to the story that the behooded thiefster became a noble character. In fact, the whole myth was an excuse to see a few fights during the May Games festivities. He didn’t even give to the poor until the 17th century! “So when are you making a Robin Hood game?” I ask him. “This is it,” says Bithell, waving at the screen.
Mike Bithell’s stealth game, Volume, looks like a very different prospect to Thomas Was Alone, even if there might be some similarities in the audio department. A retelling of the Robin Hood story, Volume takes place in a Britain laced with political dissent, rebellion and fancy volumetric display devices. Upon discovering such a device, Robert Locksley sets out to livestream heists and infiltrations, teaching the poor to steal from the rich rather than doing the job himself. I sat down with Mr Bithell at the Bradford Animation Festival to talk about the game, politics, ethics, Mini Coopers and Russell Brand.
Something strange is afoot in the land of OUYA. The Kickstarted console, running on Android, is obviously not usually in RPS’s purview. But a recently launched incentive to get developers to create OUYA games is treading on our toes, and merits a look. OUYA’s Free The Games Fund offers to match money raised by Kickstarted games, if they can reach a minimum of $50,000, in exchange for six months OUYA exclusivity. It’s hard to know where to begin pointing out what’s dumb about that. And OUYA’s failure to recognise why is causing a number of indie names to loudly complain, some to even stop developing for the console. We’ve spoken to a few of them to find out why.
I was extremely disappointed to miss last year’s GameCity. Everybody I’ve spoken to who was there speaks about it in reverent tones. Actually, scratch that, there’s no reverence at all. It’s happiness, the remembered joy of sharing a splendid, creative, social hobby with a wide array of pleasant people. I won’t make the same mistake this year, although I’ll probably only visit for one or two days. The event runs October 19th-26th and it sounds like a very different beast to traditional/commercial gaming gatherings. Indeed, it’s billed as a festival rather than a convention, with family-friendly events that involve both play and discourse. It’s my personal mission to count the number of free energy drinks and dubstep assaults. Confirmed events are listed below, including an intriguing week-long headliner.
The maker of successful geometrical emotions simulator Thomas Was Alone, Mike Bithell, has revealed today that his next game will be Volume, a Metal Gear Solid-style stealth tactics game. The game is designed, coded and written by Mike and scored by David Housden. Based on burgling futuristic trinkets from behind the backs of tall intimidating AI types, the unnamed hero of Volume wants to steal to be heard. I spoke to Mike, a man seldom unheard, to try and prise the secrets of the game from him. Or, as I like to call it, an occlusion interview.Read the rest of this entry »
Thomas Was Alone and he was also a Flash game but now he’s grown up and it’s time for him to meet some new friends and set off on a journey that will change them all forever. It’s a tale of friendship, co-operation, sentience and rivalry, but is it possible to care about a gang of abstract shapes and the puzzling environments they traverse? Here’s wot I think.
Thomas Was Alone first came to my attention while I was trying not to watch the GTA V trailer six thousand times to work out if one of the character models was a fatter, older version of an important bloke from a previous entry in the series. I wasn’t sure whether a platform game about quadrilateral quandaries was all that interesting but David Housden’s music decided me, mysterious and melancholy it brought about a quivering of the lip and, having just listened again, definitely reminds me of The Postal Service more than a bit. It’s something of a shame then that the music now has to fade out to make room for narrator Danny Wallace, who you may know from radio, television and books.
Phew. I ran here as fast as I could. I know the entire internet is waiting for the hottest new trailer in town but some git thieved my automocar so I’ve had to come by foot. Here it is then. Thomas Was Alone is an upcoming indie game “about friendship and jumping”, with a cast of angular shapes working together to make their way through minimalist platform environments. It’s based on an earlier free prototype but the full release isn’t due until March/April next year. It’s worth taking a look at the trailer just for the gorgeous music by David Housden. Apparently the full game will have a procedural score, which sounds like something I’d like to wrap my ears round.
