Director Éric Chahi, the renowned designer that gave us
Another World (known as
Out of This World in the US) and
Heart of Darkness, is finally back with his first major video game since 2011's
From Dust.
Chahi's
Paper Beast will be exclusive to PlayStation VR and PlayStation 4.
Beast is set in an ecosystem born in the vast memory of a data server. The all-new title has been in development for three years, and its VR port will be releasing in 2019, while the rest of PS4 users will have to wait until 2020 to play the indie title. The game is being created at Pixel Reef, a young game developer founded by Chahi.
"
A few years ago, I was playing with physics in the Unity Engine with several cool new gameplay elements in mind," Chahi explained on PlayStation Blog. "
Notions of Big Data were swimming in my head. As you know, I’ve always enjoyed exploring new concepts and creative territories. That was my motivation when I created Another World (Out of this World) back in 1991 on the Amiga."
"
With Paper Beast, we wanted to create a complete ecosystem with unique wildlife," Chahi said. "
We wanted to reproduce the excitement you might feel as an explorer discovering a virgin land, a place where no human has been before. When you watch animals in nature, you feel something special about how they move and react. They exhibit an intense sense of vitality that makes exploring all the more enriching. You will interact with the creatures and will start to form delicate bonds with them."
In Chahi's opinion, "
every bit of gameplay is built atop a simulation covering every conceivable detail, from terrain simulation to animal locomotion. You can precisely interact with the environment as an immersive, playful universe. Creatures will adapt their behavior to how you, as a player, interact with the world. Paper Beast is not a god game, but we did put some key ingredients in it."
At its core, "
Paper Beast is a virtual journey leading quirky animals through a colorful universe that sprouts from the remnants of the internet." When it comes to the VR version of the upcoming game, "
3D immersion has always enthralled me: you can feel the environment around you in its entirety. With VR, your gestures are spatialized, so you can fall into a fully interactive, simulated living world."
"
One of the VR lessons I learned during development is just how critical sound is for immersion. In movies they say that sound is 50% of a picture. Everything becomes so more tangible with authentic sounds. That is even more true in VR. Sound is 50% of space! At Pixel Reef, we have three people working full-time to deliver an outstanding binaural experience,"
Heart of Darkness Director added.
Without further ado, be sure to take a closer look at one beautiful
Paper Beast in the PS4-exlusive video game's announcement gameplay trailer and first bunch of hi-res screenshots down below:
Somewhere deep down in the vast memory of a data server, an ecosystem has emerged. Decades of lost code and algorithms have accumulated in the eddies and flows of the Internet. A small bubble of life has blossomed. Paper Beast is born.
Paper Beast is coming to PlayStation VR in Q4 2019 and the PlayStation 4 standard in 2020.