Spring has arrived, and with that, another PAX East has sprung up, inviting gamers and game developers from all over the world to Boston, all to show upcoming games and revel in what the industry has in store. We at Third Rate Minion were there, and we got to try out a sampling of what was there on the showfloor!
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In the Indie Megabooth, a number of developers showed off
games which benefitted from the influx of crowdfunding, whether by
Kickstarter, Indiegogo or otherwise. At the same time, other teams were showing off new projects in need of help from crowdfunding. Developer Fenix Fire Entertainment was present in the Megabooth to show off their upcoming titles, as well as their new Kickstarter project, Source.
Source takes place in an alternate dimension inhabited by
otherworldly, luminescent flora and fauna.
Players control a butterfly-like creature which is born to the world as
its last savior. A dark energy is
spreading throughout the dimension, destroying everything in its path and
threatening to end all life in the world, and as the last surviving being if
its kind, the flying protagonist must go forth and stop the source of dark
energy before it is too late.
Source is a 3D action adventure game set together in a
metroidvania style.
Players move the
firefly around the dying yet beautiful world, and as they progress, they will
be able to find a multitude of new abilities to help solve puzzles, open doors,
and defeat what foes the source creates.
Initially, the firefly is fairly limited in what it can do, revolving
around the ability to absorb and release energy from its body.
This ability is important, though, as the
firefly continually loses energy as any other being would; the player needs to
ensure the firefly is kept nourished in order to progress readily through the
world.
The firefly can use its released energy to pollinate foliage and cocoons along the landscape, and in doing
so, more energy is expelled and absorbed, making the firefly stronger in the
process.
As the game progresses, the
firefly can get ability upgrades, including the Plasma Beam to fend off foes and
different color polarities to open doors and interact with different objects in the
world.
Pollination has gotten rather trippy...
In true metroidvania style, Source is complete with typical
backtracking and upgrades throughout the world, but the game also has a unique
rebirth element in place. In Source,
every action is recorded and used to eventually improve the next iteration of
the firefly; upon being reborn, more abilities and strengths build onto the
next generation, creating a more powerful opponent against the darkness.
The world is not as typical as it first appears, and
that is saying something, as it appears far from typical to start! At the beginning, Source takes place in the
damaged world of light, but alongside it is a world of darkness, filled with
immense monsters hell-bent in snuffing out the firefly's light. As shown in the game’s
Kickstarter campaign trailer shown above, these monsters resemble abstract
spiders and flying snakes, but Fenix Fire head Brian McRae told us that there would be
plenty more where that came from. He
said the team wanted to make sure to make the dark monsters balance between
what we would know from this world and what could possibly be seen as
otherworldly without going too far in either direction. While the demo did not feature a dark world
segment to my knowledge, McRae let me know that the world acted more like a
large cube of sorts, unlike the light world, which tended to stray toward the more
traditional orientation of gravity.
If there is something that needs to be said about Source
from its earliest build, it is that the game looks tranquil and beautiful, even
with its otherworldly visuals. Pools of
water reflect the world's topography and luminescence around them, and particles flow one way and
another, following the firefly along its path.
Stones are typically cut in rigid angles, and blue and orange lights
are emitted by the foliage and living beings within both worlds, akin to the cool and
heavy electronic styles of older 1970s and 1980s futuristic art as seen in Tron
and earlier video game worlds.
The demo on the showfloor did not exactly demonstrate too
much of what is expected in the final release, which is expected as the demo was
made in a very short period of time.
What it did offer was a short glimpse into the world of Source.
One should be aware that the firefly does not
necessarily fly, but rather, hovers some feet off the ground, and players can
launch themselves upward by a pseudo jump into the air.
This took some getting used to, but it became
more accessible as the demo progressed.
The game’s ambiance leads itself to a more relaxed pace of movement,
which did not exactly match the more hustled pace of the showfloor, but I am
certain the game does not stay as quiet as the demo does once darkness begins
to flood the world.
I am sure the game will be full of moments both calm and pure as well as
tense and destructive.
Another Fenix Fire title: Smash Derby
Fenix Fire
Entertainment is a husband-wife team who recently celebrated the birth of their
first child. It was the birth of his son
that helped inspire Brian McRae to work with his wife Anna on Source, a world
seen through “infant eyes” as explained on the campaign site. Fenix Fire was founded in 2010, and the
team’s first release was Roboto, a mobile action platformer staring a cute
robot on a high-powered hoverboard. The
team is also working on Gates of Osirus, a space-dwelling alien hunter for PC
and mobile platforms, and Smash Derby, a touch-based futuristic combat game for
mobile platforms and Ouya. Smash Derby,
which Brian showed off to me at the showfloor, involves swiping the screen to
launch yourself at your enemies, changing polarity with a quick touch of the
screen; tower-defense elements are involved as well, allowing players to add in
turrets and other defenses between each wave of attack. Brian told me that Source originated in a
style similar to Smash Derby, but the scale has grown to what it is now, and he
hopes to be able to realize his vision through the game’s Kickstarter campaign.
Developed on the Unity engine, Source is currently slated
for release late Summer 2015 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC (Steam is hopeful
at this point). Although the Kickstarter campaign states that the game will
likely see a PC release first, the different versions will have as
close a launch parity as possible.
So,
what are you waiting for?
Get to the
campaign
here and help be the source to make Source possible!
