Kia Ora!
You may have heard the news that we are onto Game 2! Well come and see what all the fuss is about:
What is this about?
We have been working on our next game called Penguin Colony which is the first in a trilogy of games which are set in the H.P. Lovecraft Universe! If you liked how Umurangi Generation was old one adjacent with the ███████ stuff. Well you can expect more of the same in that regard. We are starting with At The Mountains of Madness as our canvas for this new story because Cthulhu and Dagon have been done to death. This one is set from the eyes and beak of a Penguin. You can swap to any Penguin you see and they all have different abilities.
We are super excited to bring you a faithful but new take on Lovecraft and I want to explain a bit about how I see Lovecraftian Horror so you go in with the expectation of what we are doing. TO ME the idea is that the Old Ones view humanity through the lens of Cosmic Indifference. The various plots and schemes to take over the universe are done so without the regard of humanity and they see them is so insignificant that the idea of if they are even important doesn't cross their minds at all. Mankind are not 'animals'
So TO ME I see this as something with a deeply colonial similarity. it mirrors how Colonial Indifference works. The lesser is not seen as important, so much so that destruction of life and culture is not even a question. To me this is thematically what Lovecraft is all about. The Old Ones do not care about mankind. They see them as a stepping stone to a greater cosmic project.
How we are doing this?
I've been a big Lovecraft fan since Bloodborne hooked me in 10 years ago. So to me there are a few elements of this genre which you have to get right. The first is
Narrator. Narrator. Narrator.
Lovecraft Narrators have to be perfect. They have to have a voice which carries the story. They have to be able to shift between academic, tragic, frightened and insane. TO ME the narrator is the glue which really makes things stick in your mind. What makes certain words ooze with that delicious Lovecraft fright.
We are super happy that the main Narrator Howard Blakely is being voiced by Lenval Brown from Disco Elysium and Ultrakill. I don't wanna spoil his performance but it is a really amazing range. I hope new fans of Lovecraft enjoy this narration and come and see what all the fuss is about.
The Necronomicon Remains Untouched (for now)
The Necronomicon is a lot like Cthulhu. It has really been dragged through the mud. A lot of creatives have put their spin on it. But I think over time the more hands that touch it the more fragile the pages get. TO ME we are using a boundary object called The Ludex Pathrogvim. a secondary text which shares a lot in common with the Necronomicon. But is different in how some events were recorded. Think of it like how some people call R'lyeh; "Relex" or "Ryah". How different scientists may examine the same site and come to different conclusions. The idea is that once we are done with this trilogy is to Open Source the Ludex Parthogvim so that you can take what we write and continue the tradition and spirit of Lovecraft by letting people borrow ideas.
The Unknown is NEW
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown
H.P. Lovecraft
The fear of the unknown is all about doing things which are NEW. I am sure there is a lot to gleam from this famous Lovecraft quote and his well known racism. But TO ME this means we have to break the rules a bit, and introduce new things into this universe. This doesn't mean breaking what already exists or "re-examining" things by turning them into things they aren't. It means drawing out the logical conclusions of some of these creatures with the hindsight of almost a century. We are playing around with ideas from A Shadow Out of Time and At the Mountains of Madness to give long time Lovecraft-heads a good meal (because god knows we've not eaten well in a while!)
Doing it right with Fellow Traveller Games
We are working with Fellow Traveller games to bring it to you this game as the best it can be. Last year wasn't good for developers all around the world. We were looking at putting Penguin Colony out in a smaller capacity. A smaller scope and a less refined experience. When we showed Fellow Traveller this game they knew what we were onto and saw the potential of this world. Fellow Traveller Games have a great reputation of shipping sharp narrative games, and what is Lovecraft but some of the best narratives.
Thanks so much!
Finally. I want to say thank you to everyone who is excited for our next step after UG. That was our first game and we are looking to make more games faster and better and we couldn't have done it without you. I know its not a perfect game, and we still have some fixes to make on PC. But its time to move forward to the next one.
;_; 7
Tali
Also we made the title burn in like The Thing
