Video contribution Austin Paetow
Broken Windows Studio known for their flagship video game GRAVE, released their latest creation Reflections on STEAM (PC/Mac/Linux) as an early access title.
Reflections is an open world dynamic narrative where every decision changes the progression of the game, Tristan Parrish Moore, co–founder Broken Window Studios, said.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/gN3JrCC3gZ8[/youtube]
Tristan Moore and demo of Reflections | Run time 2:14
Tristan said he developed this game to reflect the decisions and consequences people face as they progress through life.
The story takes place in three acts, and each act changes based on what you choose for your character in the previous act, Tristan said.
The game progresses in black and white and uses color to introduce new story elements before the player understands its relevancy. “That [colorful] item will mean something, but [the player] won’t necessarily know why it’s important until the next act,” Tristan said.
Narrative video games, such as Dear Esther, have increased in popularity. As a result, Tristan believed it was time to take Reflections off the shelf and finish the game.
“I came up with Reflections in college and worked on it for three years-but at the time it was too abstract and personal. Since then, with the popularity of narrative experience games, the market has developed around it. [These games] put you in direct control of how the story is played out,” Tristan said.
The difference in Reflections versus other narrative games is in their storytelling engine, Tristan said. “We’ve built a system that could have many possibilities with a character choices in work and life. Also, it’s based on a profile we are building for you.”
“We want to give the player an interesting exploratory space to turn out different areas. We’ve done it in an impressionistic and stylized way to accommodate lifestyles,” he continued.
Reflections is VR compatible as are all of the Broken Window Studios games. “We design all of our games for Oculus Rift compatibility,” Tristan said.
Broken Window is releasing the game on STEAM early access for a discounted price of $9.99 (Reg. $14.99) for one to two months. With feedback from the gaming community, they will complete the game and release the final product on STEAM, Xbox One and PS4.
“This release option allows us to essentially open the game up to the public while it’s still in development, gain user feedback and access a group of gamers who are interested in providing support for games still in development,” co-founder and lead artist Broken Window Studios Aby Moore said.
The game is kid-to-adult friendly, “We feel reflections is the kind of title that a wide variety of audiences can enjoy, and appeals to a range of age groups, from young children, to adults,” Aby said.
Broken Window recently showed a sneak peak of the game at Comic-Con Phoenix.
“We saw a lot of positive responses from everyone who played the game at Comic-Con Phoenix this year, and also at GDC (Game Developers Conference, where we showcased as a part of the Mix showcase, and at SXSW (South by Southwest). Now we just need to confirm what we believe is the right direction for the game by opening it to the public for feedback!” Aby said.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/fbqgOMo2Y_I[/youtube]
Broken Window Studios starts 2:25
Building their studio and supporting the gaming community in Phoenix is important to the co-founders, “People are going to start noticing that Phoenix is a really competitive market for game ideas and development. There are really creative game developers here that are doing really Avant garde work and that will continue to grow,” Tristan said.
What’s up with GRAVE? Aby tells us…
GRAVE is the open world horror survival game, where a player uses light as the only weapon. Aby said GRAVE “…had a lot of rework since releasing it to our Kickstarter backers last fall. We have put it over into Unity 5 and it looks fantastic. We are working on refining the narrative. The final release will be on STEAM, Xbox One and PS4.”
Read all of our coverage of Broken Window Studios at AZ Tech Beat
Tristan shares secrets to a successful Kickstarter campaign here.
Get the Reflections game here!
Graphics courtesy of Broken Window Studios