The first episode of a short series on games I discovered at EGX Rezzed 2016.
Introversion Software were showing off a couple of prototypes at Rezzed. Today, I’m going to talk about Scanner Sombre which I absolutely fell in love with.
It’s a pure exploration game set in a dark cave and, at this point, 99.975% linear. You navigate the cave by “painting” the environment with glowing, colourful pellets. The resulting effect is beautiful, like wandering through a freeze frame of Space Giraffe (Llamasoft, 2007). The first great moment is when you trigger some existing scanner guns as you walk into a spacious cavern – and ancient ruins erupt from the void clothed in rainbow colours.
To it’s credit, it’s also a little creepy. The audio was full of atmospheric cues and, well, I can’t really say too much as the experience was so short. Whether it can be expanded into a longer experience, I’m not sure.
I spent some time talking the prototype up with Introversion’s Chris Delay so hopefully this won’t be the last time we hear of Scanner Sombre.
Interested in the other games I dabbled with? Check out the series index!
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This reminds me that I forgot to check out the bomb game so couldn’t vote! Scanner Somber was beautiful though. I loved looking back at where I’d just come from because you could see the passageways and chambers you’d lit up through everything else. It also reminded me of The Unfinished Swan’s early levels where you’re navigating a ‘blank’ environment by splashing ink all over the place.
Yes that’s right you could see through the walls couldn’t you? That’s an interesting trick I could see being used to put “secrets” out there in the open.
I’ll be coming back to the bomb game later.