Category Archives: Cyberpunk

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Observer is a new non-combat horror game from the developers of Layers of Fear, set in a cyberpunk future in Krakow, 2084. To explain the concept, the team's just released a developer diary to talk potential players through what they can expect.

Related: here are the upcoming PC games.

As developer diaries go its got a very strange tone. You can tell the developer narrating is enthusiastic about their game, but it sits strangely alongside some of the topics discussed.

At one point, he enthusiastically talks about the specific style of horror they create, saying one player described it best: So thats what it feels like to be insane! Obviously that comment refers to Layers of Fear, but apparently Observer will show you what it feels like to be an Observer.

What is an Observer? Well, theyre future detectives who hack cybernetically-enhanced humans to see their memories, thus helping them piece together crimes. One could argue its a new form of psychological rape, and thats certainly how the Class-C citizens of Krakow feel, here in the year 2084, he explains.

The metaphor seems to continue after that, too, the tone jumping all over the place. Hopefully the finished game is a bit more self-aware.

Have a watch above. Observer is due out this summer.

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Layers of Fear devs on psychological rape in their cyberpunk ... - PCGamesN

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Last year, The Devil Wears Prada released possibly the best album of their career inTransit Blues. In eleven tracks, the band took their finely crafted metalcore to new heights by incorporating elements of sludge and doom metal, creating a wholly new sound and life for the group.Today they released a new video for one of the albums singles,Worldwide.

As the third video off the album following Daughter and To the Key of Evergreen, Worldwide continues their streak of striking visuals that tell thought-provoking stories. The visuals include different people being hooked up to a variety of different machines. The band themselves are also hooked up to luminescent wires while they play.

Song-wise, it shows off the bands ability to make a straight up rock song with a great hook. Clean singer/guitarist Jeremy DePoyster takes center stage on the song, offering up a verse that paints a map of the bands travels, a desire to get lost in the lush destinations theyve had the fortune to visit. Screamer Mike Hranica gives a sharp dichotomy to DePoysters voice, adding a sharp edge to the song.

The song matter correlates with the bands intent on the album, in wanting to be able to sing about more ordinary matters than a typical metal song would allow for. In an interview we conducted with the band, Hranica said, I wanted to be able to talk about more ordinary topics, and for the most part thats just what really has gripped me in my own musical taste, and I wanted to find a way to have these aggressive songs but be able to talk about more mundane matters, and I think thats also very much born from literature. Alot of reading is not going to be these highly intense sort of moments all the time, as compared to, you know, if you look at the substance behind a metal record, where its all so dire and dramatic.

Its too soon to tell whatll come next for the band, but hopefully well be treated to more visual components that match up with the bands music.

Watch the video for Worldwide above!

The Devil Wears Prada Play Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction?

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The Devil Wears Prada Talk Space EP

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The Devil Wears Pradas Mike Hranica Talks Transit Blues Album

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The Devil Wears Prada Release Cyberpunk 'Worldwide' Video - Loudwire

Publisher Coatsink has today announced the voice acting cast in its upcoming VR role-playing game, Augmented Empire. The esteemed cast includes Doug Cockle, the gruff voice behind Geralt from The Witcher series among several other notable names.

Other actors voicing characters in Augmented Empire include:

Augmented Empire is a cyberpunk tactical role-playing game for Samsung Gear VR. Played from an isometric, top down perspective, players navigate a team of 6 characters in X-COM-like strategic encounters. The games neo-noir setting not only feels wholly suitable for a VR game but it also functions brilliantly in a gameplay sense, too. Twinfinite played the game at EGX Rezzed and we were very impressed with how well VR felt applied in a strategy setting.

Coatsink CEO Tom Beardsmore told us With a strong focus on deep but accessible gameplay, we wanted to give Gear VR Gamers an extraordinary experience. Were thrilled with the caliber of talent involved in Augmented Empire.

Augmented Empire is due to launch this summer for Samsung Gear VR. There has been no word on other platforms as of yet.

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Voice of Geralt from The Witcher Series Stars in Upcoming VR Cyberpunk RPG - Twinfinite

(Last Updated On: June 23, 2017)

A new Cyberpunk 2077 job listing has appeared and this time CD Projekt Red dives into the open world and level design spectrum. Cyberpunk 2077 level design is said to focus on unique open world spaces where gameplay flow and visual composition form memorable experiences.

Levels really do tell how a game will play out, for instance the more open and circular a map may be the more spontaneous and lax the gameplay will turn out due to the lack of emotion present in that particular map. The more narrow a map is constructed with choke-points and strategical objects scattered around a stage the more tactical the game will play out. The above description for open and linear maps are most noticeable in FPS PvP games, which means how do you create an open world game that features both lax and strategical gameplay?

According to CD Projekt Reds latest job hiring that seeks out a Level Designer and a Lead Level Designer, the game will have both named jobs using a proprietary level editor in the RedEngine 4. This means that the unique level editor specifically designed for future CDPR games (that includes Cyberpunk 2077) will be able to reflect different compositions and memorable experiences through astonishing in-game levels by using flexible tools in the new engine, as seen below.

The first job hiring details what CDPR is looking for in a Level Designer and what this person of interest must do, which is described below.

CD PROJEKT RED in Krakw is looking for a creative and talented Level Designer. By joining us you will be a part of the newly-formed level design team in Krakw and will be responsible for creating astonishing in-game levels for great Cyberpunk 2077.

CDPR also posted up the usual bulleted list that explains what that specific job will be doing in this case a Level Designer:

The second job listing comes a Lead Level Designer. The same setup as the Level Designer is used to explain the role of the former job.

CD PROJEKT RED is currently looking for a Lead Level Designer who will be leading the Level Designers team in day-to-day operation of designing, prototyping, iterating on and polishing in-game levels including level geometry, enemy encounters and other gameplay elements, using proprietary game engine. The person on this position will work closely with the Design Producer to help ensure proper balance between quality, deadlines and technical requirements.

Once again, the same concept as the last bulleted list explains the role and job of a Lead Level Designer, as seen below:

This news about level design is rather interesting in that the tools used for the map creation are proprietary to the RedEngine 4, meaning that the devs have full control of using this new powerful engine to create flexible maps for people and vehicles on ground and fly vehicles, too.

The images above are actually from Cyberpunk 2077, however they stand to be a CGI model of a flying police car and concept for a street-way.

Expect more job listings in the months to come given that the devs are hard at work on Cyberpunk 2077. Something worth mentioning before signing out is that although 2017 is the year of GWENT, it doesnt rule out that you might receive info from the devs on Cyberpunk 2077 when Promised Land roles around in d on September 3rd-6th.

Cyberpunk 2077 is et to come out when its ready.

The rest is here:

Cyberpunk 2077 Job Hiring Details Proprietary Level Design Through RedEngine 4 - One Angry Gamer (blog)

"#The Witcher" series has become such a huge franchise that it will be pretty hard to follow it up and introduce another IP. That's exactly what #CD Projekt RED is doing, with its upcoming sci-fi RPG called "#Cyberpunk 2077." It is quite difficult to get information about the studio's next game, as they are pretty mum about it themselves, but here is everything we know about the highly anticipated game so far.

CD Projekt Red had once said that "Cyberpunk 2077" is a huge project for the studio and the title will certainly benefit from their experience with "The Witcher 3." According to visual effects artist Jose Teixeira, during his interview with MCV in 2015, the game is far bigger than anything else that the gaming studio has done before.

Studio Head Adam Badowski also said during CD Projekt's 2015 financial results that the game will be "even better, even bigger, even more revolutionary." With the way the studio had described the development of the game, gamers should pretty much expect a really ambitious game once it's released.

A huge hint pointing to possible vehicles in "Cyberpunk 2077" was seen on CD Projekt Red's jobs page. According to one of their job openings on the site, the Polish studio is looking for a vehicle gameplay programmer who will "create the whole architecture of vehicle-related code, and the physics of driving and flying in those vehicles" with the rest of the members of the gameplay and level design teams.

The game will give the players an option to take advantage of the driving and flying vehicles traversing the world.

There was a released animated GIF claiming to be part of the project although it was not confirmed whether it is official or not.

CD Projekt Red has remained quiet about the launch date of "Cyberpunk 2077," but a release date window may have just been hinted based on the developer's government funding application.

Information on CD Projekt's site, which was spotted by Neogaf forumer Boskee, mentioned that the timeline will run from January 2016 and January 2017 until June 2019. Based on this, fans should expect the highly anticipated game by the first half of 2019. The forumer noted, however, that this could still be a tentative release date window, as CD Projekt Red can still apply for an extension of the deadline.

The rest is here:

'Cyberpunk 2077' release Date: The game is far bigger than 'The Witcher 3' - Blasting News

Xbox One version due next month.

By Jeffrey Matulef Published 19/06/2017

Acclaimed cyberpunk point-and-click adventure Read Only Memories will be coming to Switch in early 2018.

2064: Read Only Memories is set in a world where Duck Game is still relevant in 57 years.

2064: Read Only Memories tells the tale of a journalist tracking down their kidnapped friend Turing, who just so happens to be the world's first sapient machine.

Unlike most oldschool point-and-click adventures, 2064: Read Only Memories will contain multiple solutions to its puzzles and the way you choose to handle problems will reflect how the story progresses.

The game was originally released on PC in 2015 as Read Only Memories, but it since did that Raiders of the Lost Ark thing where its creators renamed its title after the fact. The 2064 bit is now canon, like Indiana Jones' name in his debut feature.

2064: Read Only Memories has since come to PS4, Vita, Mac and Linux. An Xbox One version is also in development, and based on the game's official Twitter name 2064@XboxOne July!, I would wager that it's coming in July.

If that first voice sounds familiar that's because its Clementine in The Walking Dead actor Melissa Hutchinson.

You can play a free demo of Read on Memories on Steam.

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Cyberpunk adventure 2064: Read Only Memories is coming to Switch - Eurogamer.net

Announced at E3 by Swedish developer Lionbite Games, Rain of Reflections is a cyberpunk adventure with an morale-based strategic confrontations.

It increasingly seems that cyberpunk is making a strong comeback across media, and joining this campaign is Rain of Reflections, an adventure game with turn-based strategic confrontations and a very heavy emphasis on narrative and choice-and-consequence. The game is also quite the looker, and has an almost-AAA finish despite coming from an independent developer.

The games debut trailer below shows its three protagonists: Wilona, Dwennon and Imra. Wilona is a scientist following in her fathers footsteps and involved in experimentation on human children; Dwennon is a private investigator with a shadowy past, because you cant really have a cyberpunk or noir game without one of those floating around; and finally, Imra is a resistance fighter with an eyepatch. Does that make her a cyberpunk pirate? Well have to reach out to the devs for that burning question.

Rain of Reflections is all about narrative choices, and it emphasises that there is no retrying or undoing to be done. Every choice you make is permanent, and you will have to live with the consequences of your actions. The devs stress that theyre also cutting out all the filler content and repetitive gameplay to focus on whats relevant and engaging without ever wasting the players time.

While there dont seem to be any direct action mechanics in the game, there will be dialogues, exploration, puzzles and the aforementioned strategic confrontations that are based on morale. Heres how the devs describe it:

To make the more action-oriented confrontations a part of the narrative and not mere changes of pace, they are constructed around battle motivation a literal tug of war where we offer lots of ways to outsmart enemies without directly resorting to lethal violence.

This fits with the consequence-driven narrative, as we want the player to reflect on that taking a life any life is a tough choice that has consequences on the story going forward.

Rain of Reflections is being developed in the Unity engine at Stockholm, Sweden by Lionbite Games. This is their first game.

Rain of Reflections is scheduled to release sometime in 2018 for PC. Other platforms will be carefully considered after the initial PC release.

Independent DevelopmentIndie GamesIndiesLionbite GamesRain of Reflections

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Rain of Reflections is a cyberpunk game where every choice is permanent - IND13

Satoshi Yoshioka's art from Sdatcher

Snatcher is a cult classic that should be experienced by both science fiction and Metal Gear fans. Even though it appears to "snatch" many of its influences and throw them together into a science fiction cornucopia, it actually explores the issues of humanity and existence in its own distinctive style.

Snatcher was the brainchild of Hideo Kojima and originally came out in 1988 for the MSX console, a computer format that was popular in Japan and Europe in the 80s. It was ported for the PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in America) before reaching American audiences on the Sega CD in 1994, with upgraded graphics and an additional third act. Set in 2047, you play as Gillian Seed, an amnesiac Junker (Japanese Undercover Neuro Kinetic Elimination Ranger) who hunts down Snatchers in the hopes that it will help him to remember his past. The eponymous Snatchers are artificial life forms, or bioroids, designed to blend in with humans. The game takes place in the metropolis of Neo-Kobe, a vibrant melting pot with a whole lot of history and lore. Snatcher uses a text interface similar to the old PC point-and-click adventure games, but it streamlines controls to the point where it's considered one of the earliest precursors of the visual novel.

Former Konami artist Satoshi Yoshioka, who designed many of Snatcher's characters and worked at Konami for nine years on titles like Batman and Robin and Policenauts, told me in an email: "I got a lot of inspiration from classic movies like Blade Runner, The Terminator, and Alien. I made the graphics used in the game with a great deal of respect to [these films]. I was especially interested in the Hollywood SFX [special effects] at that time, and I tried to honour their spirit."

This spirit is felt in many of Snatcher's designs, though their combination creates an atmosphere that has its own unique charm. Players get to know Snatcher's characters through complex dialogue branches with a surprising variety of options. Small comic book panels appear below the main visual window and give personality to each of the characters. The characters also react with appropriate facial expressions that help convey the game's somber themes. Unlike the protagonists in many noirish cyberpunk books and films, Gillian Seed is expressive rather than following the trope of being stoic and subdued. His strong personality goes from melancholy amnesiac to driven investigator and even womanizer (though he gets almost universally rejected). He's a likable character, even with his flaws. He's visually inspired in part by Rick Deckard from Blade Runner, but also the more humorous Lupin the Third from the eponymous animated series.

Yoshioka, who "created all the face graphics for the conversation parts," said that drawing "the expressions of Gillian surprise, delight, and so on were the most challenging to me because of the complexity of the character. Gillian had an interesting mix of humour and seriousness. Kojima wanted to convey Gillian's witty and charming nature, even in some of the more intense moments, so that it would make him seem more 'human' in contrast to the robotic Snatchers." Designing the characters using Konami's custom drawing application, Yoshioka says he was always guided by "Kojima and was mindful of making the graphics as 'cinematic' as possible."

The high quality of the visuals emphasise the cinematic aspect by showcasing graphics that were closer to films than most gamers had seen before on a console. In the combat sequences against the Snatchers, especially one where a fellow Junker named Mika gets captured, the whole battle is framed as an interactive cutscene where you have to kill a villain who uses Mika as a human shield. In another sequence, Gillian's Turbocycle gets sabotaged and spins out of control. The film cuts play out like an action movie, with tense music pounding in the background.

Snatcher's themes of changing technology were present in the development of the game itself. While it'd be easy to say the advanced graphics were due to the increased power of the Sega CD, Yoshioka pointed out that part of what made the development of Snatcher and all its various ports so cohesive is that "Snatcher was developed by a small number of people. In comparison, it might be about half of the average number for a NES game development team at that time. So the developers in different roles could work in close proximity to each other. It enabled us to respond directly and quickly to any developing tasks."

He explained, "Kinoshita (Tomiharu Kinoshita, the original MSX designer) created the original character design. I took part in drawing the characters as a team member of the port for PC Engine CD-ROM (which in turn would be ported with only minor changes to the Sega CD). I could redesign the supporting roles like Chin Shu Oh relatively freely. So I designed them to suit my preference. I heard that in the earlier stage of the development, Kojima had directed the designer to make the game character a bit like Katsuhiro Otomo (the director of Akira)."

This small team had flexibility, but it also meant this small group at Konami had to figure out how development worked when it came to simple things like burning CDs. "When we wrote the data [for Snatcher], we used CD-R writers. It was the first time for us to use the devices. We couldn't inhibit some of the unidentified noises showing up in the game itself. The accident disturbed not only Kojima, but all the other members of the developer team. I was not well acquainted with the CD-R writers. I puzzled over the problem, and suggested not to shake it or to make noises when we used it, hahaha. We finally found that the disturbing noises were due to faulty wiring. Of course, we had amused smiles after we discovered the error was our own fault."

This also brought the team together, a spirit that infuses the game. There's one story Yoshioka shared that perfectly symbolized the unusual development of Snatcher: "I cannot forget that Kojima made strange lyrics for the song in the game, 'Creeping Silence.'" It's a track that effectively creates a creepy atmosphere, but the lyrics don't appear in the game. "He [Kojima] sang it quite often, so the other members remembered the lyrics. 'Spinner, spinner heeey,' and we'd iterate on that. We often sang it all together."

Ouch...

Technology can lead to moments of human bonding, but it's a double-edged sword that can also wreak destruction. The real life Terminator Conundrum a genuine issue debated by the Pentagon about how much autonomy AIs should be granted to kill seems straight out of Snatcher. One of the more shocking moments early in the game is when Gillian comes across the body of Junker Jean-Jack Gibson, whose head has been viciously cut off and lies between his legs. The violence punctuates the threat of the Snatchers and, as Yoshioka points out, "is the first murdered corpse that the players face. So the staff working on the scenes wanted to evoke a dramatic impact and decided to use the most brutal image." Snatcher doesn't shy away from its robotic violence, including a maggot-infested corpse and an animal whose entrails have been ripped out.

The game doesn't delve into Blade Runner's ethical ambivalence when it comes to the existence of Snatchers. They're a threat to be eliminated, not beings on the verge of self-awareness. The terror of that moment highlights the theme of humanity's fear of being replaced by technology as represented by the Snatchers themselves. The irony is that humanity's own self-destructive behaviour created a vacuum for the Snatchers to supplant them in the first place; the game's villain is motivated by his disgust with human behaviour. When I asked Yoshioka about the relationship between technology, art, and humanity, he stated: "In order to know the things of the present, I believe it's essential to know the things of the past. This is also true of arts. We tend to take for granted present technology and the arts. But all of these forms are based on past inventions, innovations, and discoveries."

This theme is also explored more humanely. Metal Gear Mk. II, based on the mechanical nemesis of the original Metal Gear, is Gillian's robot companion. It's been imprinted with a personality programmed by Harry, the engineer for the Junkers. In the game's big twist, you learn that Harry is actually Gillian's son. The reason Gillian and his wife suffered amnesia is that they were part of a secret effort fifty years ago to develop the Snatcher program and replace all the world's leaders. They were put into artificial sleep after the Lucifer-Alpha biological weapon went off. Harry lived on, oblivious to his parents' fate. So the whole game, you're interacting with him, asking about your equipment, and you don't even know who he really is until he dies. That makes your relationship to Metal Gear Mk. II all the more poignant, since he is in essence Harry's creation, your son by mechanical proxy. Metal Gear Mk. II is willing to sacrifice its life to save Gillian, and the implication is that there may come a day when humanity destroys itself and our legacy will only carry on through the technology we birth.

Yoshioka has considered the implications of Snatcher and the movies that inspired it: "There have been many SF movies and comics filled with fearful feelings about the progress of AI. I've got lots of inspirations from these kind of works. Of course, I fear watching and reading about them. But I've also loved AI robots since I was a child. In 1970, when I was just three years old, I saw several robots playing instruments in the Japan World Exposition at Osaka. I still clearly remember that scene and my feeling of wonder which still resonates. So I'm on the side of Metal Gear Mk. II-like robots being able to reach out and communicate with us. I'd prefer to believe in the dream of the emergence of robots that will be partners with humanity, instead of the kind of stories that portend destruction in the wake of AI progression."

Will the advancement of AI and biotechnology reach a point in 2047 where humanity can be replaced by something akin to a Snatcher? Or will the progress made possible by new tech save people from themselves in the face of a catastrophic disease or environmental disaster? It's the fact that there are no easy answers that makes Snatcher so compelling, reminding us that the investigation into human nature never ends. Yoshioka told me, "Though I regard myself to be a has-been, I'm trying to create some brand new impressions by remixing my works, which is my past. I hope the younger generation today realise they need to be aware of the classic and premier works and arts if they want to create something new."

Satoshi Yoshioka's interview was translated by Yoshihiro Tanigawa.

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Of all the things I expected out of E3 2017, Atari announcing a new console was last on the list. Heck, it wasn't even on the list, more scratched in chalk on the tip of my shoe. But it is happening -- CEO Fred Chesnais confirmed with VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi the company's plans to get "back [into] the hardware business".

Nice work gz - Friday's ScribbleTaku was Age of Empires. The original one, incidentally. I had the game on my mind after the remaster for AOE 1 was announced during the PC Gaming Showcase. It's been an awful long time since I busted out the CD for that game (since you can't buy it digitally these days). But a new week means a new game. Let's see how you all go.

Original post:

Snatcher Is Cyberpunk Noir At Its Best - Kotaku Australia

Satoshi Yoshiokas art from Sdatcher

Snatcher is a cult classic that should be experienced by both science fiction and Metal Gear fans. Even though it appears to snatch many of its influences and throw them together into a science fiction cornucopia, it actually explores the issues of humanity and existence in its own distinctive style.

Snatcher was the brainchild of Hideo Kojima and originally came out in 1988 for the MSX console, a computer format that was popular in Japan and Europe in the 80s. It was ported for the PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in America) before reaching American audiences on the Sega CD in 1994, with upgraded graphics and an additional third act. Set in 2047, you play as Gillian Seed, an amnesiac Junker (Japanese Undercover Neuro Kinetic Elimination Ranger) who hunts down Snatchers in the hopes that it will help him to remember his past. The eponymous Snatchers are artificial life forms, or bioroids, designed to blend in with humans. The game takes place in the metropolis of Neo-Kobe, a vibrant melting pot with a whole lot of history and lore. Snatcher uses a text interface similar to the old PC point-and-click adventure games, but it streamlines controls to the point where its considered one of the earliest precursors of the visual novel.

Former Konami artist Satoshi Yoshioka, who designed many of Snatchers characters and worked at Konami for nine years on titles like Batman and Robin and Policenauts, told me in an email: I got a lot of inspiration from classic movies like Blade Runner, The Terminator, and Alien. I made the graphics used in the game with a great deal of respect to [these films]. I was especially interested in the Hollywood SFX [special effects] at that time, and I tried to honor their spirit.

This spirit is felt in many of Snatchers designs, though their combination creates an atmosphere that has its own unique charm. Players get to know Snatchers characters through complex dialogue branches with a surprising variety of options. Small comic book panels appear below the main visual window and give personality to each of the characters. The characters also react with appropriate facial expressions that help convey the games somber themes. Unlike the protagonists in many noirish cyberpunk books and films, Gillian Seed is expressive rather than following the trope of being stoic and subdued. His strong personality goes from melancholy amnesiac to driven investigator and even womanizer (though he gets almost universally rejected). Hes a likable character, even with his flaws. Hes visually inspired in part by Rick Deckard from Blade Runner, but also the more humorous Lupin the Third from the eponymous animated series.

Yoshioka, who created all the face graphics for the conversation parts, said that drawing the expressions of Gilliansurprise, delight, and so onwere the most challenging to me because of the complexity of the character. Gillian had an interesting mix of humor and seriousness. Kojima wanted to convey Gillians witty and charming nature, even in some of the more intense moments, so that it would make him seem more human in contrast to the robotic Snatchers. Designing the characters using Konamis custom drawing application, Yoshioka says he was always guided by Kojima and was mindful of making the graphics as cinematic as possible.

The high quality of the visuals emphasize the cinematic aspect by showcasing graphics that were closer to films than most gamers had seen before on a console. In the combat sequences against the Snatchers, especially one where a fellow Junker named Mika gets captured, the whole battle is framed as an interactive cutscene where you have to kill a villain who uses Mika as a human shield. In another sequence, Gillians Turbocycle gets sabotaged and spins out of control. The film cuts play out like an action movie, with tense music pounding in the background.

Snatchers themes of changing technology were present in the development of the game itself. While itd be easy to say the advanced graphics were due to the increased power of the Sega CD, Yoshioka pointed out that part of what made the development of Snatcher and all its various ports so cohesive is that Snatcher was developed by a small number of people. In comparison, it might be about half of the average number for a NES game development team at that time. So the developers in different roles could work in close proximity to each other. It enabled us to respond directly and quickly to any developing tasks.

He explained, Kinoshita (Tomiharu Kinoshita, the original MSX designer) created the original character design. I took part in drawing the characters as a team member of the port for PC Engine CD-ROM (which in turn would be ported with only minor changes to the Sega CD). I could redesign the supporting roles like Chin Shu Oh relatively freely. So I designed them to suit my preference. I heard that in the earlier stage of the development, Kojima had directed the designer to make the game character a bit like Katsuhiro Otomo (the director of Akira).

This small team had flexibility, but it also meant this small group at Konami had to figure out how development worked when it came to simple things like burning CDs. When we wrote the data [for Snatcher], we used CD-R writers. It was the first time for us to use the devices. We couldnt inhibit some of the unidentified noises showing up in the game itself. The accident disturbed not only Kojima, but all the other members of the developer team. I was not well acquainted with the CD-R writers. I puzzled over the problem, and suggested not to shake it or to make noises when we used it, hahaha. We finally found that the disturbing noises were due to faulty wiring. Of course, we had amused smiles after we discovered the error was our own fault.

This also brought the team together, a spirit that infuses the game. Theres one story Yoshioka shared that perfectly symbolized the unusual development of Snatcher: I cannot forget that Kojima made strange lyrics for the song in the game, Creeping Silence. Its a track that effectively creates a creepy atmosphere, but the lyrics dont appear in the game. He [Kojima] sang it quite often, so the other members remembered the lyrics. Spinner, spinner heeey, and wed iterate on that. We often sang it all together.

Technology can lead to moments of human bonding, but its a double-edged sword that can also wreak destruction. The real life Terminator Conundruma genuine issue debated by the Pentagon about how much autonomy AIs should be granted to killseems straight out of Snatcher. One of the more shocking moments early in the game is when Gillian comes across the body of Junker Jean-Jack Gibson, whose head has been viciously cut off and lies between his legs. The violence punctuates the threat of the Snatchers and, as Yoshioka points out, is the first murdered corpse that the players face. So the staff working on the scenes wanted to evoke a dramatic impact and decided to use the most brutal image. Snatcher doesnt shy away from its robotic violence, including a maggot-infested corpse and an animal whose entrails have been ripped out.

The game doesnt delve into Blade Runners ethical ambivalence when it comes to the existence of Snatchers. Theyre a threat to be eliminated, not beings on the verge of self-awareness. The terror of that moment highlights the theme of humanitys fear of being replaced by technology as represented by the Snatchers themselves. The irony is that humanitys own self-destructive behavior created a vacuum for the Snatchers to supplant them in the first place; the games villain is motivated by his disgust with human behavior. When I asked Yoshioka about the relationship between technology, art, and humanity, he stated: In order to know the things of the present, I believe its essential to know the things of the past. This is also true of arts. We tend to take for granted present technology and the arts. But all of these forms are based on past inventions, innovations, and discoveries.

This theme is also explored more humanely. Metal Gear Mk. II, based on the mechanical nemesis of the original Metal Gear, is Gillians robot companion. Its been imprinted with a personality programmed by Harry, the engineer for the Junkers. In the games big twist, you learn that Harry is actually Gillians son. The reason Gillian and his wife suffered amnesia is that they were part of a secret effort fifty years ago to develop the Snatcher program and replace all the worlds leaders. They were put into artificial sleep after the Lucifer-Alpha biological weapon went off. Harry lived on, oblivious to his parents fate. So the whole game, youre interacting with him, asking about your equipment, and you dont even know who he really is until he dies. That makes your relationship to Metal Gear Mk. II all the more poignant, since he is in essence Harrys creation, your son by mechanical proxy. Metal Gear Mk. II is willing to sacrifice its life to save Gillian, and the implication is that there may come a day when humanity destroys itself and our legacy will only carry on through the technology we birth.

Yoshioka has considered the implications of Snatcher and the movies that inspired it: There have been many SF movies and comics filled with fearful feelings about the progress of AI. Ive got lots of inspirations from these kind of works. Of course, I fear watching and reading about them. But Ive also loved AI robots since I was a child. In 1970, when I was just three years old, I saw several robots playing instruments in the Japan World Exposition at Osaka. I still clearly remember that scene and my feeling of wonder which still resonates. So Im on the side of Metal Gear Mk. II-like robots being able to reach out and communicate with us. Id prefer to believe in the dream of the emergence of robots thatll be partners with humanity, instead of the kind of stories that portend destruction in the wake of AI progression.

Will the advancement of AI and biotechnology reach a point in 2047 where humanity can be replaced by something akin to a Snatcher? Or will the progress made possible by new tech save people from themselves in the face of a catastrophic disease or environmental disaster? Its the fact that there are no easy answers that makes Snatcher so compelling, reminding us that the investigation into human nature never ends. Yoshioka told me, Though I regard myself to be a has-been, Im trying to create some brand new impressions by remixing my works, which is my past. I hope the younger generation today realize they need to be aware of the classic and premier works and arts if they want to create something new.

Satoshi Yoshiokas interview was translated by Yoshihiro Tanigawa.

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Snatcher Is Cyberpunk Noir At Its Best - Kotaku

Its rare that a game becomes one of the biggest wins and the biggest losses of E3 at the same time, but The Last Night a cyberpunk side-scroller made by indie studio Odd Tales may have done it. The Last Nights stylish, neon-drenched trailer was a highlight of Microsofts annual press conference, overshadowing much bigger games from much larger teams. But not long after the show, a series of controversial tweets surfaced from co-creator Tim Soret, suggesting that the game would reflect the worldview of the anti-feminist Gamergate movement. Within a few hours, The Last Night went from universally appealing to bitterly divisive.

Based on what Ive now seen of The Last Night, the final game wont be either of those things. This game is one of the most beautiful things at E3, and also one of the most nebulous. The Last Night is a cinematic platformer that may have almost no platforming, with a cyberpunk plot and setting that the developers insist is not cyberpunk, based on a view of the world that seems less reactionary than naive. Its a game whose creators appear determined to make socially relevant, but in a way that may ultimately hurt The Last Night as a piece of art.

The Last Night wasnt playable at E3, but Odd Tales appeared at the show with a series of animated environments: a bustling neon-lit street, a subway station, a harbor at night. Each one is composed of flat pixel art layered in a three-dimensional space, which is then lit like an ordinary 3D scene. The world is magnetic, with a warmth and depth that brings its buildings and inhabitants to life.

Its less clear what form that life will take. The game is set in a future of ubiquitous computing, where labor has been rendered obsolete by artificial intelligence. Its about a man who is medically unable to get the implanted computing devices that other people in the world depend on, drifting around the edges of society until hes drawn into a life-or-death plot.

A cinematic platformer where you dont jump

Odd Tales calls The Last Night a cinematic platformer in the vein of Another World, whose developer Soret cites as an inspiration. But he describes gameplay that sounds more like a complex interactive drama based on talking to people and exploring the environment, with a cast of characters whose reactions will change based on what you say and do. Despite the platformer label, the game supposedly wont include a jump mechanic Soret jokes that you dont see people leaping around the streets in real-world cities.

These kinds of branching narratives are hard to pull off, and we dont know how good Odd Tales is at writing them, since we havent seen the game in action. And Odd Tales seems to be grappling with what kind of future it wants to make which is exactly what got it into trouble at E3. In 2014, Soret wrote that The Last Night takes place in a cyberpunk world where modern feminism won instead of egalitarianism, appending the Gamergate hashtag. Around the same time, he claimed the game would show the dangers of extreme progressivism, and inquired about the possibility of using Gamergate mascot Vivian James in the game.

Soret has disavowed the tweets and the sentiment, and when I met with him, he reiterated that they were mistakes that dont reflect his current worldview or plans for The Last Night. He cast some of his earlier statements in a more neutral light: where his old tweets seemed to condemn artificial wombs as a kind of extreme feminism meant to let women smoke and drink during pregnancy, he now describes them simply as something that could change womens role in his future, possibly for the better. Its neither utopian nor dystopian, he says.

Soret still seems dubious of modern feminism and social justice, but expresses it in vague terms of seeing the movement as divisive, and theres no sign this will translate into the game itself. Nothing about The Last Nights world sounds preachy if anything, its social commentary sounds remarkably mild, covering ubiquitous future-shock anxieties like gamification, automation, and consumerism. The danger is that nothing seems particularly well-considered, either. Would a post-work future really look so much like Blade Runner or Neuromancer, both of which were full of hustlers looking for their next score? Will the developers engage with feminism enough to address its future with any depth, the way that recent games like VA-11 HALL-A have done?

There's little sense of context or self-awareness around The Last Night

Odd Tales expresses a confusingly bellicose conviction that its turning the science fiction world on its head, without offering much justification for why. The Last Night began as an entry in the 2014 Cyberpunk Game Jam, but Odd Tales later rejected the label in an online manifesto, declaring that the cyberpunk vision established by Blade Runner and William Gibson is just too normal and deriding every cyberpunk-adjacent game of the past decade as trope comfort food.

Every time Odd Tales tries to explain why The Last Night isnt cyberpunk, though, it ends up describing something that could come straight out of Blade Runner when I asked Soret whether The Last Night took the genres aesthetic in a new direction, he mentioned drawing influence from a trip to Hong Kong. (Even William Gibson himself retweeted a joke about the games straightforward visual homage.) Theres a common thread here with the Gamergate controversy, which is that theres very little sense of context or self-awareness around The Last Night. Its seemingly post-cyberpunk the way that people who dont know much about feminism identify as post-feminist, advancing past an unrecognizable strawman of the genre.

And ironically, insisting that The Last Night is unprecedented makes it a lot less likable. It suggests that the studio doesnt understand why people enjoyed its trailer so much: not because it offered something totally new, but because it handled a familiar formula with fantastic competence. The project is in such an early state that I cant say whether Odd Tales will be able to deliver a finished game by 2018, the current release date. But if it does, The Last Night could be the best cyberpunk comfort food of the year. I dearly hope thats where it goes.

Read more:

The Last Night was one of E3's most dazzling games and also its most frustrating - The Verge