Partner Content by Square Enix Collective
Sometimes games happen unexpectedly.
Case in point, this week Black The Fall finally debuted on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, marking the end of a long, strange journey for Romanian developers Sand Sailor Studio. The result? A stealth-focused puzzle-platformer that pays loving homage to Amiga classics like Out of This World and Flashback even as it explores fresh ideas of its own. Many critics are comparing it to Playdead's critical darling LIMBO.
But this wasn't always the vision, not exactly. When Sand Sailor's principals first noodled around with ideas in January of 2014, they had no inkling of the challenging, multi-year journey they would soon undertake.
According to Sand Sailor founders Cristian Diaconescu and Nicoleta Iordanescu, Black The Fall started with a simple idea: "an atmospheric side-scroller set in a post-Communist world." Working alone, the duo envisioned a brutal, broken society steeped in alienation and darkness, with alone, weary protagonist trying to rebel in the only way he can: escaping this inhumane system.
That the developers were born and raised in the ex-Soviet bloc country of Romania is no coincidence.
"We've lived in times when there was no freedom of speech, intellectuals were thrown in prisons and tortured, food was subject to rationing, contraception was unobtainable, and access to Western culture was minimal. It sounds Orwellian, but unfortunately, it happened in most communist countries. Worse, it's still happening in some parts of the world." says Creative Director Diaconescu.
This shared passion, gained through painful experience, proved attractive to others. As Diaconescu and Iordanescu sought feedback from friends and colleagues, more and more signed on to help develop their vision. Suddenly they had a studio, and that studio needed cash.
Thus was born a successful Kickstarter campaign, which ended in October 2014 having achieved 114% of requested funding.
If you read the Kickstarter page now, it's clear that Sand Sailor's game design was still in flux, as the beautifully minimalist game released this week displays marked differences from the concepts discussed in the campaign.
The Kickstarter pitch seemed more open-ended, suggesting you could approach situations with stealth or violence, depending on your preferred play style. There were a fair few guns, and a crafting system, and your actions in the world could even affect how NPCs reacted to you.
It all sounded a little complicated, perhaps especially so compared to the minimalist Amiga side-scrollers that originally inspired it. As time went on, the developers would continue to pare down their design to only the most essential elements, those that supported the high-level vision of "allowing the player to experience the emotions of living in fearful and alienated societies." Maybe lots of gunplay wasn't really what they needed, there.
Funding in place — and with additional support from the indie-accelerator programs at Square Enix Collective and Execution Labs — the Sand Sailor crew was ready to continue iterating on its dark vision.
Skip forward a couple years of active, heavy development (easier said than done!), as well as a bunch of best-of-show noms and wins at various industry events. It's now July 2017, and Black The Fall's finally ready for mass consumption. Just what kind of puzzle-platform experience can players expect?
Think LIMBO crossed with Flashback: dark, atmospheric platforming interlaced with wickedly deadly, clever environmental puzzles that force you to rely on wits and simple gadgets just as much as reflexes. More, really.
Early segments focus on your forlorn but determined character's initial escape from his industrialized ghetto. He'll have to sneak past both automated and live security using whatever each room affords him, while also being nimble enough to avoid the flames, pistons, and blades of huge, industrial machines.
It isn't long before he gets the jump on a guard and steals a "designator" tool, which lets him manipulate helmeted, mind-controlled humans and the environment around him. For example, one sequence is in a room full of human drones pedaling stationary, electricity-producing cycles, with a security spotlight continually sweeping the expanse.
Dash across? A fine way to get shot. But with careful timing, you can use the designator to direct each successive drone to swap cycles with you; as long as you're dutifully pedaling whenever security sweeps over they'll take no notice. The early going is filled with these subtle, often common-sense puzzles.
It's also very dark, with many environments lit only incidentally or when lights happen to pass by. Black The Fall was originally envisioned as a black-and-white affair, but now sports a wider yet still gloomy palette. Compared to the dim opening, later areas, from when your hero reaches the outside world, look positively vivid by comparison. These later, more naturalistic scenes call to mind the atmospheric, countryside vistas of Half-Life 2.
Final reviews are still in the works, but Black The Fall enjoyed such positive response throughout its development (and its stint on Steam Early Access) that it's hard to imagine Sand Sailor dropped the ball in the final stretch.
This marks the end of an unexpectedly epic three-and-a-half-year journey for Diaconescu, Iordanescu, and the rest of their unlikely studio. But every end is also a beginning. Now that it has a published game and an actual studio in place, it will be interesting to see what course Sand Sailor decides to chart next.
Much to her shame, Jane Larkin has still never beaten Out of This World.
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