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Here’s Why One Indie Is Showing Environments Instead Of Gameplay
We’ve covered The Astronauts inaugural title, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter a number of times. Each of those has included images and short clips of the studio’s photogrammetric approach to aesthetics.
We (and many others) would love to see some gameplay, but The Astronauts is holding out. There’s a good reason, though.
“Because Ethan Carter heavily relies on the atmosphere,” writes studio founder Adrian Chmielarz. “It’s not like a song that sounds great both in bare bones acoustic version and with the full arrangement. It’s like a movie that’s either all green screen and no sound versus final, finished version.”
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter currently has placeholder voiceovers, which might break the immersion. Chmierlarz likens watching that to a work print of an effects-driven movie.
Many of the gameplay trailers we see early on in a title’s production are staged specifically for promotional purposes. That takes time and money. “We’re putting every penny and every second of our time into the game itself (well, with the exception of our blogs),” Chmielarz writes. “I wish we could do both the development and the gameplay videos and whatnot, I really do — but when having to choose, we choose the game.”
The Astronauts are hoping to show us the first gameplay of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter in March. The title is a supernatural thriller focused on exploration and narrative. You can read a recent preview here and see a collection of short gifs of the environments here.
[Source: The Astronauts]
Our Take
With small teams and lean budgets, independent studios need to maximize their productivity and their bankroll. Extensive vertical slices and staged trailers aren’t the way to go until things are further along in the process.
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