Explore a living alien world in Planet Alpha Game Studio and Team17’s latest platformer Planet Alpha. Players will traverse an unknown planet in a both fast paced and stealth experience in which the character can alterate day and night cycle to its own advantage.
The game has been announced for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. While there isn’t an official release date yet, devs have stated that it’s arriving “soon”.
In a PlayStation blog post earlier this morning, the creative director Adrian Lazar introduced the game for the very first time. The ability to change between day and night is directly tied to the danger that lurks within this alien world, being able to use the natural environment for our advantage to, let’s say, get pass a swarm of aliens unnoticed.
“For example, deep in the dense alien jungle light barely reaches the soil, so during the day some species of mushrooms extend toward the canopy to escape the shade. If you’re observant, you can use them as platforms to reach higher places or as covers to sneak past enemies”, Lazar explained. “High above the mountains, a different kind of transformation is taking place. During the day, small floating islands warm up in the sun. This releases steam, which makes them move through the sky. You can use them to traverse this unstable environment, but be warned: some of them have sharp edges that can cut deep.”
Lazar has been working on the game in his spare time for the last four years, and now, it’s part of a small team composed of Tim Løye Skafte (3D art & animation) and Tim Börrefors (Level design). Additionally, the collaborators Jesper Krogh Kristiansen (Sound design), Siddhartha Barnhoorn (Music), Fernando Castillo Coello (Animation Programmer) and Thomas Løfgren -(Game Design Consultant) are involved in Planet Alpha, which main development location is in Denmark.
The blog post also states that not only was the project renamed a number of times, but the gameplay went through a few iterations as well. “But what stayed the same from the beginning was this desire to create an immersive, living world that would awe, scare and intrigue at the same time. An unexplored alien planet is the perfect canvas for this so we let our imagination flow”, Lazar stated.
Make sure to visit the official site for more information, and don’t forget to follow both the studio and Team17 on Twitter.
