Inner Space

We Join Shedworks To Get A Behind-the-scenes Look At Sable, One Of 2019s Most Spirited And Evocative Adventure Games.

So many great science-fiction stories work best when their heads are not in the stars. When they look beyond the spectacle of worlds colliding, taking time to zero in on the human condition (or close alien approximation), they reflect back to us something personal. We so often find ourselves propelled to worlds unknown, but it’s the stories that drag us back to the ground, that make these adventures in other times and worlds so relatable and, hopefully, irresistible.

An easy point of comparison for Sable would be Star Wars, but not in the way that you might necessarily expect. Consider for a second our introduction to Rey on Jaku, at the 11th minute mark of The Force Awakens; do we find the character so immediately intriguing because we know that she will soon embark on the adventure of a lifetime? Or is it because we can’t help but imagine all of the adventures that have led her to this moment, as the lens of a camera first finds her out there, in a seeming wasteland?

We would like to believe it is the latter, and it’s here where Sable finds focus too, grounded, but looking up at the stars. Daniel Fineberg and Greg Kythreotis, the co-founders (and only members) of Sable’s development studio Shedworks, found inspiration in a similar concept; one that was compelling enough that in the spring of 2017 the pair took to Kythreotis’ parents’ garden shed in North London to begin prototyping concepts that played with that very idea of a personal journey through a very alien world. The humble garden shed, once again the launchpad for giant ideas.