When it comes to island-building game Townscaper, it’s the little things. We plonk down colourful houses, and mathematical magic works to shape them into a place that looks lived-in. In one click, Townscaper creates a balcony with a tower viewer pointing out to sea. In another, we extend a cottage – and the game places a tiny pair of wellies outside the new front door. We rarely set out with a plan, instead following the game’s lead in search of fresh delights.
Perhaps Townscaper is the latest in a line of what late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata once termed ‘non-games’: software toys without goal or end, often encouraging the player to invent their own through self-expression – the original SimCity, DS synthesiser Electroplankton, and Jeff Minter’s player-controlled light show Psychedelia among them. Or maybe it’s something else altogether: Shed works co-founder Gregorios Kythreotis recently tweeted that he feels it’s “a new kind of ‘architectural exploration’ game about discovering the hidden configurations of spaces available behind the algorithm.” In either case, it is doing phenomenally well – when we talk to creator Oskar Stålberg, Townscaper is about to hit 100,000 early access copies sold in just over two weeks.
この記事は Edge の October 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Edge の October 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
CHANTS OF SENNAAR
How Babel helped a world of stealth become a world of words
MEGHNA JAYANTH
Around the industry in eight games: one writer's journey through indie to triple-A and back again.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Sam Fisher's final outing is also his most enigmatic
Post Script
How low should a boss go?
TWO POINT STUDIOS
How a new studio rose from the ashes of Lionhead success not simulated
RAIDERS OF THE ARCHIVE
Wolfenstein-style shootouts are just a small part of the picture in MachineGames' maximalist Indy game
SPLITGATE 2
If it ain't broke, don't fix Split
KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE II
A bigger, better - and funnier Bohemian rhapsody
Narrative Engine
Write it like you stole it
The Outer Limits
Journeys fo the farthest reaches of interactive entertainment