Thursday, 26 November 2015

Stay Close



With the cancellation of Silent Hills, and the hype built by its teaser demo P.T, some developers are trying to fill the void for horror gamers. Two such developers are Aleksandar Dzhordzhiyevski and Maxime Thomas, working on first-person horror Stay Close, which aims to blur the line between madness and reality, and was recently Greenlit.



In Stay Close, the gamer will travel through different phases, based on reality and illusion, and only by progressing through each of these will they be able to find the truth of what they are seeing. Aleksandar, the creator of the game’s concept, said that “Stay Close is strongly inspired by the movie Jacob's Ladder,” a 90s horror film that featured a man who appeared to be slowly losing his mind, unable to tell what was real and what was spewed forth by his damaged imagination. Aleksandar’s goal “would be to achieve a similar atmosphere…. Mixing reality with madness.” 

There was also a functional reason behind this decision. By having two phases, reality and illusion, the developers can “use the same level and assets twice, resulting in 50% less content and almost 30% less development.”



Similar to the teaser demo of P.T, or upcoming horrors of a similar focus – such as Allison Road – gamers won’t be spoon-fed the answers or the narrative behind the game, and will have to piece together what they believe is happening based on the information that they find. Just what gamers will find is not yet clear, as the game is still early in development, but the developers want this to be an important part of the experience.



For those planning on staying close to Stay Close, more information can be found on the game’s website, Steam page, Facebook and Twitter.

Getting déjà vu right now? That may be because you read this on IGM, where my article was first featured! Check IGM out for all the latest on indie games.

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