In August 2019, after getting excited watching music videos from Office Space, I quit my ten-year web development job to focus full-time on game development at Reclamation Games, the small studio I run. started with my wife, Vanessa. She is a talented musician and songwriter, and I had experience on small hobbyist game projects, computer training, and had spent the last two years learning about Unity, game programming, modeling. 3D and animation. It wasn’t seasoned industry expertise – we looked for people to help us out later – but it was a start.
I had a prototype 2D action-exploration game where the story was intertwined with non-linear exploration and progression, but we had reached a point of development where completing it would require a massive increase in time. I either had to get away from it or put it all in by quitting my daily job and focusing entirely on creating the game I had always wanted to play. So I did.
Almost two years later, I’m delighted to announce that Reina & Jericho is coming to PlayStation 5. Let me tell you more.
Meet Reina
Reina, the main protagonist, is a resourceful and resourceful young woman with a chip on her shoulder won from a difficult life. She doesn’t have the most basic knowledge of what’s going on and what she’s gotten into, and she is absolutely not equipped to overcome the obstacles in her path – two issues that she will have to resolve as she goes. shifting.
For Reina’s design, we were fortunate enough to work with Leandro Franci, a fantastic illustrator with a knack for the stylized aesthetic we wanted to achieve, and Dan Eder, a master of stylized 3D modeling who was able to bring the designs to life. Leandro sketch. Reina’s scars tell of her difficult life, and her simple clothes are a testament to her working class status.
Around her neck rests a powerful artifact called the Device of Regret which allows her to revisit the recent past armed with knowledge and objects she acquired along the way – an imperfect form of time travel that makes events play out slightly differently each time she uses it.
Nonlinear time
A key feature of the 2D action-exploration genre is flashback: the player will see a locked door or other obstacle blocking exploration in an area, then find the key to overcoming it and return later for it. to explore. At Reina & Jericho, we wanted to take this idea further in two ways:
- The player can go back in time and causality, rather than just geographically.
- We integrate the story into this exploration and revisiting as much as possible.
The Regret device allows Reina to quickly travel to previous game locations, but also cancels any events that have taken place. after this moment. Sometimes the implications of this are minor: a shorter path to power-ups that were once out of reach. Other times, they’re crucial – the people who were killed after Reina’s return will be alive again, though they may be missing a few items she took from them.
Integrated story
I have long felt that the exploratory nature of the 2D action-exploration genre had the potential for cool storytelling that could only be done through video games, but was often relegated to a secondary role. I often thought about the similarities between flashing back in a Metroidvania and how the mind constantly reverted to moments of regret and past decisions that could have been made differently.
With Reina & Jericho, we have woven a powerful story about love, pain, regret and the aftermath that will follow Reina as she is gradually drawn deeper into the machinations of the villain, Eli Faust. Reina’s attempt to save Jericho is increasingly interwoven with the larger events of history – past, present, and future.
Emotional music
Vanessa naturally gravitates towards an emotional and heavy style of music. Our process of creating the soundtrack was relatively straightforward: Vanessa would sit at a piano and play improvised between two minutes and two hours, and I would record everything so that I could sift through later and give her a shortlist of material to be formally composed from. Sometimes we would listen to music ahead of time to get us in a good mood – usually something from Nobuo Uematsu, Arcade Fire, Bear McCreary, or Yoko Shimomura – other times it was conversations about what was going on. in the story, but it always started with these sessions. explore music on the piano.
Gameplay
Reina has a simple core set of moves that provides a solid foundation for newcomers to the genre while still making room for expressive and highly skilled play thanks to all the ways in which Reina’s different actions can be linked and interconnected. The game’s critical path has a good mix of exploration, combat, and platforming, but the side paths that grant minor bonuses are where we place the most explicit challenges.
Stay tuned for the release announcement of Reina & Jericho. We are excited to share the game with all of you soon and believe it will leave a lasting impression!
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