Hi! They are Goldie and Jason from the Wayward Strand team, based in Melbourne, Australia. We’ve been working on this game since 2016, when our ideas were just scribbles on pieces of paper, so it’s both incredibly exciting and quite surreal to be here on the official PlayStation blog to bring you our exciting news. : coming to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4!
Wayward Strand is a new kind of playable story, set in a living world. It’s a thoughtful and heartwarming story, woven from several distinct threads, all taking place simultaneously aboard an airborne hospital in 1970s Australia. (Yes, it’s the hospital airship up there!)
You play as Casey, a teenage girl visiting the hospital for the first time. Your mother is the head nurse of the brand new hospital being built on the airship, and she has asked you to spend three days in the Elderly Care Unit, where you will explore the mysteries of the ship and meet the elderly patients. . and the staff.
There are over a dozen characters who live or work on the airship that you can meet and spend time with, each going about their own life as you explore. Some are charming, others eccentric, others rude – each has their own desires, goals and imaginations.
You will meet Esther Fitzgerald, an eccentric elderly resident who worked as a call radio medium and now commune with the spirits aboard the ship. Esther can be direct and won’t hesitate to tell you what she thinks – if you can prove that you are trustworthy enough to open up.
Or, you could meet Neil Avery – before becoming a resident, he had a successful career as a motivational speaker and self-help book writer, and he plans to write a book about the ship himself. He’s friendly and very talkative, and has almost too much advice for Casey about his young career as a high school journalist.
During your game of Wayward Strand, as you spend time with one character on the ship, the others will go on with their day. In the world, time flies for everyone – NPCs continue their stories without waiting for you to interact with them.
This is the basic mechanic that defines Wayward Strand – as a team, we’ve spent the past five years creating the tightly interwoven life stories of each character over those three days, defining and detailing how each interacts. and bounces back. off, each other.
This means that the actual experience of playing Wayward Strand is incredibly open – you are immersed in a living, breathing world, where things are happening all around you all the time. At all times, you choose what and who to focus on… just like in real life.
As you play, when you see a character, you can follow them and listen to their conversations. You can also go to their rooms and talk with them: ask questions, start chats, or join ongoing conversations.
Each time you play Wayward Strand, you can focus on different characters at different times, complement your understanding of their history, and deepen your personal relationship with them.
Each character has their own unique story, and we explore many themes in their stories – themes of care and neglect, infirmity and death, friendship and community. These are personal stories too – we were inspired by real stories and stories told to us by our grandparents, parents and the elderly in our communities as we were children.
Wayward Strand is a really different experience as a video game, and that’s a testament to our inspirations – we love games with experimental narrative structures like The Last Express, and we also rely on interactive theater. Playing Wayward Strand is not about challenging or trying to solve puzzles. It’s about being an active participant in a world full of unfolding stories.
We are excited to share the Wayward Strand experience with you. And if you’re looking for a game to play with someone who’s never picked up a controller before (maybe someone older in your life), then we think Wayward Strand is the perfect introduction to the world of games. video games.
We’ll be sharing more information about Wayward Strand soon, so keep your eyes peeled for the months to come. For now, we’re busy doing that, but we can’t wait for you to play Wayward Strand on your PlayStation next year.
