Hur resonerade svenska The Gang kring andrapersonsperspektivet i Out of Sight?

Svenska utvecklaren The Gang förbereder sig just nu för att släppa sitt unika och stämningsfulla skräckspel Out of Sight den 22 maj, ett projekt som sticker ut genom att kombinera både förstapersons- och andrapersonsperspektiv, något som väldigt få spel vågat experimentera med. För att bättre förstå var idén kommer ifrån, pratade vi med creative director Per Hallros och executive producer Patrick Berglind om hur konceptet växte fram och vad som inspirerade det.

Hallros berättar i intervjun (som finns att se med svenska undertexter):

"It really started from coming up with like, what is second-person perspective? And then we did some research like how that could behave in a game. And we came up with this solution where you have a detached... where your eyes are in a different character. And then it became a very strong connection between these characters. Where... oh, but I want to bring the camera with me for my eyes, right? So how that kind of became like a natural transition to have the first-person part where you carry it in your arms. And then put it down to becoming the second-person perspective. You are watching yourself through someone else's eyes."

Patrick Berglind fyller i och förklarar varför teamet valde att satsa på just detta grepp, snarare än att försöka uppfinna hjulet på nytt:

"Also, I think, I mean, the concept of 2D games, the concept of, in this case, 3D games. And instead of going way ahead of the curve and doing something radical in terms of mechanics that's super way ahead, right? Taking aspects and just tweaking those and perfecting those are a bit more interesting, at least to us, than being like, let's do a 4D game with smelling controls or something. That's a bit far out, maybe. But I think that aspect of like, I mean, second-person, I can put down my camera. That's quite easy, if that makes sense, concept-wise. But then perfecting that into gameplay has been a big challenge. I think we succeeded."

Senare i samtalet förklarar Hallros hur en del klassiska titlar hjälpte till att forma idéerna bakom spelet:

"I can just add, like, a lot of the stuff that we found when researching is kind of like the old Resident Evil games, where you have static cameras, almost like CCTV cameras, watching a character and then moving statically. But then we were really intrigued by the thought of, okay, but what if that camera is a whole other character? And that's when you get the collaboration or the transition between first and second-person perspectives."

Out of Sight lanseras till PC, Playstation, Switch och Xbox den 22 maj. I vår fullständiga intervju (se nedan) berättar utvecklarna mer om den psykologiska skräcken, känslan av att inte kunna lita på sina sinnen - och hur spel som Little Nightmares och Driver: San Francisco varit viktiga inspirationskällor i skapandet.