Check Out This 30 Minute Preview of Sky
While we’re still holding out for a release date announcement soon, 30 minutes of new gameplay footage of Sky —Â the latest project from Journey developer thatgamecompany — has been released for your viewing pleasure.
Sky was announced in October during Apple’s iPhone X conference where it was revealed to be an iOS exclusive — at least for now. Considering thatgamecompany’s history has been mainly that of a PlayStation developer, this came as a surprise to many. Mobile game prejudices aside, try not to judge Sky until you’ve seen it in action because the new footage below is absolutely breathtaking.
It appears that the footage is from a special preview build of Sky and that the game is still a “work-in-progress,” at least according to the in-game message at the start. Despite this, however, Sky is shaping up to be another captivating experience from the devs that brought us Journey and Flower.
One major takeaway from the video is how the game will allow players to interact with each other. While Journey allowed another player to join you on your…er, journey, Sky encourages up to eight human players to work together to explore and solve puzzles. Thatgamecompany is hoping to create “a new experience that promotes compassion, altruism and teamwork within its audience base”.
“If you really think about the player-to-player interaction in Journey, it’s very minimal,” explained thatgamecompany president and creative director Jenova Chen in an interview with VGA host Geoff Keighley. “It’s almost like playing one single tone across the whole melody. But now with many people, we have all kinds of parameters.”
“Like the number of people in a scene, the type of mechanics [in which] they engage with each other. Are they helping each other? Are they competing with each other? Are they potentially protecting each other? That interpersonal gameplay is now a new element that we could utilise to add a new feeling to the game.”
Sky currently has no release date, but we’re expecting one really soon.
Did you watch the footage? Tell us what you think in the comments below.