MoonGlint-studio on työskennellyt Echoes of the Livingin parissa noin kahdeksan vuotta pienen tiiminsä kanssa, mutta projektin kehitys lähti täyteen vauhtiin vasta kolme vuotta sitten. Pitkä aika on johtanut siihen, että Echoes of the Living tuntuu enemmän tulevalta AA-tason julkaisulta indie-nimikkeen sijaan. Mutta juuri rakkaus klassisiin selviytymiskauhuseikkailuihin aina viime vuosisadan vaihteesta asti on pitänyt pyörät pyörimässä, kuten ohjelmoija ja tasosuunnittelija Álvaro Becerra kertoo haastattelussamme IndieDevDay 2024 -tapahtumassa.
"Echoes of the Living is a very, very big love letter from us to the fans of classic survival horror games, you know, the ones from the 90s like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark. We really miss those kind of games."
"I think 20 years ago, the last one they did was Resident Evil Remake, if I'm not mistaken. So we liked it so much that we wanted to bring it back, and now we have the tools to make it fully 3D with real-time lighting."
It's not just in its low-poly aesthetic or those shadows and that dark, partially supernatural world that is reminiscent of the genre's classics, but they also take inspiration for presenting their narrative in their pair of main characters.
"There are two main characters. We have Liam Oakwood (...) and we have Laura Reeves, the female character. They both have unique campaigns. Each of them has about 10-12 hours of gameplay, give or take."
"The story they share is not the kind that most people would think of.
They each have their own objectives, their own goals, but they'll have to cooperate in certain situations to help each other and work their way forward."
Echoes of the Living is very close to wrapping up development in time for its PC release via Steam in February 2025, but they hint that won't be the end of their story. "There's also a third character that will be unlocked when you complete both campaigns," said Becerra. "But it will come a little bit later because we ran out of time, so it will come out as a free content update later on."
Toistaiseksi PC on ainoa vahvistettu alusta, mutta kehitystiimi on edelleen toiveikas sen suhteen, että jos peli toimii ja saa hyvän vastaanoton, he pystyvät siirtämään sen myös muille alustoille.
"For now we're only releasing it on Steam because we don't have the money to release it on other platforms. But if everything goes well enough, we want to reinvest that money into porting it to PlayStation 5 and Xbox."
Jos olet kaivannut vanhan koulukunnan kauhua, mutta Silent Hill 2 Remake on ollut sinulle liian rankka tapaus, tässä on mielenkiintoinen julkaisu ensi vuoden alkuun.