Year Walk developer reveals Device 6
"The written word is your map."
Simogo, the developer behind the brilliantly creepy iOS horror game Year Walk, has unveiled its new project: it's called Device 6 , and it's "a surreal thriller, in which the written word is your map, as well as your narrator." It revolved around a girl named Anna who wakes up on a mysterious island with no idea how she got there - save for some strange memories regarding an unpleasant doll.
Over on the developer's blog, Simogo maestro Simon Flesser goes into just a little bit more detail:
"We came to the conclusion that making a game based around maps and text, and spiced with riddles, story and descriptive sound would probably make a very cool, minimalistic, descriptive, experience.
"So what we ended up with was this thing called DEVICE 6, which is very much its own thing. It has very strong gaming elements, but it has just as strong elements of a book or a classic riddle. Sound is important, too. When you are playing, you can hear everything that is happening in the game. Footsteps, doors opening, noisy old fans and machines, recorded messages on old tape recorders."
Flesser cites Franz Kafka, Agatha Christie, and David Cronenberg as central influences, but the whole thing seems to have a lot in common with Year Walk's companion app - a strange little textual add-on to the main adventure that rewarded dedicated players with an answer to the game's most pressing mystery.
We'll be catching up with Flesser in the near future to hear a little bit more about this fascinating project. For now, here's the trailer.
Device 6 will launch on iOS this year.
