After seeing the E3 2018 trailer for Sable, everyone wants to know more about the beautiful color palettes, sweeping music, and the captivating world that the indie title seems to be promising.
Shedworks’ Greg Kythreotis has delivered that and much more, as he recently sat down with Forbes contributor Max Thielmeyer. In the interview, the developer revealed a lot about the games story, structure, and inspirations, as well as some lore.
Sable will follow a young girl, Sable, who sets out on a journey to explore an ancient desert. The mysterious land will be populated by nomads, fallen spaceships, towering architecture, and clues to the history of her people. Yet, when it comes to exploring that land, it won’t simply be a linear experience.
In order to set itself apart from similarly themed exploration-heavy games like Firewatch and Proteus, Sable will let players experiment with the open world structure of the game.
“It is an open world game, we don’t want to guide the player with particular story beats or sequence the game with a structured narrative, but at the same time we aren’t making a procedural or infinite game,” Kythreotis said. “It has handcrafted environments and layouts and we aim to tell a story about a specific character in a specific place.
While it will obviously not be set to the same scale, and will focus on smaller stories, the exploration aspect sounds very similar to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as well, which allowed players to go where they pleased, regardless of story linearity.
He continued to say that a huge inspiration was 80 Days and Sunless Sea and that they hope to tell a similar set of personal and intimate stories.
In regards to the art style, Kythreotis stressed that its artistic natural was pivotal to the experience of Sable.
We knew that if we didn’t find a way of making something evocative artistically then the experience we wanted to create would be significantly more difficult, ” Kythreotis said. “In a lot of ways it was the element that had the most unanswered questions for us.
Sable is set to release in 2019.
For more information, head over to the full interview linked above. And be sure to check back to the site for updates, as well as all of your other nerdy news and needs!