BenjaminRivers
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Emotional sci-fi game 'Alone with You' hits Steam next month
Alone with You tells a surprising story about relationships, love and friendship -- surprising because it stars just one living human as he attempts to escape an abandoned planet that's scheduled for implosion. His only companion is the space colony's artificial intelligence system and holographs of dead colonists. Through interaction with the AI system and nightly conversations with digital ghosts, the survivor discovers details about the people who used to inhabit the planet and how their lives collided. And now, it's all coming to Steam.
Storytelling in video games doesn't have to be scary
Benjamin Rivers believes in the dramatic, emotional appeal of the video game industry. He's the man behind Home, a surprisingly complex, pixelated horror game that found great success once it debuted in 2012. It's praised for impressive narrative arcs that branch in twisted, unique ways depending on the decisions of each player, and this is precisely the type of story-centric design that delights Rivers. He sees video games' potential to convey convoluted human experiences through strong narrative design, and he's bringing these sensibilities to Alone with You, a science-fiction adventure due to hit PlayStation 4 and PS Vita in the spring. Alone with You stars a lonely survivor on a planet due for implosion in a few weeks; players have to escape with help from the colony's AI system, which eventually takes on the personalities of dead crew members. And, it's a romance. A futuristic, interstellar romance starring just one actual human -- because that's the kind of storyteller Rivers is.
Daily iPhone App: Home is a creepy but well-constructed tale
Home probably isn't for everyone, but a certain type of audience will really love it. The game is an indie title originally put together for the PC by a developer named Benjamin Rivers, and it's in the horror-adventure genre. The controls are very simple: You walk left and right by tapping on either side of the screen. You can look up by tapping up, and you can interact with objects in the environment by double-tapping on them when you're close. That's it. But Home works its magic in other, weirder ways. Early in the game, your character finds a flashlight, and most of the game just involved wandering around a creepy house, slowly finding photos and items that reveal just what the experience is all about. Text appears when you interact with items, but it's all in the past tense, so you're playing out a story that has already happened, and the choices you make are part of the story being told. It's a fascinating experiment in storytelling, and while it can get a bit macabre at times, this is an indie experience that does a whole lot with relatively little. Home is available for US$2.99 on the App Store now, and though the award-winning indie title already has its fans on the PC, it's a solid addition to Apple's iOS lineup.
