scattered-entertainment
Latest
The Drowning touches on mobile FPS greatness
This is Portabliss, a column about downloadable games that can be played on the go. The Drowning has the best controls of any touch-based shooter I've ever experienced. I'm in love; I don't ever want to go back to the way things were before. I hope I never touch a virtual thumbstick again. It's an incredibly simple and intuitive interface. You tap on the screen with two fingers and your shot is fired directly between the two pressed points. Close shots are easy to aim, but the further away the target is, the more difficult it is to land a decent shot – and the more rewarding it is when you do. The system effectively marries the concepts of a user-friendly interface with skill-based aiming, providing a welcome change to the clunky or watered-down control schemes seen in other touch-based shooters. Movement is also surprisingly intuitive: A simple tap anywhere in the environment will move you in that direction. The Drowning employs a smart path system, and your character will automatically walk around obstacles in the environment to reach the chosen destination. Looking around only requires a swipe in that general direction, either while standing still or in motion. It all works surprisingly well, even in the most panicky moments when you're firing at multiple encroaching enemies. If only the rest of The Drowning were as good.%Gallery-195308%
'The Drowning' controls distilled to taps and swipes
The Drowning will forgo traditional emulated joysticks seen in other touch-interface shooters, instead opting for taps and swipes as the chief means of control.
The Drowning headed to iOS for free next year
Scattered Entertainment is bringing free-to-play game The Drowning to iOS in early 2013. The "console quality" FPS is set ten years in the future, and draws inspiration from real life events in Beebe, Arkansas circa 2012, when thousands of black birds fell from the sky. The Drowning's story appears to only get more grim, as players control a character that is "one of the few survivors of a mysterious global catastrophe."Former ngmoco GM Ben Cousins is now GM of Scattered Entertainment, a DeNA studio located in Stockholm, Sweden.%Gallery-172799%
