Earlier this week, we got to get cosy and sit down virtually with our friends over at ID@Xbox for a deep-dive look across four surprisingly different titles releasing later this year from studios all across EMEA, straight onto your Xbox Console. It’s the ID@Xbox Spring Showcase!
So, grab a cuppa and settle in for fresh gameplay and information on Still Wakes The Deep from developers The Chinese Room, Keepsake Games Jump Ship, Mezan Studio’s Nightscape and Botany Manor from the developers at Balloon Studios.
Before we kicked things off, we got to hear a little from Guy Richards, Director at ID@Xbox, who shared some broad updates on just how well the ID@Xbox team are doing. Firstly, via their ‘Developer Acceleration Program’, the team at ID@Xbox are doing everything they can to bring under-represented groups to the forefront, citing that over 150 developers and studios are working to bring their games to Xbox as result.
One third of those games have already shipped, including critically acclaimed titles like El Paso Elsewhere. That’s more than 50 original games from under-represented groups that wouldn’t be available to Xbox players otherwise.
Guy Richards, Director, ID@Xbox
As per the GDC Blog from Chris Charla earlier this week, there are over 3500 games in development via ID@Xbox, which in our humble opinion, is bloody good news for us gamers, that’s for sure. Anyway, let’s have a look at four new games heading our way in short order!
NightScape
First up in the ID@Xbox Spring Showcase is NightScape. NightScape is a new game from developers Mezan Studios, based out of Qatar, and is inspired by the middle east. Protagonist Layla finds herself ‘drawn into the mystery behind the Starfall” where the night sky itself is in jeopardy, and the stars themselves are falling to earth.
In ancient times, the sky could be used for all sorts of reasons from navigation and more, and what would happen to the world if the sky went dark? In steps ‘reluctant hero’ Layla, who is going to find out just what’s going on, and how to fix it. Thankfully, she’s not alone and does have an interesting, wise and friendly companion, ‘The Goat Kid’.
Layla is armed with a bow and arrow to defend herself or to solve environmental puzzles, and has a magical astrolabe and other powers to manipulate the stars and the world around her. The game is presented in 2.5D, with the camera perspective shifting to add more variety and depth to gameplay.
As well as being inspired by middle eastern culture, the mythology around the stars themselves has been inspired exclusively by Ancient Arabian astrology, but for the rest of the game, the greater middle east is represented in spades across environments, character designs and more. As players “Save” various constellations throughout the game, each “star” will provide an insight to the lore of the world.
Inspired by games like Journey and Inside, NightScape is coming to Console and PC at some point in 2024.
Botany Manor
Games love puzzles, but how about a game that not only give you all the time in the world to solve its mysteries but also place the player in a setting that compliments said gameplay direction? Here enters developer Balloon Studios and publisher Whitethorn Games’ ‘Botany Manor’, a puzzle exploration game with an emphasis on taking in your surroundings of a beautiful 19th century manor. Players will take on the role of a retired botanist Arabella Greene, whom after a long and fruitful career, chooses to take a step back to admire and grow the number of rare plants she has collected—with research, of course, as how to get these beauts to grow has long been forgotten… or so it seems!
The estate of Botany Manor is home to Greene’s many books, notes, posters, items, you name it. And they’ll be crucial in your journey to animate and help these gorgeous flowers flourish across the manor. You can investigate the manor to your hearts content and enjoy a calming score in the meanwhile—I wasn’t kidding when I said “take your time”, because Botany Manor wants you not only to take in the puzzles and the scenery, but also learn quite a bit about the storied woman you’re playing as well, especially learning about her challenges as a scientist in the 19th century.
To further enjoy your relaxing stay, Botany Manor has a lot of accessibility options and I do mean that. All readable objects can either be read directly from the model or players can switch to a readable, flat interface with Sans Serif text if they find it hard to read what might be important details to their research. There are plenty of movement options as well, allowing players to set a higher field of view, camera smoothing options, sprinting, and even a mode that allows players to completely experience the game with one joystick. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many options, particularly as I can get motion sick quite easily.
I love gaming but the sense of rushing and responsibility is felt throughout so many a title. Botany Manor shows that it’s okay to stop, relax, and even put life on hold for a moment to explore a new world. Botany Manor is scheduled to launch on PC via Steam, the Nintendo Switch, and Xbox consoles on the 9th of April, and is arriving Day One on Xbox Game Pass.
JumpShip
Looks like the ID@Xbox Spring Showcase has a surprise in store! This is the first time we’re seeing Jump Ship from developers Keepsake Games, and I’ve got to say it, I was very impressed. What you’re looking at here is a PvE focused co-operative first-person-shooter for up to four players.
I know what you’re thinking – another one? Well, let me dissuade you from dismissing it out of hand. What’s super unique about Jump Ship is that you and your friends are the crew of your very own spaceship, and can transition on-foot – seamlessly- between the ship, space and everywhere else.
Some examples of this can be while one crew member is flying during combat, the rest of the crew can be running around maintaining and repairing systems, or even manning guns on the hull to assist in destroying the enemy. Or maybe you want to land the ship to scavenge for supplies, so you can head out the airlock and go and explore, with nary a loading screen in sight. It genuinely looks great, and what’s even more impressive, is it’s the first game from new development studio Keepsake Games, and this is the very first time it’s been shown off to the rest of the world.
The small development team, based out of Stockholm, Sweden do boast some serious talent, from the Game and Art Directors from Hazelight, to a senior developer from Mojang and even the Lead Designer from Mirror’s Edge. What you’re seeing on screen has been put together by a core team of around 12 people.
The team are promising plenty of variety in environments to visit, from sandy deserts, asteroids, deep space shipwrecks and more. Players will be able to customise the ship itself, from new engines and weapons, in addition to colour schemes. Your player characters can also be upgraded, be it colours, suits and more.
JumpShip has been inspired by many co-op shooters, particularly Left 4 Dead, and we can look forward to jumping across the universe through a variety of hand-crafted missions with random elements in play – “no two runs will be exactly the same.” says Keepsake Games. The gameplay and visuals look great to my eye, and I’m always on the lookout for another fun co-operative game with friends. Jump Ship has ‘jumped’ straight to the top of my wish-list.
Jump Ship is in the works to hit PC in Early Access and Xbox Series X|S (hopefully in Game Preview?) at some point in 2024.
Still Wakes The Deep
Still Wakes the Deep is the latest from The Chinese Room, creators of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Dear Esther, and more. The game is set at Christmas in 1975 on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland. It’s coming out day one into Game Pass on June 18th, 2024, and it looks pretty damned terrifying. We were shown roughly eight minutes of gameplay.
You are Caz McLeary, and in this new gameplay demo as part of the ID@Xbox Spring Showcase, we find Caz as he attempts to find his crewmates after the Oil Rig they are on has struck “something”. The first thing I noticed is that the characters have appropriately strong Scottish accents. As an American, I only really know the accent from UK-based entertainment, but it sounded authentic and I appreciated the subtitles as I occasionally struggled to hear what was being said.
The developers talked about their dedication to matching what an actual oil rig from this time and place would be like. They conducted interviews with real-life workers & watched archival footage of actual oil rigs. Older horror movies like The Thing and the work of Stanley Kubrick were major inspirations in their design. Everything had a heavy film grain on top of it but looked pretty darn nice overall. Things ran well and the UI showed Xbox button prompts. I’m not 100% sure what device the footage was captured on, though they made sure to put “work in progress” in the corner the entire time as aliasing (jagged edges) was rough. That is the type of thing you’d expect them to smooth out before launch.
There is also no combat to speak of. This is a full-on narrative horror game with puzzles and choices to make. Death is a constant threat around every corner as some truly gross body-horror supernatural shite was ever-present. They have included a story-mode difficulty for those of you who want to experience the game without the risk of wetting yourself during the more tense moments. In the demo the writing and voicework were stellar, and I already felt myself being pulled into the narrative. Most of the gameplay seems to be context-sensitive button prompts, like unscrewing a vent corner by corner and then wedging it open.
Still Wakes the Deep hits Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC on June 18th. It’s launching day one into Game Pass on Cloud, Console, and PC as well. If you’ve played any of the dev’s previous titles you know what to expect. They write well, hire quality voice actors, and occasionally have gameplay mechanics that shine in the narrative-horror genre. I am hugely excited for this one after getting to see this short gameplay segment.
And there you have it, four more games to consider adding to your ever growing backlog. Which one of these four has piqued your interest?
Let us know in the comments below, or head to our Discord to discuss with the wider community via discord.gg/xboxera.
