Whether everyone believes it or not, the day will come when humanity will have to leave this rock we call Earth. Whether the inevitable will stem from our own folly or the galaxy’s resources reaching a natural end, we should continually spread the idea that we must expand our race into the stars. Of course, film, television, books and video games are some of the most efficient ways of inspiring understanding. Anew: The Distant Light is an upcoming game that explores this scenario.
Per the game’s website,
Anew: The Distant Light is a single-player, open-world action and adventure game that will appeal to fans of platforming, combat, exploration, and visual storytelling. In-game, you are a child with limited resources, waking up on a distant alien moon, twenty light years from Earth. You must carry out a mission of critical importance and you have several mysteries to solve. Make your way through a dangerous alien world. Seek out game-changing equipment, upgrades, and vehicles to expand your options for combat and exploration.
Anew: The Distant Light is being developed by the two-man team of Resonator. Founders Steve Copeland and Jeff Spoonhower are both industry veterans that have collectively worked for major gaming companies such as Electronic Arts, Sony Computer Entertainment, 2K Games, and Bioware to name a few. Per their resumes, it seems that Copeland is in charge of programming while Spoonhower serves as director of Art.
Speaking of, the art for Anew: The Distant Light stands out as quite unique in the current gaming landscape. Giving off a hand-crafted essence, the art-style is reminiscent of well-done paper-mâché and stop-motion animation. Additionally, the game’s music is being done by acclaimed composer Will Roget whose most recent work consists of Call of Duty: WWII and Destiny 2: Forsaken.
As seen in the trailer, the gunplay mechanics in this game give a solid first impression. Players will have full-rotational control of where they want to aim their guns and there’s even an instance where the player-character can be propelled up with a downward-facing shotgun blast. With that last mechanic, it’s clear that platforming is at the forefront of this game. Players will not only have to master different gravitational physics as they slide and jump during combat, but also during moments of gravitational-plane-switching (similar to Super Mario Galaxy).
The game has been in development for the past four years and successfully reached funding on Kickstarter in March of 2017. Stretch goals included the addition of a Nintendo Switch port, but the developers have stated that the game will first be released on PC with console ports following soon after that. As of now, the game is in Alpha and the game was demoed successfully at last week’s E3.