Developers from Playdead studio, creators of critically acclaimed games such as Limbo and Inside, are working on their next project. The founder and director of Playdead, Arnt Jensen, recently sat down for an interview with the Danish website Computerworld and vaguely described the studio’s next game. It will be “a fairly lonely sci-fi game somewhere in the universe,” said Jensen. Players can take this ambiguous statement for what it is, though it is the second bit of information from Playdead about this project. The image below was tweeted out by the studio early last year.
The dark and ominous style from this picture alone, along with Jensen’s “lonely” portrayal of the project, shows signs that the game will be similar to what Playdead does best. The expected sci-fi title is in the “open, idea-developing phase” so there is little chance that it will see the light of day anytime soon. However, gamers will more likely than not be perfectly fine with waiting since it took Playdead around six years to release Inside after Limbo, both of which turned out to be a massive success.
The long wait may be due to Playdead’s relaxed working schedule that Jensen discusses in the Computerworld article. He says that “scheduling is very free” and designers “are required to be completely self-motivated.” This formula has proven to hit the mark thus far for the studio and it seems that they will continue the same trend in the next mysterious title.
Playdead’s previous titles have explored the human condition through dark and realistic themes. Limbo touches on purgatory, death, and true fault through a young boy’s perspective. Inside, which is theorized to be somehow related to Limbo, takes players through an automated and zombie-like world that requires courage from a boy who struggles with what choices people actually have available to them. It will be fascinating to see which emotional direction that this sci-fi game will take.
Limbo and Inside are both available on all major platforms including mobile.