Gamescom 2015 begins in a few hours, and publishers and developers are already starting to tip their hands. For instance, GRIP Games and Teotl Studios have announced that their game The Solus Project will be showcased at Gamescom this year. Given that the game is coming to PC and to Xbox One as a console exclusive under the ID@Xbox banner, I think it is easy to guess just when it will be showcased as well.

The Solus Project is a first person survival game. Leaving players stranded on an alien planet, in The Solus Project, you need to get to grips with the harsh environment as you struggle to find a way to send a signal home, and save the human race in the process. Essentially, think of it as a game for last year’s hit science fiction movie Interstellar, and you have the idea.

The Solus Project is due out in early 2016. Stay tuned to GamingBolt, and we will have more on the game for you.

There’s quite a lot to learn about the game and the various mysteries surrounding it so GamingBolt spoke to Teotl Studios founder Sjoerd de Jong and Grip Games’ Jan Cabuk about Unmechanical: Extended. Despite originally being developed Talawa Games, the Extended version is being handled in cooperation with Grip Games, who is also publishing it alongside Teotl Studios. How does the game fare on the new generation, especially considering its relative age (it was released back in 2012)? Let’s find out.

"Why did it eat you up? Who built all these constructions? An underground world that while dark, is not scary, but so strange and fascinating that you want to see what it is and where it leads to."

Unmechanical: Extended has a very distinct art style that is reminiscent of classic games like Abe’s Oddysee. Can you speak about inspirations for the games visuals?

Sjoerd De Jong: We took inspiration from so many different games, movies, and comics that it is difficult to pinpoint any particular inspiration. The strange combination of metal, rock, and flesh was done to ensure that the world itself feels alive and one big entity, yet due to the metal and rock still leave you intentionally confused as to what kind of creature you ended up inside, and what the environment actually is.

Why did it eat you up? Who built all these constructions? An underground world that while dark, is not scary, but so strange and fascinating that you want to see what it is and where it leads to. The whole strangeness of it all is really meant to be part of the style and appeal of Unmechanical.

What was the driving concept behind the games development? Did you set out to create a sprawling a narrative or a self contained world?

Sjoerd De Jong: The narrative of the game is told in a subtle way, and the focus is on the world and the story it tells through environmental story telling. We wanted to tell the tale of a poor little helicopter robot trying to escape from an intriguing underground world full of obstacles. Both the original campaign and the new Extended campaign also have two different endings, so you can decide for yourself what the best thing would be for the world to happen. Neither of the two endings are defined as good or evil.

How do you set about designing the various puzzles that appear throughout the game world?

Sjoerd De Jong: One key thing we did was to let quite a large number of people work on our puzzles, to ensure that puzzles remain varied and interesting. We noticed that when you do puzzle design, that designers once they came up with a certain puzzle logic tend to stick to the same type of logic and style puzzle after puzzle, so we let a lot of our developers and people close to us participate and come up with puzzles to counter that. The result is quite a wide variety of puzzles in the game.

Unmechanical: Extended is described as making use of “logic” puzzles. Will these be legitimate logic puzzles or adventure game puzzles that require abstract thinking?

Sjoerd De Jong: I would say they are definitely legitimate logic puzzles. We strive to make every puzzle logical. We want it to be easy to get into each puzzle, and we tried to ensure each puzzle clearly identifies what the problem is you are trying to overcome. A lot of the puzzles are also based on experimentation. Since you cannot die in the game, and without a time or other limit present, you effectively cannot lose.

That opens up the door for more experimentation. We want our puzzles to drive players to explore and experiment. What happens when you pull this lever? Or this button? How do the effects you see relate to each other? How would I be able to use these different things I found to solve the puzzle? That kind of thinking. Because of that the game is quite well suited for somewhat older children also.

"We loved working on and creating Unmechanical, and are very honored to have received the Nordic Game award in a region packed with so many great developers, but we do not have any plans to expand it with any sequels right now."

With the game slated to release across multiple platforms, will there be any major differences from platform to platform?

Sjoerd De Jong: We’ve spent a lot of time and attention to ensure that Unmechanical looks and feels the same across all platforms, and that no platform is left out when it comes to playability and graphics. That said, Unmechanical: Extended which we just launched on the consoles contains a large additional level with about an hour of additional gameplay that is for the time being exclusive to the console version.

Some would argue that Unmechanical: Extended is a game that’s best suited for a system like the PS Vita. Were the game successful on Sony’s handheld, would you consider bringing the game to Nintendo’s New 3DS model?

Jan Cabuk: Actually Unmechanical: Extended wasn´t released on the PS Vita handheld because of some technical issues with Unreal Engine 3. Some fans are asking for WiiU version actually, but it is always a project profitability question we ask ourselves.

Unmechanical was applauded for bringing home the Nordic Game Awards for the best artistic achievement, do you have plans to expand on the game with sequels?

Sjoerd De Jong: We loved working on and creating Unmechanical, and are very honored to have received the Nordic Game award in a region packed with so many great developers, but we do not have any plans to expand it with any sequels right now. We are currently working on our new IP TheSolus Project.

With the PC build of Unmechanical sitting at 74 on Metacritic, do you think any other build of the game will top that?

Sjoerd De Jong: We hope so, but at the end of the day the most important thing for us is that people enjoy the game, and that we are proud of the result. And we are!

Does the game run at 1080p and 60fps on the PS4 and X1?

Jan Cabuk: On the PS4 you can enjoy 1080p and 60fps and on Xbox One 1080p and 30fps. And I am not sure why there is only 30fps on Xbox One right now.

"Both PS4 and Xbox One are from the same new-generation and this means that from the technical point of view they are based on almost usual hardware, so not much differences inside."

Would you like to talk about the new content that’s in the Extended version of the game?

Sjoerd De Jong: We’ve added a stand-alone new level to the game which has extended the length of the game by about one hour of gameplay. The new level stands on its own and forms a little story line of its own parallel to the main story. It tells the story of not one, but two little helicopters that get pulled into the ground by the machines, while out on a stroll.

The additional level revolves about the relationship of the two little helicopters. In several sections of the level, you try to save, or need to be saved by your fellow little helicopter leading to a new dynamic not seen in the original campaign.

As someone who has worked on both PS4 and X1, what technical differences do you find between them?

Jan Cabuk: Both PS4 and Xbox One are from the same new-generation and this means that from the technical point of view they are based on almost usual hardware, so not much differences inside. The problem is that the consoles are different in the user-experience concept. You have to deal with different platform specific requirements. But, yes sometimes you can experience that one console is rendering the same piece of scene differently that the other.

As a developer what is the most important to you, resolution or frame rate? And why?

Jan Cabuk: As publisher, I would say that for me and for the whole team is important to see the game in its best shape.

What can you tell us about the future of Grip Games? Are you working on anything at the minute?

Jan Cabuk: Grip Games is now fully positioned as publisher. Concretely our focus is on great and successful indie titles.We work with other developers as a partner to help them release and sell their awesome games on Consoles and Steam. We would like to continue and grow our portfolio. We are also investing resources to new projects and new partnerships which is the case of our next cooperation with Teotl Studios.

Is there anything else you want to tell us about the game before we let you go?

Jan Cabuk: Try Unmechanical: Extended if you haven´t yet. It is a small but very atmospheric and smart game. That´s all.

GamingBolt had an opportunity to speak to Joe Mirabello and Grip Games’ Jakub Mikyska who worked on bringing Tower of Guns to current gen consoles and the PS3. Mirabello talked about the development of the game and the philosophy behind many of its elements while Mikyska discussed the difficulties and challenges (or lack thereof) in bringing Tower of Guns to consoles.

"When working on a larger team there's this shared investment in the project, this collaborative fuel. When working solo that's replaced with constant second-guessing of decisions. Doubt can sometimes be a healthy thing, since it means I'm always looking at the project critically, but it can oscillate into crippling inefficiency too."

Rashid K. Sayed: A RogueLite game mixed with FPS mechanics is a strange combination, what was the decision behind mixing these two elements?

Joe Mirabello: Quite honestly, my entire career prior to this point had been spent working on RPGs and MMOs, and I had always wanted to work on a First-Person-Shooter. I was raised on the classic FPS games like Quake, Doom, UT99, Deus Ex, etc. When I set out to develop Tower of Guns, I also was playing a lot of Binding of Isaac at the time, and became very interested in what a mashup of the two would feel like. The more I thought about it, the more I realized the RogueLite mechanics lent themselves to super small development teams very well, as iteration of the game play and core mechanics is a very straightforward path.

Rashid K. Sayed: Being the sole developer must have been tricky, what can you tell us about the single handed approach to development?

Joe Mirabello: To be fair, I was only *mostly* solo. I contracted my brother to do the music, had lots of friends and family help with testing, and in the months after the initial PC release I found partners, such at Grip Games, to help me bring the game to more platforms. As for being a “mostly solo developer”, well, besides the obvious stuff like properly scoping the project for one person, wearing a lot of hats, and the advantage of being able to make very agile development decisions, I was surprised to find how much motivation and morale became crucial resources.

When working on a larger team there’s this shared investment in the project, this collaborative fuel. When working solo that’s replaced with constant second-guessing of decisions. Doubt can sometimes be a healthy thing, since it means I’m always looking at the project critically, but it can oscillate into crippling inefficiency too. You have to keep things in perspective. In short, the real difficulty in creating something like this on your own is always maintaining momentum. My apologies if that’s too heavy an answer for you. 🙂

Rashid K. Sayed: The Tower of Guns itself seems to be placed in the middle of a city, what can you tell us about the game world?

Joe Mirabello: Well, the game’s story is randomly selected from a pool of stories: who you are, what you are doing, even what the tower is, can be one of many different things. So…the “world” in which the tower exists varies quite a bit. In one play session you’ll be a secret-agent canine and in the next you’ll play as a grandma looking for the local recycling center. It was a weird little experiment, but I had a lot of fun writing all the different stories.

I’m actually a sincere believer that if a creative person truly enjoys the experience of creation, or at least is emotionally invested in it on some level, then that translates into the final piece. The “world” of Tower of Guns is a strange, often purposefully-stupid, world..but it was a joy to create…and people seem to appreciate that. As for the actual artwork of that city outside the Tower–well, it needed to be flexible enough to support the wide variety of stories, and frankly I was getting tired of drawing all these rusty-metal textures and wanted to make something different!

Rashid K. Sayed: Given the current fascination with Roguelikes and RogueLites, do you think Tower of Guns has the power to last the ages?

Joe Mirabello: Wellllll…I think it’s very, very dangerous to approach a game’s development with the goal of “lasting the ages”. It focuses a bit too much on what others may like, on making a “magnum opus”, and on timeless mechanics (which is another way to say “safe” mechanics). I made Tower of Guns because I wanted to play a game like Tower of Guns, and I just had to hope others did too. It might not last the ages, but I’m grateful that it’s gotten the attention it has. The current roguelite genre(as in, the post-BoI, post-Spelunky era, not true Roguelikes) might only be a short lived burst in gaming history too, and I myself might find myself playing a different kind of game in five years, but for now I find these mechanics thoroughly fascinating.

"My definition of "twitch" gaming harkens back to the old school twitch FPS classics; Doom, UT99, Quake. This game invokes those wherever possible. It was an era where one misstep would lead to your players certain death, where there was little time to catch your breath, where you constantly were required to MOVE, where circle-stafing was king and you were constantly scanning the arena for pickups."

Rashid K. Sayed: The game has, for the most part, received high praise from a number of gamers and outlets. Gunplay is often criticized though. Is there perhaps plans to revisit the Tower of Guns and improve upon it?

Joe Mirabello: You’ve certainly done your homework! That was the major criticism of Tower of Guns. A quick defense: There’s a good argument to be made in my goal of making the game a very “pick up and play” experience. I didn’t want a player to ever have to “relearn” any extra buttons should they come back to the game months after not playing.. And I should mention that there is a tad more complexity to the gunplay than most reviewers saw; the gun mod system leads to some hilarious combinations, there are subtle, gun-based ways to affect mobility, there are some interesting gun-perk combinations, and quite a few secret, secondary guns.

Regardless, your point stands: most of those mechanics were faaaar too rare for people to see in their first few sessions with the game. While I question the notion that every FPS needs secondary fire or iron sights I wholeheartedly agree with the critics when they say that the core gunplay could be improved: better sounds, better animations, better handling, and, in general, a more advanced relationship between the player and their gun. However, some of those alterations would have involved changing the core experience of Tower of Guns from PC drastically though, and I think they’re better saved as lessons that I  apply to future projects.

Rashid K. Sayed: Have you got any plans for possibly bringing the Tower of Guns to other platfoms?

Joe Mirabello: I think that entirely depends on how well the game does on consoles, how technically powerful the other platform is (Tower of Guns hits the CPU pretty hard with all those bullets), and how busy I am in over the next year!

Rashid K. Sayed: The online store GOG call Tower of Guns a game for Twitch gamers, would you agree with that sentiment?

Joe Mirabello: I think so. My definition of “twitch” gaming harkens back to the old school twitch FPS classics; Doom, UT99, Quake. This game invokes those wherever possible. It was an era where one misstep would lead to your players certain death, where there was little time to catch your breath, where you constantly were required to MOVE, where circle-stafing was king and you were constantly scanning the arena for pickups.

I even injected some of the mobility-based quirks of that era like variants on bunny-hopping acceleration and rocket-jumping. I don’t think I quite hit the full 90mph of Doom, but even before you start collecting speed upgrades in Tower of Guns the players base mobility is quite faster than most modern FPS games. The game really is one big over-the-top love-letter to the twitch games I grew up on. While I had no desire to recreate those games explicitly, I did want to make a game that fans of those games would feel comfortable diving into, because that’s the kind of game I was looking to play.

Rashid K. Sayed: Would you go back and change anything about the game? Or are you happy with the final product you developed.

Joe Mirabello: Oh, I could change things about the game forever. That’s the danger of the roguelite genre (and traditional roguelikes too)—they’re flexible in their design in that they can almost always benefit from more “stuff” and further refinement of balance, mechanics, and content. For example, look at Nethack’s twenty-five year development time. You can quickly get into a pattern where a game is never “finished”, and while it’s comfortable to spend a career constantly refining a project, and it’s led to amazing results in the case of something like Nethack, for me personally I often have to start new projects in order to properly apply the largest of the lessons that I learn.

"We have already seen some cool examples of that in some Microsoft games. Any calculation that does not have to be made in real-time can be sent to server to allow more power for real-time processing. This is of course heavily case-by-case scenario and not every game offers an opportunity for something like that."

Rashid K. Sayed: As a developer what is your opinion on Microsoft’s parity clause in their ID@Xbox Policy?

Jakub Mikyska: Both Sony and Microsoft have their own policies and things you have to keep in order to be able to self-publish. Sony has certain parity policies as well. Both have certain content requirements, etc. I think that Microsoft’s requirements are not unreasonable and are quite understandable and what’s more, if you cannot keep them for any reason, you usually just need to ask and give a good reason and anything can be agreed on. We never really had any issue with Microsoft’s policies,

Rashid K. Sayed: Will the game run at 1080p and 60 frames per second on both the PS4 and Xbox One?

Jakub Mikyska: Yes, both versions run at 1080p/60fps.

Rashid K. Sayed: Did you faced any problems with the Xbox One’s eSRAM while developing the game?

Jakub Mikyska: Not really, no. Tower of Guns is more demanding in the CPU department.

Rashid K. Sayed: What are your thoughts on the PS4’s GPU and GDDR5 memory? Do you think they will become obsolete with time given the evolution of PC GPUs?

Jakub Mikyska: Our games aren’t really pushing the envelope of visuals enough for GDDR5 to make any difference. From what we hear from other developers, working on AAA projects, they really like GDDR5. The GPU is working quite fine. It is not the most advanced piece of GPU out there, but it does not have to be. When creating games for just one GPU, you can be much more effective.

And like any other technology, it will all become obsolete eventually. But that does not matter now. Consoles are about making the most with the hardware you currently have.

Rashid K. Sayed: What is your take on the differences between the GPU in PS4 and X1? Do you find them to be similar in performance?

Jakub Mikyska: Yes, they certainly are really similar. There weren’t any performance issues that would only appear on one platform, while the other one handled them better.

Both machines have some things they like and things they dislike and you have respect that and work around that, but in general, the performance of both is nearly identical.

Rashid K. Sayed: Microsoft has been talking about the Xbox One using the cloud to make it more powerful. What is your take on this? Do you think using the cloud a console with static hardware can become more powerful?

Jakub Mikyska: It can, in certain ways. We have already seen some cool examples of that in some Microsoft games. Any calculation that does not have to be made in real-time can be sent to server to allow more power for real-time processing. This is of course heavily case-by-case scenario and not every game offers an opportunity for something like that.

But cloud computing is coming, one way or another. Both Sony and Microsoft are testing the waters, so let’s see where this goes.

Rashid K. Sayed: Is there anything else you want to tell us before we let you go?

Joe Mirabello: Thanks for asking interesting questions. Anyway, I hope folks enjoy playing the game. It was fun to make.

It’s been more than a year since the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One, and we’ve been seeing some interesting variations in performance. While the PS4 was more capable of native 1080p resolution in third party titles, the Xbox One was always favoured with its anisotropic filtering. Be that as it may, Grip Games’ Jakub Mikyska – who recently brought indie shooter Tower of Guns to the PS3, PS4 and Xbox One – believes that there are still plenty of similarities in terms of GPU performance.

“Yes, they certainly are really similar. There weren’t any performance issues that would only appear on one platform, while the other one handled them better. Both machines have some things they like and things they dislike and you have respect that and work around that, but in general, the performance of both is nearly identical.”

As for the benefits of Xbox One’s cloud computing, which we’re really yet to see given how much Microsoft hyped it up prior to the console’s release, Mikyska believes it can help in various ways. “It can, in certain ways. We have already seen some cool examples of that in some Microsoft games. Any calculation that does not have to be made in real-time can be sent to server to allow more power for real-time processing. This is of course heavily case-by-case scenario and not every game offers an opportunity for something like that.

“But cloud computing is coming, one way or another. Both Sony and Microsoft are testing the waters, so let’s see where this goes.”

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.