GamingBolt recently spoke writer, artist and designer Alpo Oksaharju about the game, including its mechanics, the storyline, possible next gen development and much more. What is going on in Reset? It’s still a surprise, but you may find a few clues below.

"We want the player to bring himself/herself to the character. But it’s different from your normal roleplaying game. It’s not about building an alter ego. The character is basically a clean slate, and what the player brings to it is what he is."

Pramath Parijat: First off, how in the world did the two of you manage to bring such an incredible vision to life?

Alpo Oksaharju: This particular soup has three main ingredients. A clear vision, necessary skillsets and pigheadedness.

Pramath Parijat: The story is said to be an integral part of the game. Whom is the player playing as and what is the motivation to take the story ahead?

Alpo Oksaharju: Yes that’s true. We want the player to bring himself/herself to the character. But it’s different from your normal roleplaying game. It’s not about building an alter ego. The character is basically a clean slate, and what the player brings to it is what he is. That’s the starting point for the character. And the motivation to drive the story forward is actually tied to that. It’s about finding out what happened.

Pramath Parijat: Considering the increasing budgets of blockbusters these days, what does it say about crowd-funding that you can bring something like Reset to life with a two-man team?

Alpo Oksaharju: Crowd funding is a beautiful thing in many aspects. It cuts out the unnecessary middle men. It democratizes the playing field. But most of all cool projects, big and small get realized by the people and they are not dependent on the resources of big companies.

Pramath Parijat: In Reset, players must travel back in time to assist themselves in various puzzles. Of course, with all these timelines co-existing at once, time travel logic dictates that events change drastically going forward. Will this factor into Reset’s direction or is there something sinister afoot?

Alpo Oksaharju: Yes this aspect of time travel has a role in Reset.

Pramath Parijat: Reset is currently planned to arrive on Linux, OS X, PC and SteamOS, with particular focus on the PC version. There’s also been talk of Xbox One and PS4 versions and while that isn’t on the cards now, how long do you think it will take before those become a priority?

Alpo Oksaharju: Well actually the first platform will be a Windows PC. Every other platform is still speculative. Releasing on next gen consoles would be nice, but currently the PC version is the only one we’re working on.

Pramath Parijat: If you ever decide to bring the game on the PS4 and Xbox One, what hardware do you think will be able to replicate the technicalities of Reset better?

Alpo Oksaharju: Hard to say at this point. We’ll see when/if we get there.

" Reset is a pure PC game from the ground up. There will be a limit to we’re willing to downscale to fit a platform. Since we are just a small team, we have no huge need to try to fit the game to every possible platform."

Pramath Parijat: What can you tell us about the puzzles in the game? How will they test the player?

Alpo Oksaharju: The puzzles require the player to think about time laterally and use imagination. It’s about planning out the sequence of events but also acting out accordingly.

Pramath Parijat: Reset describes itself as an open world mystery game. How big of a world it is and what kind of mysteries will it have?

Alpo Oksaharju: The game world is an island about 16 square kilometers. And the mystery is something you will find out once you get to play the game.

Pramath Parijat: In terms of visual performance, Reset will look to take full advantage of PC hardware but will it be easily scalable for lesser systems to run?

Alpo Oksaharju: Not easily. Reset is a pure PC game from the ground up. There will be a limit to we’re willing to downscale to fit a platform. Since we are just a small team, we have no huge need to try to fit the game to every possible platform. We’ve chosen our main platform, and we’re committed to embracing it to the fullest. Like every good PC game does, there will be enough settings to tweak.

Pramath Parijat: Considering SteamOS and Oculus Rift haven’t been released in the market – their market potential thus being untested – what motivated you to optimize Reset for both? Especially concerning Oculus Rift, how do you believe it will change the way we can play the game?

Alpo Oksaharju: Steam OS is still speculative, like every other platform, other than Windows PC. Oculus Rift is a very exciting and cool technology, and Reset is a perfect game to use it. Immersion is one of our focus points and the Rift takes it to a new level.

Pramath Parijat: What can you tell us about your proprietary tech called Praxis? How did you go about developing the technology, especially considering your resources, and how did you manage to successfully incorporate the latest API support and visual features such as True HDR Rendering, volumetric lighting, etc.?

Alpo Oksaharju: Mikko has over 10 years of experience in research and development of high tech engine stuff. Using that experience is wise. Having our own tech allows us to focus only on aspects that are relevant to the game. So everything we don’t need is left out. Knowing and affecting what’s happening under the hood gives us a nice degree of freedom.

Latterly, this barrage has lessened greatly, but there’s always room for ideas. Recent times have seen a spurt of independent game developers, ofttimes owing to conflicting ideas among game developers, or just people not getting the nod for their ideas from the biggies or because dome gene developers just want to work in their own sweet time in their own company of a select few. One of such developers is Theory Interactive Ltd. Two guys by the names of Alpo Oksaharju and Mikko Kallinen make this company and their first game – currently under production – goes by the name Reset; something, that caught OUR fancy a while back. But we’re just one of the few who took notice of it from the start. So what is that makes it so special? Theory Interactive Ltd. started a blog back in February 2012, reset-game.net.

"The game’s 16 square kilometre world is preposterously detailed so much so it that makes you question its humble origins. And the question that comes to mind is, how in the name of Mario could a team of two people come up with something so beautiful as this."

The idea for the for the game was begot a couple of years back. But what’s really of essence is how the game has come about in almost two years of its ‘official’ existence. The game’s debut trailer was released in April of 2012 and the whole if it was from the in game engine. And if your friend asks you, “Does it look anywhere near good?” then you make a wry face and jeer at them if possible. Because that’s just as wrong as a question can get.

Reset is a PC exclusive, mystery sci-fi noir, puzzle based first person game and according to its developers, they plan to release it somewhere towards the end of 2014. The game is still largely under development but the only two videos that have been released by Theory make you think otherwise. The game without doubt, has set a completely new benchmark for indie games and this new yardstick is a ridiculous one; but well earned. The game’s 16 square kilometre world is preposterously detailed so much so it that makes you question its humble origins. And the question that comes to mind is, how in the name of Mario could a team of two people come up with something so beautiful as this.

The game is so opulently gorgeous that it leaves you mesmerised for a good long while and it takes a lot more than thoughts to shake you out of your reverie. And that’s not even the best part! Reset is a Portal-esque game set in the almost near future on Earth, on a volcanic fictional island by the name of Galápagos. Players can explore this 16Km square world and it’s not as simple as “Solve a puzzle to get the next”. Each puzzle that you solve in this single-player adventure game adds to the narrative of the game. This ‘small’ open world indie-mech game features spatial reasoning puzzles sprinkled with copious amounts of physics based time-manipulation puzzles.

"Portal lovers would have to hold their horses a tad longer for this but by no means does it state that it’s ONLY the Portal lovers that read about Reset with a groan and carry a heavy weight in their hearts with a dire longing."

The nerve wracking part is the game’s ability to let the player go back in time to solve puzzles co-operatively with himself or herself! You can select a time and place of re-entry in the game to complete a puzzle and having done so, you can ’reset’ yourself to the re-entry mark making two distinct timelines in the game. The puzzles in the game require/permit you to go beyond two timelines. Puzzles of such degree and complexity sure sounds enticing and makes the ‘small’ world of the game seem not so small especially when it’s your brain that is at stake. Portal lovers would have to hold their horses a tad longer for this but by no means does it state that it’s ONLY the Portal lovers that read about Reset with a groan and carry a heavy weight in their hearts with a dire longing.

The single player co-op game mechanic will have 33 puzzles to solve and the developers promise an added 1.5-2 hours of gameplay if they get more funds. The game even boasts of dynamic day and night cycles with accurate star positions. The game devs say that the game is meant for just a couple of sittings and will provide a gameplay of roughly 6 hours depending upon how you approach the game and the world of Galápagos. The story is colsely interwoven with the puzzles in the game.

The debut video of the game garnered 400,000+ hits on Youtube within a week. And as already stated, this anticipation isn’t without cause. The video has a robot sitting idly in a seemingly abandoned city as time passes by. The visual and audial aspects of the trailer give off an eerie sense of the city and the environment around the robot, the video ending with a hint of awakening in the robot. That just makes you want to go and pat that robot on the shoulder saying “It’s all gonna be alright soon….” . Just you wait for the release. The world around seems a tad dull and dreary but it isn’t done done vapidly.

"The game was inspired from samll budget, charming indie movies like Moon and Cube. And so the developers thought of stepping into the gaming indie market. But obviously, the gaming industry doesn’t provide as easily with the means of producing games."

Neither has the beautification of the game been done too gaudily. The visuals just seem right; most excellent visuals that don’t seem to have been overdone and don’t look bad at all and seem to interwreathe perfectly with the game and the video allusive of the upcoming title’s sombre story. The visuals look stellar and the video had been produced when the game wasn’t even in the alpha stage. That sure sent our minds down in a tumble as we fumbled to grasp what more can we expect from the upcoming game and again, we aren’t alone in this (which is quite obvious by now).

Theory Interactive had taken to crowdfunding to raise the required funds for the game and had raised roughly 70,000 Euros. Those of you who had been following the game’s blog – and even otherwise – would know that the game also has support for the virtual reality 3D gaming headset, Oculus Rift. Since the developers have for long emphasises on how the depend heavily upon the game’s environment to convey what they mean to convey, the game’s coming to the Oculus Rift promises an even furthered experience of immersion into this dismally ecstatic adventure game.

Since we’ve been running in an unorthodox fashion till now with regard to the game, we finally concern ourselves with how the conception of the idea of the game design. Since not much has been let on by Alpo and Mikko – the developers from Theory – we only know of a daringly funny idea that went on to give us a plentiful insight into Reset. The game was inspired from samll budget, charming indie movies like Moon and Cube. And so the developers thought of stepping into the gaming indie market. But obviously, the gaming industry doesn’t provide as easily with the means of producing games.

"All in all, Reset looks like an absolutely stupendous game that seems to already have made a throb throughout the gaming community all over the world with its brilliant concept, breath-taking graphics and the developers resolute and adamant decision to stick to their beloved project."

But that didn’t deter the duo from nurturing their project further. They wanted unprecedented graphics in the game, with a non-linear storyline and gripping game mechanics. But they also wanted to stick to the short storyline they’d come up some years before that. After having coalesced the aforementioned ideas, the conversation that followed, is best left untouched. It went like this –

“But we need at least a budget of a gazillion bucks and ten truckloads of devs to pull this off, we don’t have that kind of money.”

“Yeah true, that is a major drag. But hey, I know, I have a great idea. What if we just ignore all that?”

“Hey that’s an excellent idea!”

And that’s how Alpo and Mikko carried on with their idea, later on taking to crowdfunding but still working on a limited budget. But the milestones they have reached even after being in such situation is laudable.

All in all, Reset looks like an absolutely stupendous game that seems to already have made a throb throughout the gaming community all over the world with its brilliant concept, breath-taking graphics and the developers resolute and adamant decision to stick to their beloved project. All this point toward the fact that it’s going to be a gaming behemoth in the near future and reasons more than enough have been cited earlier to make anyone believe why they should support this upcoming marvel of a game: Reset.

Recently via Kotaku it was revealed that the upcoming time travel adventure game, Reset will support the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Developers, Theory Interactive have been very reserved when it comes to releasing details on the mysterious noir-styled sci-fi game, but everything we’ve seen so far has led us to believe it will be an incredible experience on par with the likes of Portal.

“We grew up in the eighties and nineties so a lot of stuff automatically comes from that era. All the usual suspects are there in the background, stuff from George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and the likes,” Alpo Oksaharju, the game’s writer/artist said.

“But Reset is more enigmatic than your basic sci-fi blockbuster. It’s what I like to call a ‘popular indie’ title. If compared to movies, the form and essence is more on the Moon, Cube, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner side rather than, say, Star Wars. On the gaming side, Portal has inspired us greatly.”

Reset is currently in its final days of Indiegogo crowdfunding.

As we can see in the video, Reset is a first person action puzzle game, with a similar mechanic to Portal and certain parts of Half life. The game features fully interactive environments, in which the player must move things around in order to get to the next area.

The coolest aspect of the mechanic, however, is the “reset” mechanic. You will go through the level, moving objects and setting a path and then hit “reset” and you will back where you started. But a mechanical figure will be down in the level mirroring all of the actions of your last run. By utilizing this mechanic, the developers are able to implement very difficult and creative puzzle levels for all to enjoy. So far things look very promising from Reset.

The bleak sci-fi tone shine immediately through the chilling score, and the crisp graphics. It’s almost Midgar-Final Fantasy 7-esque. The game boasts a first person puzzle perspective, which combines interactive puzzle environments with story driven themes and developments.

As of now, this teaser is all we’ve got. According to Theory Interactive’s website, the development team is in the process of starting a crowd funding campaign for Reset, but reports are that the effort will see a slight delay.

From what we can see here it looks like reset has it’s sight set on a sci-fi puzzler in a similar scope to that of Portal or Half-Life – which, while it was an action FPS incorporated many puzzle-gaming elements.

Should crowdfunding prove successful, Reset will release for PC later this year, or at some point in 2014.