Road Not Taken asks you the question- what is life? What is the progression of life like? How much do our choices and decisions throughout life really matter? And it attempts to answer these questions by simulating them in the form of a single player adventure rogue-like game. If any of this sounds interesting to you (it sounds extremely interesting to me), you will be pleased to know the game is out today, available for PCs, Mac, and PS4.

“It starts out looking like a simple puzzle game, but underneath is a mysterious procedurally-generated world that is loaded with secrets.” explained Daniel Cook, Chief Creative Officer of Spry Fox. “We tried to create a life in miniature, where there’s no ‘best’ way to play. It’ll take the average person dozens of hours to master all the various encounters and strategies in Road Not Taken. And like most good roguelikes, it is not a forgiving game. You can expect to die repeatedly.”

Of course, repeated death is not something we actually have to experience in our own lives, so I suppose it differs from life itself in that respect. But still, that aside, this sounds like a curious marriage of a philosophical concept and gameplay, and one that I am eager to try out myself.

The game will cost you $15, and is currently available for PSN and Steam, with the latter version being available for 20% off.

We asked David a number of questions ranging from the game’s main theme to the gameplay mechanics. Check out his response below.

Rashid Sayed: Road Not Taken is a pretty unique take on puzzle solving. What was the inspiration behind developing such a kind of game?

David Edery: Our puzzle game, Triple Town, is very popular, but one thing that has always bugged us about it is that the core design is not easy to expand upon. We kept trying to find ways to make it a bigger game, or to increase the variety of the existing game, and kept hitting walls. The core design is very tight and just doesn’t want to be expanded. So Road Not Taken was, in part, an attempt to come up with an infinitely extensible puzzle mechanic: one you can literally build whole worlds around if you want to.

"There are dozens of creatures and objects that can spawn in the world once you get past the first few easy missions, so in combination, you’re pretty much guaranteed to never see two procedurally-generated missions that look alike"

Rashid Sayed: What were the design inspirations behind the main character? He does look pretty similar to Orko from the He-Man cartoons.

David Edery: Brent, our lead artist, was inspired by Journey and Zelda, among other games. He wrote an entire blog post on this subject that you can find here.

Rashid Sayed: So, tell us a bit about the puzzles in the game. How will each experience be unique each time?

David Edery: There are dozens of creatures and objects that can spawn in the world once you get past the first few easy missions, so in combination, you’re pretty much guaranteed to never see two procedurally-generated missions that look alike. I’ve personally played the game for over 100 hours at this point and I’m still discovering unusual new interactions between objects and creatures that I’ve never seen before. 🙂

Rashid Sayed: You are using a Behaviour system. Can you please talk about the same?

David Edery: I’m not sure what you’re referring to, let me take a guess. Objects and creatures in the game often have unique behaviors. For example, a crow, when thrown at another object, will pick up and fly away with that object. A wisp will seek out and steal children. We rarely explain this stuff in the game; you just have to experiment and discover things for yourself. There’s also a crafting component to the game; there are dozens of recipes you can create by combining the various objects you find in the forest. Some of these objects have powerful behaviors, like magical potions and tools. For example, you can create a fear potion that causes things to run away from you and a duplicate potion that can duplicate anything in the game (including monsters.)

Rashid Sayed: Can you tell us how long the game will last and whether it will have any multiplayer component?

David Edery: We’re guessing that the average person will need about 25 hours to reach the final mission of the game. But this is a roguelike, so even if you reach the end of the final mission, it doesn’t mean the game is over. At that point you can start over and try to improve your previous performance.

Rashid Sayed: Are there any plans to make it cross buy between the PS4 and PS Vita?

David Edery: We’re still working on the Vita version of the game; it won’t be released until this fall at the earliest. We haven’t made any business decisions about it yet.

Rashid Sayed: Road Not Taken is one of the many indie games that are not coming on the Xbox One. Why is that indies are still a bit speculative about bringing their games on the Xbox One?

David Edery: Microsoft’s ID@Xbox program didn’t exist when we started working on Road Not Taken. Now that the program exists and seems to be pretty cool, we’re certainly considering bringing games to the Xbox One.

"We’re guessing that the average person will need about 25 hours to reach the final mission of the game. But this is a roguelike, so even if you reach the end of the final mission, it doesn’t mean the game is over."

Rashid Sayed: Road Not Taken does not seem to be a resource heavy game, so is it safe to assume that it will run at 1080p and 60fps?

David Edery: 1080p, 30fps. For a game of this sort, there is no perceivable difference between 30 and 60 fps.

Rashid Sayed: From your perspective, what is important, 30 fps or 60fps?

David Edery: Is the game fun? Does it look great? These are the questions that matter. Who cares what arbitrary number is attached to what random specification?

Rashid Sayed: What are your thoughts on the PlayStation 4 hardware? Did you faced any issue while coding the game using the system’s API?

David Edery: No issues. PS4 was fun to work on.

Rashid Sayed: Given the lack of AAA games, there are claims that the PS4 is more of an indie console now. What are your thoughts on this?

David Edery: Anyone who paid attention to Sony’s E3 press conference knows that there’s no shortage of AAA content coming to the PS4. The sign of a healthy games platform is both lots of indie content and lots of AAA content. Seems like the PS4 is there.

Rashid Sayed: Is there anything else you want to tell our readers before we take off?

David Edery: We’ve written a lot of detailed blog posts about Road Not Taken and it’s development. If you’re curious, check them out here!

Given the lack of AAA games and the abundance of indie games on the PlayStation 4, certain players feel that the Sony’s current generation console has now become an indie console. After all almost every indie game is making its way to the PlayStation 4 which is always a good thing but come on, people did not paid $399 to only play indie games. The exclusives have been less and far between with several blockbuster games like The Order getting delayed.

We asked David Edery, who is the CEO of Spry Fox about what he thinks about these claims. “Anyone who paid attention to Sony’s E3 press conference knows that there’s no shortage of AAA content coming to the PS4,” he said to GamingBolt. “The sign of a healthy games platform is both lots of indie content and lots of AAA content. Seems like the PS4 is there.”

It is important to note that the line up for PlayStation 4 in 2015 is looking promising with Ratchet and Clank and Bloodborne. Then there are the likes of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, The Order 1886 and you may never know, Sony can surprise us with Gran Turismo 7.  But for now, PS4 owners need to wait for a game that will define the platform.

Spry Fox are currently working on Road Not Taken which releases next week on the PlayStation 4.

The latest generation of consoles and developers alike have come under some flak for not delivering sixty frames per second consistently across all of their games. The general consensus is that PS4 and Xbox One games should render games at 1080p and 60fps since gaming PCs have been able to do that for years now. In short, certain players are frustrated since there is an obvious difference between 30 and 60 frames per second.

Speaking to David Edery, who is the CEO of Spry Fox, GamingBolt asked about his perspective on the current debate. According to him it’s the gameplay that matters. “Is the game fun? Does it look great? These are the questions that matter. Who cares what arbitrary number is attached to what random specification?,” he said to GamingBolt.

We also asked David whether their own game Road Not Taken will run at 1080p and 60fps on the PS4? And he confirmed that it will be running at 30fps. ” [It will be running at ]1080p, 30fps. For a game of this sort, there is no perceivable difference between 30 and 60 fps,” he said.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree with David’s comment? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. We will have more coverage for Road Not Taken in the coming days. Stay tuned.

Road Not Taken is an artsy looking indie puzzle game that is coming to the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation Vita in 2014. The new video that you see above shows off the core gameplay mechanic for the game, which involves interacting with various different kinds of objects, while also keeping a close eye on your stamina gauge, which decreases with every step that you take.

Road Not Taken utilizes its setting to great effect, making it a core, integral part of the gameplay itself. Everything around you may or may not be hostile, but you have no way of knowing till you interact with it. You have to plan out your moves in such a way that you can take a hit, and find a way to clear the exit.

This is just the latest in a long line of indie games coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita as part of Sony’s indie game initiative.