Tearaway Wiki: Everything you need to know about the game

Tearaway is an all new adventure video game that is currently in development for the Sony PlayStation Vita, the game is being developed by Media Molecule of LittleBigPlanet fame.

Tearaway was first announced at Gamescom, August 15^th 2012 and has been slated for official release on November 22^nd 2013. The game is very heavily influenced by the artistic medium known as papercraft and by the various sketches and doodles drawn by Rex Crowle, a video game graphic designer that has a long career in animation, having worked with the BBC and MTV in the past.

• 1. Development
• 3. Gameplay

Development

Tearaway uses an art style that is a mix of 3D and 2D. The game space is in 3D in regards to exploration, but the contents of the world, the mountains and buildings for example, are all constructed out of 2D “paper”. Similar to Media Molecules previous game, LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway has a very unique style that although composed of different materials, feels almost alive.

An official statement from Sony regarding their description of the game is “Adventure through a vibrant papery world with your new friend iota, a plucky messenger with a unique message to deliver—to you! This paper world is small enough to hold in your own two hands, allowing you to reach into the game with your powers and help iota complete this very special delivery.”

Given Media Molecules previous success with content creation, it was no surprise when Tearaway was shown to focus heavily on world manipulation and in game content creation. When quizzed on the subject this is what the developers had to say, “Tearaway is still very much an extension of the creative gaming genre, so rest assured you’ll be able to personalise and customise your world to your heart’s content. We’ll have to be secret Susan’s about that until a later date though! Anything you see in Tearaway’s papercraft world can be created in the real world from bits of paper!”

Gameplay

Tearaway’s gameplay will be centered around a character called Iota or his female counterpart Atoi. Iota and Atoi’s mission to deliver a message that is unique to each and every player.

Gamers and media members alike were shocked to find that Tearaway is actually a third person adventure game. During the games announcement trailer at a press event, there was an example given of how the game will implement the Vita’s features into the gameplay. In the demonstration the player comes across an Elk who is in need of a new skin, the player then proceeds to take a picture using the Vitas built in camera, the picture is then applied to the paper craft animal as an in game texture thus providing it with the new skin it desired.

This is in an effort to effectively implement all of the PS Vitas features, rather than just have them feel like a gimmick. In another gameplay demo from industry show, Gamescom, the developer Media Molecule showed how the player is able to use the rear touch panel on the Vita to interact with the world inside the game.

Players can push their fingers up through the ground in an effort to interact with the ground and other pieces of terrain or to interact with enemies in the area. Another separate demo shows off the player’s ability to cut out paper shapes for the characters featured in the game by using their fingers on the Vita’s front touch screen. The trailer for the game also features a section wherein the stages or levels take place in the real world through VR (so to speak) there is also a scene where the game can be tilted causing enemies to fall into a hole and fall into our real world.