Red Cloak games released a new update for their very promising sci-fi adventure, Wanderer. Red Cloak, as usual, provides a ton of substance to its updates. There’s a ton of new details on how production of the game is going and insight into the game design. Ambient dialogue is one topic the update focuses on. Developer Cris Ripamonti also shows backers how the menu is implemented. The developers can now add in full-screen video on any screen. They showed off some of the potential for this feature in the update. The developers also implemented a status menu, but they’re still working on its features.
The update also gives us a first look at the sanity system. The team is implementing sanity in a pretty interesting way, as it plays into a major theme of the game. In Wanderer the sanity system will work a little like the morality system in games like Mass Effect. The scale works as a -100 to 100 point score of insane to sane. Where the player is on the scale won’t be readily apparent to them, but will effect gameplay. For example, when the character is more towards insane, they might experience a hallucination that a sane character would miss. I’m one of those people who wants to see EVERY scene, so this gives the game a lot more replay value. Even if you aren’t a completionist, being able to have a unique experience holds appeal.
I also like that the update is transparent and thorough. While I can understand developers wanting to save most surprises for the release of the game, the fact that Ripamonti really shows what has being going into game production is pretty admirable. It sounds like there’s still a long way to go until work on the game is done, but the update shows Wanderer’s potential. I’m already looking forward to what the team might include in the next update.
