This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the inner workings of their games. This time, Tacoma [official site].
Fullbright is running out of things to steal from the Shock series. Like, we made a game that is basically about audio diaries for Gone Home, and now we ve made a game that s basically about the ghost sequences in System Shock 2 and BioShock with Tacoma, co-founder Steve Gaynor tells me. We re running out of things to rip! What are we doing next?
He s laughing about it, but it s only half true, since Tacoma is really about taking audio diaries and making them into a game. You don t find and passively listen to them, you re an active observer of augmented reality recordings of the crew members of a now-deserted space station. The distinction makes a huge difference, and had a profound effect on the way Tacoma s story was written, because it posed complex puzzles of fitting dialogue and direction into both space and time. All because in Tacoma you can:
THE MECHANIC: Pause, fast-forward and rewind ghosts (more…)