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Outer Wilds

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Not to be confused with The Outer Worlds.

Outer Wilds
Developer(s)Mobius Digital
Publisher(s)Annapurna Interactive
Director(s)Alex Beachum
Producer(s)
  • Sarah Scialli
  • Loan Verneau
  • Avimaan Syam
  • Eilish Lambrechtsen
  • Katherine Wang
Designer(s)
  • Alex Beachum
  • Loan Verneau
Composer(s)Andrew Prahlow
EngineUnity
Platform(s)
Release
  • Xbox One
  • May 29, 2019
  • Windows
  • May 30, 2019
  • PlayStation 4
  • October 15, 2019
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Outer Wilds is a 2019 action-adventure game developed by Mobius Digital and published by Annapurna Interactive for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. In the game, the player-character finds themselves on a planet with only 22 minutes before the local sun goes supernova and kills them. The player continually repeats this 22-minute cycle by learning details that can help alter the outcome on later playthroughs. It received universal acclaim and won several awards, including for game of the year.

Gameplay

Alpha screenshots

In Outer Wilds, the player-character is an astronaut that starts out camping on a planet near their rocket. Within 22 minutes of game time, the local sun will go supernova, ending the game, though the game will restart at the same point.[1] Thus, the player is encouraged to explore the local solar system (referred to somewhat inaccurately as a "quirky and condensed galaxy") to learn how the astronaut got there, why the sun will go nova, the secrets of the Nomai, the alien race that had built this galaxy, and other information and secrets that can be used on the subsequent replays of the game to explore further.[2] For example, in order to use the rocket, the player must guide the astronaut to a local observatory, where the launch codes are located. Once the player has done this once in one playthrough, that information will not change in subsequent ones, so on the next playthrough, the player can bypass the observatory and immediately launch the rocket with the known codes.[3] Though the galaxy repeats the same 22 minutes each time the player starts the game, the galaxy will change over the course of that period, making some parts of planets accessible only at certain times;[4] one example is a pair of planets orbiting so close to each other that sand from one planet is funnelled over to cover the other planet, making its surface inaccessible later in the 22 minute period.[3]

The player-character has health and oxygen meters, which are replenished when the character returns to the rocket. If the character's health or oxygen should run out, they will die, but respawn back on the home planet.[5][6]

Plot

The Player takes the role of an alien space explorer preparing for their first solo flight. After being involuntarily paired with a Nomai statue on their home planet, the Player discovers they are trapped in a 22 minute time loop, with every loop resetting on the Player's death or the local sun exploding in a supernova. This loop has been compared to the time loop in Groundhog Day.[2] In order to solve this mystery, the Player begins exploring the solar system, uncovering artifacts and ruins left behind by the Nomai, an ancient and mysterious race that had once colonized the system.

The Player eventually learns that the Nomai were obsessed with finding the "Eye of the Universe", a massive quantum anomaly which is supposedly older than the universe itself. Curious to find out what was held within the Eye, but having lost its signal, the Nomai built an orbital cannon to launch probes into the outer edges of the star system to find the Eye. In addition, they developed the Ash Twin Project, which leveraged their mastery of quantum physics to send information 22 minutes into the past via statues like the one the Player was paired with so they could more accurately predict the location of the Eye. However, the Nomai themselves were never able to achieve the full potential of the Ash Twin Project since sending information into the past would require a vast amount of energy that only a supernova could produce and they died out before they could figure out a way to artificially induce one. This explains why the Player is trapped in the 22 minute loop, since the supernova activates the Ash Twin Project, sending all of the information the Player learned back to their past self.

Armed with this knowledge, the Player is able to discover the coordinates of the Eye and repairs a derelict Nomai vessel, warping to the Eye's location. Upon entering the Eye, the Player encounters quantum versions of the various characters they had befriended in their travels, and working together, they create a Big Bang, giving rise to a new universe. The full completion ending adds a scene showing that intelligent life begins to develop 14.3 billion years after the creation of the new universe.

Development

Outer Wilds concept art

Outer Wilds began as Alex Beachum's USC Interactive Media & Games Division master's thesis and grew into a full-production commercial release. He started the project in late 2012 for his yearlong thesis and "Advanced Game Project" assignment. Beachum had previously made a three-dimensional platformer out of Lego bricks as a kid, and was uninterested in a career in games until applying to the Interactive Media program.[5]

Beachum's original ideas were to recreate the Apollo 13 and 2001: A Space Odyssey "spirit of space exploration" in an uncontrollable environment, and to make an objective-less open world game where exploration would satiate the player's questions without feeling "aimless".[5] Beachum took cues from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker's non-player characters that would tell tales of distant lands as to entice the player to explore those areas for themselves.[5] The game heavily employs a camping motif, reflecting Beachum's personal interest in backpacking while also emphasizing that the player-character is far from his home and alone in this galaxy.[5] While journalists have compared Outer Wilds' time loop mechanics to that of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Beachum notes that these mechanics are used in Outer Wilds primarily "to allow the creation of large-scale dynamic systems" as opposed to "play[ing] around with causality" as in Majora's Mask.[5][6]

The original development team members were University of Southern California, Laguna College of Art and Design, and Atlantic University College students.[5] Beachum's team started by working with "paper prototypes" and a "tabletop role-playing session" to brainstorm a narrative. The team built the game in the Unity3D game engine. They later wrote the game as a text adventure in Processing. After Beachum's graduation, the project hired members full-time to work towards a commercial release, with Beachum as creative director.[5]

As of March 2015, the game was in alpha release and available for free download from the developer's site.[7] The development team were writing a central conceit into the game.[6]

Actor Masi Oka, who has had previous experience as a programmer and started the studio Mobius Digital to develop mobile games, had seen the demo of Outer Wilds during a demo day for the USC Interactive Media & Games groups. Oka saw the opportunity to expand his team and hired the entire team behind the game into his studio to help bring the title to development.[8] The game became the first title to be supported on the new video game-centric crowdfunding site, Fig, launched in August 2015.[8]

In March 2018, Mobius announced it has received funding support from publisher Annapurna Interactive, which bought out the investment and rights from Fig, and that the game was planned for release in 2018.[9][10] Mobius later announced plans in June 2018 to release the game at launch for the Xbox One alongside the computer platforms.[11] In December 2018, it was announced that the game's release would be delayed until 2019.[12]

In May 2019, Mobius announced that the game's release for Windows users will be a timed-exclusive on the Epic Games Store, in exchanged for additional financial support. As it was originally announced that Fig backers would have received redemption keys on Steam for the game, some backers complained about the change; Linux users noted that as the Epic Games Store does not have a Linux-compatible front end, the change left them without any option.[13]

Outer Wilds was released on Xbox One on 29 May 2019, with the Windows version being released the following day.[14][15] A PlayStation 4 version was later released on 15 October 2019 on the Microsoft Store, with a Steam release expected in 2020.[16]

Reception

At the 2015 GDC Independent Games Festival, Outer Wilds won in the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Excellence in Design categories.[7] It was an honorable mention in the Excellence in Narrative and Nuovo Award categories.[19] The game was still in alpha release at this point.[6]

On Metacritic, Outer Wilds achieved an aggregate score of 85 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[17]

Publications such as Polygon and Paste featured it on their "best games of the decade" list.[20][21]

Awards

Year Award Category Result Ref
2015 Independent Games Festival Awards Seumas McNally Grand Prize Won [7]
Excellence in Design Won
2018 Game Critics Awards Best Independent Game Nominated [22]
2019 Golden Joystick Awards Best Storytelling Nominated [23][24][25]
Best Visual Design Nominated
Best Indie Game Won
Best Audio Nominated
Xbox Game of the Year Nominated
Ultimate Game of the Year Nominated
The Game Awards 2019 Best Game Direction Nominated [26]
Best Independent Game Nominated
Fresh Indie Game (Mobius Digital) Nominated

References

  1. ^ Faulkner, Jason (May 29, 2019). "Outer Wilds Review: Out of this world". Game Revolution. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Walker, Austin (May 29, 2019). "'Outer Wilds' Is a Captivating Sci-Fi Mystery About the End of the World". Vice. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Hudson, Laura (March 18, 2015). "You have 20 minutes before the sun blows up". Boing Boing. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  4. ^ Caldwell, Brendan (May 29, 2019). "Wot I Think: Outer Wilds". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Cameron, Phill (January 27, 2015). "Road to the IGF: Alex Beachum's Outer Wilds". Gamasutra. UBM plc. Archived from the original on March 11, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
  6. ^ a b c d Warr, Philippa (March 5, 2015). "Lunching In Space With IGF Winner Outer Wilds". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on March 7, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
  7. ^ a b c Savage, Phil (March 4, 2015). "Outer Wilds wins IGF grand prize". PC Gamer. Future Publishing. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
  8. ^ a b Hall, Charlie (August 18, 2015). "What if Kickstarter let you profit from a game's success? Fig found a way, launches today". Polygon. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
  9. ^ Takahashi, Dean (March 15, 2018). "Outer Wilds is about backpacking in outer space". Venture Beat. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  10. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (March 16, 2018). "Fig turns a profit for some investors". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  11. ^ Singletary, Charles (June 6, 2018). "FPS Space Mystery Outer Wilds Coming To Xbox One At Launch". Shacknews. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
  12. ^ Chalk, Andy (December 19, 2018). "Outer Wilds, the game of cosmic exploration and campfires, is delayed into 2019". PC Gamer. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
  13. ^ Van Allen, Eric (May 13, 2019). "Outer Wilds Will Launch As Timed Epic Exclusive, And Backers Don't Seem Happy". USGamer. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  14. ^ Hyrb, Larry (May 29, 2019). "Outer Wilds Is Now Available For Xbox One". Microsoft. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  15. ^ Holt, Kris (May 20, 2019). "Space exploration indie 'Outer Wilds' hits Xbox One and PC May 30th". Engadget. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  16. ^ Romano, Sal (October 8, 2019). "PS4Outer Wilds coming to PS4 on October 15". Gematsu. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  17. ^ a b "Outer Wilds for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  18. ^ "Outer Wilds for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  19. ^ Pitcher, Jenna (March 4, 2015). "OUTER WILDS LEADS THE 17TH ANNUAL INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL AWARDS". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on March 8, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
  20. ^ Polygon staff (November 4, 2019). "The 100 best games of the decade (2010-2019): 50-11". Polygon. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  21. ^ Martin, Garrett; Green, Holly; The Paste Games writers (October 8, 2019). "The 100 Best Videogames of the 2010s". Paste. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  22. ^ Watts, Steve (July 5, 2018). "Resident Evil 2 Wins Top Honor In E3 Game Critics Awards". GameSpot. CBS Insteractive. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  23. ^ "Golden Joystick Awards 2019". GamesRadar+. Future plc. Archived from the original on September 28, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  24. ^ GamesRadar staff (October 25, 2019). "Vote now for your Ultimate Game of the Year in the Golden Joystick Awards 2019". GamesRadar+. Future plc. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  25. ^ "Winners Announced at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards". Gamasutra. UBM plc. November 15, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  26. ^ Winslow, Jeremy (November 19, 2019). "The Game Awards 2019 Nominees Full List". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 19, 2019.

External links

Media related to Outer Wilds at Wikimedia Commons

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