Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake – How We Remade a Masterpiece

Launched in 2013, and directed by the singular Josef Fares, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons was a really distinctive sport. After their father falls ailing, the sport follows two, effectively, brothers as they set out into a unusual and sometimes harmful world – with the twist being that a single participant controls each characters concurrently. They need to cross harmful lands, face lethal foes and depend on one another greater than they ever have earlier than to search out a treatment, main gamers by way of a stunning world by method of action-packed puzzles and obstacles. 

Virtually a decade after the unique sport’s launch, nothing has fairly replicated this sport’s combination of distinctive controls and emotive storytelling. So, with our remake, we’ve targeting not simply find out how to convey a fashionable basic again to life, however to protect and improve this unimaginable, one-off expertise.

Remaking a Masterpiece

Our philosophy all through the Remake course of was to reinforce the unique, not distort. As we started to check the sport, we realized that every little thing in Brothers, every surroundings, the puzzle, and interplay, is there for a particular motive and has its personal aim to assist help the general story. Our job then grew to become to modernize the expertise whereas conserving every little thing that made the unique particular and memorable.

Gameplay in Brothers is designed primarily for a distinctive, single-player expertise (although native co-op can be included). As you discover, one controller controls each brothers and their skill to work together with the world. Every brother has their very own distinctive skills that will likely be required to resolve the assorted puzzles and enemies they encounter.

For the remake, we put in a lot of effort on perfecting the character controls for a seamless, elevated expertise. Controller inputs are extra responsive than the unique, and animations have been remade from scratch for exact motion and transition between actions. For instance, when the older brother helps the youthful brother climb a ledge, it’s seamless and clean with every brother affecting the opposite. And that’s only one of a whole bunch of interactions we’ve labored to good.

We’ve additionally remade the puzzle and enemy AI to make sure a enjoyable and difficult expertise that goes past what was attainable in 2013. Being chased by canines or avoiding a charging Troll is a extra dynamic thrill now. We thought of making the puzzles tougher, however felt that may defeat the narrative targets of every part. As a result of of this, we wished to enhance the appear and feel and efficiency of every puzzle with out needlessly making it tougher only for the sake of making it tougher.

An Enchanting World Remade

From icy rivers and hovering heights, to a large’s fortress and harmful caves, there’s simply as a lot magnificence as hazard.

Together with the controls and animations, we’ve paid explicit consideration to the wonderful environments that the brothers should traverse. Because the brothers start their quest, you’ll roam although their enchanting residence village full of thatched roofs and delightful flower beds, sheep pens and flowing streams. Shortly, you’ll go away the security of the village and start to climb treacherous mountains and scale alongside cliff faces that drop off into nowhere. Because the story and journey strikes farther from their idyllic village, the tone and themes of the sport develop darker.

All through the sport we labored to keep up correct steadiness between foreground and background components in addition to enhancing the general look, particularly in cutscenes. To perform this steadiness, we used intensive dynamic lighting, one thing the Unreal 5 engine is superb at, together with foreground and background depth of discipline, and digital camera positioning to make all of the remade characters, constructions and graphic components as stunning and impactful as attainable.

A Journey To Keep in mind

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake is a basic, outstanding sport, one which we aren’t solely honored to work on, however a sport that we really feel a accountability to remake with the utmost care and a focus to element.

If you happen to’ve performed the sport earlier than, we predict you’ll uncover new issues to like concerning the Remake. If you happen to’ve not performed it earlier than, that is your likelihood to expertise a sport in contrast to something you’ve performed earlier than, and now it’s improved with the newest graphics enhancements, music and extra.

It’s an expertise you’ll all the time bear in mind.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake launches on Xbox Collection X|S February 28.