Howdy fellow precision platform junkies! I’m Juhana, the Inventive Director of Bionic Bay – my most formidable undertaking but. Bionic Bay is a precision-puzzle platformer set in an historical bio-mechanical world, hand-crafted pixel by pixel to create a high-fidelity, atmospheric atmosphere.
Bionic Bay began as an opportunity assembly between me (Mureena) and Psychoflow studio, on a Reddit put up showcasing their swap mechanic. We quickly started to collaborate, merging their technical experience with my expertise in stage design and artwork route from earlier titles equivalent to Badland 1 and a pair of.
(*17*)Creating Bionic Bay: One pixel at a time
The humble swap mechanic stays a central gameplay mechanic, however Bionic Bay has seen unbelievable development since we began. We knew early on that the most important hurdle can be to create environments which supplied a problem with out turning into irritating. As well as, this balanced problem can be hosted inside intricately detailed and hand-crafted pixel-art environments, taking important time to create.
We approached these growth challenges with a easy two-part resolution. Firstly, I might focus on stage design and artwork, and Psychoflow would work on the technical resolution to ensure our mechanics regarded nice and labored effectively.
Maybe extra vital, we agreed that we’d all recurrently leap in and play every stage, experiencing it simply as a participant would. We have now carried this on all the best way to launch, and this has helped us to make sure nice stability, and that we perceive the participant journey via Bionic Bay.
All of us love a precision platformer, however we additionally wished to ensure that Bionic Bay offers a singular and worthwhile expertise, and that comes all the way down to the sport’s core mechanics.
This started with the swap characteristic which first introduced Mureena and Psychoflow collectively – permitting gamers to modify locations with objects inside every stage. This was quickly joined by extra instruments, with every present process common playthrough testing:
- ChronoLag, our time dilation expertise which permits gamers to decelerate time for a brief interval. In addition to permitting gamers to navigate via fast-moving areas, it’s additionally a good way of getting pace boosts that can assist you get quicker occasions in our ghost knowledge racing mode.
- Energy Fist, offering the chance to launch objects throughout the atmosphere. In addition to clearing house within the solo story, used at the side of ChronoLag has led to some imaginative puzzle fixing to hurry up your journey
- Gravity Manipulation, permitting gamers to bend the very forces of actuality. This may also help to clear paths, or assist discover new paths. It’s vital to watch out, nevertheless, as this new gravitational route may also have an effect on unfastened objects on the extent which may result in… unintended cessation of all life indicators.
After all, gamers might be launched to those mechanics as you progress via Bionic Bay’s historical bio-mechanical world. Some you’ll be capable to use collectively, and gamers will usually want to mix these instruments (in addition to fast considering and exact controls) to be able to overcome the challenges you’ll face.
In addition to utilizing these inside our narrative single-player journey, gamers also can discover our devoted on-line problem mode with Bionic Bay On-line. Bionic Bay On-line permits gamers to compete for the quickest time on a course, racing towards different gamers’ knowledge ghosts – one thing which ought to converse to these of us racing on PlayStation within the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
To compete in Bionic Bay On-line, gamers might want to use all of the instruments at your disposal, and discover artistic options to take the highest spot on the leaderboard. We may also be including particular post-launch content material for Bionic Bay, together with devoted time problem ranges to permit you to showcase your abilities to the world.
(*17*)A legendary PlayStation collaboration
We’re ecstatic to announce that Bionic Bay additionally has a collaboration with one of our greatest followers – PlayStation legend Shuhei Yoshida. We’ll be implementing a particular stage only for Shu throughout the on-line problem mode following Bionic Bay’s launch on April 17. For those who participate and beat Shu’s rating, you’ll be able to even unlock our Shu pores and skin, permitting you to customise the look of your scientist for our on-line leaderboards.
In addition to Shu’s personal participant pores and skin, we’re additionally bringing you a Deluxe version of Bionic Bay – with our Traditional Monster pores and skin pack. This contains eight costumes impressed by classic horror (a private favorite style of mine), with an alien, a werewolf and extra. The Traditional Monster pack permits gamers to unleash somewhat frightful attraction and actually sink your fangs into the net leaderboards.
The bio-mechanical world of Bionic Bay opens up on PlayStation 5 this Thursday – April 17, and is out there to wishlist now!