When Playdead brought out Limbo, they made something that fans took up with. It was a dark and dreary world where we took the role of a young child that had to endure an incredibly hostile world. Everything and anything was ready to end the child’s life. However, the more you died the better understanding you had of how to complete that puzzle platforming section. Since then there was also the introduction of Inside, another game that had a similar style of gameplay from the development team Playdead as well.
You can also look at Little Nightmares as a similar game, with a young child having to endure a hellish world in a side-scrolling platformer. However, in the case of Little Nightmares, this was a title not developed by Playdead. Now during the E3 2021 Microsoft Xbox media conference, we got the unveiling of a brand new game from indie developers Jumpship. This is a title called Somerville and while not everything has been laid out to the public, it does bear some strong resemblance to the Playdead-style of video games.
That’s probably because this title was developed under executive producer Dino Patti. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, Dino is the former CEO of Playdead so it makes sense to see Somerville bear the dark and dreary atmosphere of comparison. However, we’re still waiting on some more information to come out in regards to what this title is all about.
If it’s anything like Playdead’s Limbo and Inside, the gameplay will not have much of a narrative storyline told outright for the player but instead, have players interpret what they are going through. Of course, the gameplay itself looks to be a bit more clear on the world being invaded by some type of alien force. This has left humanity in hiding or perished altogether, but players here will be working with what looks like a young man seeking to keep his family safe.
Source: YouTube
