Developer – Artifact5
Publisher – Artifact5
Location – Montreal, Canada
What is it?
Anamorphine is a surreal, first-person narrative that unfolds by playing through the memories of the protagonist, Tyler, as he recounts his relationship with his wife, a professional cellist.
Why should I care?
While first-person narratives, or “walking sims” are nothing new, Anamorphine stands out from the rest as its creators wanted to make a narrative without narration. Anamorphine has no speech or text whatsoever. In fact, it doesn’t even have an action button. Instead the story is told through a rich composite of visual and audio experiences. As you walk about through Tyler’s fragmented memories, you seamlessly drift between reality and a metaphorical, dreamlike world, all of which reacts to you based on where and how you move. The entire experience and game endings vary based on how you deal with the game’s themes of depression, guilt, and loss; themes which are rarely addressed in the larger, FPS-focused AAA industry.
When can I play it?
Whereas the game is essentially a 2+ hour story, Anamorphine will not be appearing on Early Access and instead will be available on Steam and Xbox One when it is completely finished in early 2017. Depending on how optimization goes, Anamorphine may potentially come to PS4, HTC Vive and Oculus sometime in the future.