Dan Smith, the BAFTA Young Game Designer winner, has partnered with Ripstone Games. The publisher, in collaboration with Dan Smith, shared The Spectrum Retreat‘s first gameplay footage. The first-person puzzle game is set in the near future. The gameplay video above provides eleven minutes of gameplay with commentary. It showcases the opening sequence of the game.
The Spectrum Retreat
Players awaken in Penrose Hotel. With an art-deco style, it is very classical and colorful. But it also has a hyper-modern and clinical feel in some areas. You’re not sure why you’re there or how you got there. But you have a unique cellphone-like device. A voice lets you know that it’s more than a phone and that you should keep it hidden. It can manipulate colors in the environment. This offers access through color-coded barriers and obstacles. At the end of every puzzle, you reach a pod that takes you to the next one.
The Spectrum Retreat’s narrative arc plays a large role, as stated by Dan Smith.
“Something else I wanted to explore with this game was having quite a unique gameplay and narrative structure. The way the narrative is structured in comparison to the gameplay with respect to the gameplay is quite unique. We have more than just chain puzzles…What we do have is somewhat of a hub world…but it’s more than a hub world. It’s also a gameplay space. More so a very involved space as far as the narrative is concerned”
The Penrose hotel is a peaceful refuge from the outside world. Set in the near future, players control a “valued guest” as he explores the mysterious, art-deco hotel. Mind-bending physics challenges and color-coded first-person puzzles hide the hotel’s true intentions.
About Dan Smith Studios
Dan Smith Studios is an independent game development studio, represented by Dan Smith. It was founded in 2016. Its focus has been on the development of first-person puzzle game ‘The Spectrum Retreat. This is due for a 2018 release for PC and consoles. Dan Smith is a BAFTA YGD Game Making Award winner and Computer Science student at the University of Leeds. He is based mainly in Newcastle and Leeds, England.
About Ripstone Games
Ripstone is an independent games label that fully funds the development, distribution, marketing and sales of games made by indie teams worldwide. Founded in 2011 by publishing and film industry veterans, to date they have financed and published 15 games across 14 platforms and have worldwide sales in excess of 10 million units. Their focus is on supporting indie developers to make games for PC and home consoles, making sure gamers know about them, and rewarding the talent for it.
Ripstone’s back catalog includes Ironcast, Stick It To The Man, Pure Pool, and Extreme Exorcism.