News

Quantum Break will be like a playable TV boxset

Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment has been explaining more about the structure of its upcoming Xbox One exclusive, Quantum Break. The game has been designed as a true transmedia experience, with both a blockbuster game and a live action TV series included on the disc. Events in one will impact the other.

The decision to package the game in this way came about as the studio's lead writer, Sam Lake, was struggling to figure out how to tell better stories in games. "It was during that time that the big series started to come out with HBO and whatnot, Lost for instance was one where people were buying the boxsets, and then watching the episodes at their own pace," Remedy's Oskari Hakkinen has told Develop magazine. "Some are binging through it, some are watching one a day, some are watching one every other day or once a week, but all at their own pace.

"The great thing about it was each episode had its own three act structure and ended on a cliffhanger, which kind of prodded you on to see what happened next. Sam got the idea from that, that this would be a fantastic fit for a video game, especially a video game that has very strong narrative, because we're telling the story over ten plus hours."

Hakkinen also revealed more about how the game and TV elements will work together. "The game and the show are designed to be built as one experience, to be experienced as one package," he explains. "So you play an episode of the game, then you can unlock an episode of the show, play another episode of the game, and unlock another episode of the show, and so on.

"Without telling too much, you'll be looking at two different sides of the coin from a story perspective. In the game you'll be following the story of one theme, in the show you'll be following the story of another theme. These are meshing together to form the whole experience."

Quantum Break is expected to launch later in 2014, exclusively for Xbox One.

Published: 19/12/2013

Click here to write a comment

Comments

Buy now