Supermassive Games has begun work on the follow-up to its hit PS4 exclusive Until Dawn, the developer confirmed today.
During a Reddit AMA, Will Byles and Tom Heaton were questioned on what fans could expect to see from Until Dawn’s sequel. In a brief statement, they said:
“Without giving too much away, we are already working on our next game, and we think and hope that Until Dawn fans will love it.”
With regards to recent speculation about a possible PlayStation VR-enabled DLC for the survival horror game, the pair declined to comment.
The duo went on to field many questions about the interactive drama’s development process. The pair reaffirmed that the game originally started out as a PlayStation 3 Move title, before making the jump to PS4:
“It was in about 2010 [when SG first conceptualised the game]. We were working on something similar and Sony came to us with the basic concept for a Move title and a teen horror called Until Dawn. There was only a bare bones idea. We then developed the story and gameplay in house. And as you probably know it then transitioned over to PS4.”
Byles and Heaton noted that “from the outset, [Supermassive] wanted to subvert the slasher genre and play with different genres in the same game”, while they were very much inspired by horror movies and the desire to put the player in the shoes of the slasher victims. They also revealed that during the development process, the team had meetings specifically devoted to gory deaths!
On the title’s art style, the developers noted that they “wanted to make [Until Dawn] look as much like a movie as possible”, and hired a production designer in lieu of an art director. They added: “Because we had fixed cameras, we were able to compose shots using traditional film styling.”
With regards to the game’s memorable protagonists, the pair commented: “We set out to make strong, identifiable but flawed characters. It was really important to get players engaged and caring about them.”
On the polarising character of Emily in particular, the pair revealed that she is the favourite character of both of them, as her personality “isn’t just one shade”. They added: “She can be bitchy at first, but who would blame her given her situation? Her character arc is potentially one of the most interesting and heroic of the game.”