Portland independent studio Fullbright is good at developing story-oriented games. Both "Gone Home" and "Tacoma" have been widely acclaimed. Now this studio is creating a new work "Open Roads" that will It will tell about the road trip of a mother and daughter.
The development of "Open Roads" has been going on for two years. It was first exposed at the TGA awards ceremony last year and will be released within this year. Similar to Fullbright's previous games, this is a narrative-driven adventure game that focuses on exploring character relationships. The player plays as a girl Tess, traveling with the single mother Opal. After the death of Tess's grandmother, the mother and daughter found a hidden box in their attic, which contained old notes and letters. These discoveries reveal "deep family secrets", including the theft decades ago, the lost treasure somewhere near the Canadian border...
"The mother and daughter have embarked on a common journey, hoping to Find family secrets they never knew before." Fullbright co-founder and "Open Roads" lead screenwriter Steve Gaynor said, "During the journey, the relationship between mother and daughter has a new Development.”
Gaynor believes that the issue of Annapurna Interactive Entertainment’s interest in "Open Roads" is one of the key reasons why the work explores the relationship between mother and daughter. "Discussing the relationship between parents and children is very meaningful. (For players) it's a bit like accompanying parents to the places they visited at your age. Parents will share their memories with you."
According to Gaynor, "Open Roads" is the result of the close "collaboration" of the development team. For example, the art director Megan Carlsen (Megan Carlsen) used her childhood experience as an example to participate in the game narrative direction. discuss. Gaynor's wife, Rachel Jacks, also borrowed from her experience of being a mother when she wrote the plot.
At the same time, with years of accumulation in the film industry, Annapurna invited Kaitlyn Dever ("High Talent", "Uncharted 4") and Kelly Russell ("Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker") Wait for famous actors to voice the main characters in the game.
"They have cooperated with many well-known voice actors in other game projects and know almost all the actors’ agents. So we can get in touch with the actors to see if there is a possibility of cooperation. If there is no Annapurna’s Support, we will not have the opportunity to do so." Gaynor said.
"Open Roads" uses a 3D background and 2D hand-painted characters. The art style is inspired by visual novels, mid-century Disney movies and Hayao Miyazaki's animated films. Similar to "Homecoming" and other works, this game encourages players to give full play to their imagination and fill in the gaps in the plot.
In "To Home", players need to look at various objects to understand characters that have never appeared in the game. "You will hear the protagonist's sister Sam tell her story, but you can only imagine what she looks like. This is an important part of the game experience." Gaynor said, "You won't see her."
"Home" and "Tacoma" both have gay characters, but there will be no similar characters in "Open Roads". According to Gaynor, this is not only because gay characters are not suitable for the plot of the game, but also because Fullbright does not want to set any restrictions on himself.
"In "Homecoming" and "Tacoma", sexual orientation is an important part of the identity of certain characters, which is very important for the narrative. In "Open Roads", this is not in the life of the characters. Focus."
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