Adam Orth Seeks to Create a New Game Genre With Adrift
Adam Orth's new game studio Three One Zero is not only making a new game - Orth wants to make a new genre. With the studio's first title, Adrift, the former Microsoft developer wants to introduce gamers to the First Person Experience (FPX).
In Adrift, you play as an astronaut, the sole survivor making your way through the wreckage of a devastated space station. With no memory and a badly-damaged EVA suit, you must try to determine what caused the disaster that killed your colleagues, while finding the resources to stay alive and repair the ship that will take you home.
The FPX Adrift allows the player to immerse themselves in the experiences of the stranded astronaut on the devasted space station.
A non-violent game that immerses the player in a desperate race against time and scarce resources, Adrift will also, Orth hopes, offer players a narrative that they can connect to their own life experiences - exploring such heavy topics as addiction, cancer, parenting, relationships, and growing as a person.
In a recent interview, Orth acknowledges that this sort of game ventures into unexplored territory, but after his experiences with the toxicity of the internet following his now infamous tweet about the XBox One's "always-on" policy, Orth is ready to take the plunge. "There's nothing about Adrift that isn't a giant risk," he admits in the interview. "The entire thing is a giant risk ball. But after my experience with the internet, I didn't feel like I had anything to lose."
Adrift is slated for release in the summer of this year on XBox One, PlayStation 4, and Steam, with an eventual release on VR consoles like the Oculus Rift.
Are you ready for a new genre? Do you think the FPX can be a success? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Jessa Rittenhouse
Jessa wears a lot of hats - anthropology graduate, mother, obsessive book nerd, writer of both fiction and non-fiction - but her favorite hat is that of the gamer - a hat she's worn since owning an Atari was a "big deal."
Source threeonezero.com
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So basically a 3D graphical narrative game? He's basically describing Dear Esther and Gone Home -- the modern adventure game crowd is calling shenanigans on Mr. Orths' "new" genre.
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Yeah, the way he's described it, it sounds a lot like that, which makes me curious as to how he intends to make this really and truly different, and worthy of a "new genre." I'm skeptical, I'll admit, as good writing in a narrative-driven game immerses the player quite well on its own, and you see that in a variety of existing genres. I don't think the plans to put in on a VR console make it worth a new genre, either, but maybe there's a surprise we're not yet privy to (though I'm not going to hold my breath).
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I was reading this and thinking isn't this like Myst and other immersive titles like that? Despite that though, It sounds great and I"m keen.
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Yeah, the game itself does sound interesting, and I'd like to see where he goes with this idea of a new genre, but so far, it doesn't much sound like one.
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The game is lovely. It just rustles my jimmies to see a genre that's often been derided as a walking simulator get a little bit of polish and be suddenly announced as a new genre. Like, ugh.
But the game is lovely and I'll probably play it.
