14 DAY TRIAL // Criterion revealed their new project during this year's edition of the E3 convention taking place in Los Angeles, surprising many gamers who were expecting a Need for Speed or Burnout title.
Instead, the developer announced that their next title would be a first-person extreme sports simulator inspired by GoPro mounted cameras.
The project, for now, is at a very early stage, but the gist of it is that you'll be able to race around by means of various modes of transportation, such as "a wingsuit or a parachute, a plane, a helicopter, an ATV or an MX bike," in addition to the plain old boring cars.
The game's name hasn't been confirmed yet, but the premise seems like a very interesting one. Not to mention a bit crazy.
"At Criterion, we come from a world predominantly experienced through cars. It's time for us to explore new adventures," the announcement trailer states.
The developers revealed that they were partially inspired by the growing popularity of the mounted GoPro cameras, which everyone seems to be using, from extreme sports athletes to even children on the street.
"Those cameras are becoming ubiquitous in the real world. I was in Switzerland in February and there were kids as young as six wearing [them]," Criterion General Manager Matt Webster pointed out.
"It's defining how the world sees particular types of action, and that's the type of action that we love. So for us it felt, yeah, that's the way we need to go," he continued.
The trailer offered us a peek at a prototype version of their next game, showcasing some of the vehicle transitions and how the action would feel from the first-person point of view.
"We've got a character for the first time and we'll have some on-foot play as well. We know and love vehicle-to-vehicle interaction; it's our bread and butter, it's the excitement and the action that people love. But we also think that person and vehicle interactions are really important and exciting," Webster told VideoGamer.
And, of course, Criterion Games is also toying with some virtual reality technology, as the first-person point of view of their upcoming production is a perfect fit for VR interactions, with Webster even boasting that it would be "the best Oculus game you've ever played."
Webster also revealed that the way the team dealt with the development process changed dramatically, as instead of dropping a pre-rendered movie of an idea and then coming back with the gameplay interpretation a year later, Criterion was concentrating on rapidly prototyping something that works, with the focus being on the gameplay.
