14 DAY TRIAL // The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is the new project from The Astronauts, a team made up of former members of People Can Fly, but the core ideas of the new experience are very different from those that powered previous project Bulletstorm.
Adrian Chmielarz, the leader of the project, tells VG247 that, “What we want to do with Ethan Carter is to improve on the player’s engagement, immersion, and sense of presence.”
The developer says that achieving all these goals is hard because the gaming industry rarely focuses on such mechanics and The Astronauts has a limited number of games from which to draw inspiration.
The list of titles that Chmielarz appreciates includes: The Walking Dead, Dear Esther, Amnesia, Journey, To the Moon and the older Fahrenheit.
He adds, “Their work is deeply inspiring and eye-opening. It’s just that what they have researched and implemented would not work for our game, so we have to come up with our own stuff almost from scratch. Which is hard, but also incredibly exciting.”
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a video game about a detective with supernatural powers who is investigating the disappearance of a boy.
His unique ability allows him to see the crime scene and put together the events that took place there, which often allows him to solve the case faster than usual.
The Astronauts wants to eliminate traditional combat altogether in order to introduce an element of horror to the experience, but the player will be able to defeat threats using other mechanics.
The team also wants to abandon traditional scare tactics and use the environment and the characters of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter to create a sense of dread as players push forward to uncover more of the game’s mystery.
The new title is expected to launch on the PC before the end of 2013.