Beauty on The Path

rose on the pathgrandmothers house in the rain
robin in a field of flowerscarmen and the woodsman wolf
see larger versions on The Path gallery page and on flickr

We have released 4 new screenshots of The Path. The other screenshots on the site are quite old by now and the game has changed a lot in this year of production. Once we get to beta (we are very close!) there will be a deluge of images and video. For now, we just want to give you a peek at what we’ve been up to.
ahem, some quotes from a recent text we wrote about the aesthetics of the game…

“You control the avatar, but she also has a life of her own -directed by Drama Princess, a home-brew alternative AI system. The foliage on the trees turns out to be careful arrangements of gothic ornaments. What first seemed like sound effects, is in fact a continuously changing musical soundtrack -created by Jarboe. Random signs of decay on the screen become helpful hints for navigation. The entire forest feels natural but closer inspection reveals its artificiality. This is not the real world. You have entered a fabrication, a story, a memory, a dream.”
…
“Painting with the aesthetic palette of realtime 3D rather than using the medium for the simulation of reality, The Path could not have been made without contemporary technology. Yet it clearly sets itself apart from any other Next Gen game. The hand of the artist shows. Sometimes messy and strange, sometimes verging on the sublime. Harvey and Samyn are not in complete control. A large part of the attraction of game technology is its potential to surprise. Rather than locking down the look of each and every scene, The Path contains systems that alter the aesthetics of the game in ways that the creators may not have expected. To some extent, the players themselves can decide what things look like. Walking down the path, for instance, changes the time of day. Depending on where you enter the forest, you will be wandering through a bright and misty environment or a dark and spooky one.”

And if all that still sounds overly mysterious, hopefully we’ll be able to pull back the veil with some video… soon, soon, soon.

9 thoughts on “Beauty on The Path”

  1. Congratulations, guys. The new screenshots look really great, especially for the size of your crew.

    Great job guys!

  2. It’s beautiful!
    I nedd to admit I wasn’t waiting that much about the graphics, but already with the character sneakshots I was assured that it was going to be pretty, but wow, not that much!
    The non photorealist grahpics are well chosen I think, for what you are making.
    And I can only quote Fumito Ueda “Photorealistic relaity doesn’t mean emotionnal reality”.

  6. “The foliage on the trees turns out to be careful arrangements of gothic ornaments…This is not the real world. You have entered a fabrication, a story, a memory, a dream.”
    Wow, I am very excited to see this. Your description brings to mind the fairy world of The Wee Free Men, a Discworld book (featuring Tiffany Aching) by Terry Pratchett. There the fairy world is portrayed as a sort of sinister and seductive virtual reality environment, but The Path is maybe the first game I know of to really work with that feel instead of trying to get away from it.

    Thank you.

  7. It’s fun to play with the discrepancy between the visual and the sensation of immersion. You can make something feel real by just designing the immersion well, even if it doesn’t look real. Many computer games seem to do the opposite though: they look very realistic but feel mechanical or artificial.

  8. Oh wow, these look absolutely fantastic! The black-and-white screenshot gave me chills; and the girls look wonderful in the forest. I can’t wait to test this out!

    Also, hello from Finland and thank you so much for all the projects you have been working on so far. All of them are just too good to be true even as plain synopsises or first concept art pieces; it’s hard to express in words how inspiring, important and amazing it is what you’re doing. Thank you!

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