A couple of weeks in the past, we launched the newest trailer for Atomfall, our upcoming recreation the place you’ll have to uncover the thriller behind what occurred on the UK’s Windscale nuclear energy station within the Nineteen Fifties. It is a fictionalised telling of what occurred following this real-life nuclear catastrophe in Northern England.
The trailer showcases the sport’s people horror influences and provide the first glimpse of Casterfell Woods, an eerie location inside Atomfall the place you’ll encounter an unsettling wicker man and a ringing phone field that must be answered.
However what had been our influences behind Casterfell Woods? We thought it might be fascinating to let you know the way we got here up with this distinctive aesthetic.
From the outset, we knew that we needed some spookier areas of the sport, the place we may emphasise people horror and supply some distinction with our extra idyllic areas. Most of our outside environments are very inexperienced, vibrant, fairly, and really a lot British. However for Casterfell, we needed the participant to query what issues would possibly occur within the deep darkish woods. Hidden issues can occur there, secret and historic issues… We knew that this may be a ton of enjoyable – so began doing our homework.
Our preliminary purpose was to determine the visible baseline for our sandbox areas, with a concentrate on the content material that we wanted to construct out our varied pure biomes. Then, we may begin including our thematic twists.
Early within the undertaking, the group took fairly a couple of journeys as much as the English Lake District for reference gathering and to seize photogrammetry content material. For a number of of the non-Brits on the group (myself included, as an American) this was extremely unique. For anybody who hasn’t been there, it’s an especially numerous space of excellent pure magnificence and variety. It’s simply so moist and inexperienced, with lakes and streams in all places, and large stone formations topping the excessive fells and hilltops. All the space is simply dripping with greenery, ferns, and moss.
As I used to be new to driving within the UK, I discovered these tiny Cumbrian roads terrifying! There are slate stone partitions on one edge, and steep drops right into a lake on the opposite. However the journeys had been very academic, and the views had been sensational. By the top of the journey, we had a ton of improbable reference, fabulous photogrammetry content material, and had been assured that we may floor the sport visually within the north of Britain.
Subsequent up, had been the twists. How may we make our world completely different from a typical vacation journey to a phenomenal pure vacation spot? How may we layer in an older period, and warp issues a bit extra?
We began taking a look at storytelling centered on people horror, sci-fi, and old-school British imaginative fiction for inspiration. Movies like The Wicker Man, The Blair Witch Mission, Annihilation, and Midsommar had been nice to have a look at. Then after all we have now BBC programming like Physician Who, The Prisoner, and The Quatermass Xperiment, in addition to books by John Wyndham, who has so many splendidly bizarre tales.
We needed the participant to really feel that they’re entering into an older period. The actual Windscale nuclear accident was in 1957, which is when the quarantine started in our recreation. As we had been meaning to be a interval piece, how may we impress that right into a pure space? This was a tricky one, and we had loads of conversations about it. I imply, particularly within the woods, the place bushes just about would have regarded the identical in 1957, 2024, or 1066.
We started asking ourselves who was dwelling on the market, past the comforts of village life? How would they survive with no manufactured assets?
The reply was fairly easy in that these outcasts would survive simply as that they had in archaic occasions. We might regress them even additional again and have them use what was at hand. Wattle (and daub) building grew to become our go-to architectural type. Thatched roofs, woven branches and vines, and dry-stone constructions additionally appeared to suit. Though many of those conventional strategies of building can nonetheless be seen within the modern-day, they’re actually historic and overseas to many people who grew up elsewhere.
Then, making an allowance for our inspirational media reference, and our need for extra Britishness, we started layering much more symbolic imagery. Historic markings, effigies, and wickermen, all intermingled with extra conventional maypoles and bunting to offer sturdy pagan non secular overtones.
We predict you’ll love exploring Casterfell Woods and discovering the secrets and techniques that it holds when Atomfall is launched on March 27 for Xbox Sequence X|S and Home windows PC, and day one with Sport Cross. We are able to’t look forward to you guys to get your arms on the sport.
Atomfall
Rebel
A survival-action recreation impressed by real-life occasions, Atomfall is about 5 years after the Windscale nuclear catastrophe in Northern England.
Discover the fictional quarantine zone, scavenge, craft, barter, battle and discuss your approach via a British countryside setting crammed with weird characters, mysticism, cults, and rogue authorities companies.
From Rebel, the studio behind Sniper Elite and Zombie Military, Atomfall will problem you to resolve the darkish thriller of what actually occurred.
Participant Pushed Thriller: Unravel a tapestry of interwoven narratives via exploration, dialog, investigation, and fight, the place each selection you make has penalties.
Discover this Inexperienced and Disagreeable Land: The picturesque British countryside, with rolling inexperienced hills, lush valleys, and rural villages belie the risks that await you.
Search, Scavage, Survive: You’ll have to scavenge for provides, craft weapons and gadgets, and battle desperately to make it out alive!
Determined Fight: With weapons and ammunition scarce, every frenetic engagement will see you mix marksmanship with vicious hand-to-hand fight. Handle your coronary heart price to carry a gradual intention and guarantee you’ve the power that you must attain on your cricket bat and land the killer blow.
Inexperienced and Disagreeable Land: The picturesque British countryside, with rolling inexperienced hills, lush valleys, and rural villages belie the risks that await you. Navigate cult-controlled ruins, pure caves, nuclear bunkers and extra as you discover this dense, foreboding world.
Reimagining Windscale: A fictional reimagining of a real-world occasion, Atomfall attracts from science fiction, people horror, and Chilly Warfare influences to create a world that’s eerily acquainted but fully alien.
