Angrious is developing its first game, the science-fiction title Roaming: Multiverse Calls. The story is set in a particle physics laboratory inspired by CERN, where an engineer with no prominent role loses his phone, turns the whole building upside down and finds it on a desk where he had already looked. One tap on the device is enough to start the adventure. This diary follows the development from the beginning.
The project marks a return to origins: Angrious was founded in 2013 as an independent game studio, and this is its first title in years.
How it plays
Roaming combines two formats. Travel across the world follows the Japanese RPG tradition, with free exploration and the possibility of turn-based battles. On entering a location, the action switches to side-scrolling, as in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and each location sets the type of challenge: adventure, puzzle, melee combat or shooting.
The phone is the menu
The first design decision concerns the very object that triggers the story. Everything a player usually looks for in a menu will be on the screen of the character's phone: current missions, inventory, messages and, possibly, the soundtrack.
An engineer solves problems
The choice affects gameplay, not only looks. A menu that is an object can break, be stolen or run out of battery. Because the protagonist is an engineer, a flat battery becomes an engineering problem: one of the first missions is to collect parts and build a charger.
The project's references are Douglas Adams, for the scale of the universe, and Andy Weir, for science taken seriously and for a protagonist who solves problems with whatever is to hand.
What comes next
The next stage is the concept art. The first images and news about the game will be published on Angrious's Instagram, @angrio.us.