Greetings everyone! I’m Mårten, game design director at Hadoque, which is a brand-new studio based in Sweden. We’ve been busy working away on our first game which we are excited to give you a first look at today.
We revealed Ultros during today’s PlayStation Showcase. It’s a exploration-adventure style game grounded in sci-fi, layered in mystery, with deep lore and meta themes. Players will want to explore every nook and cranny of the game to understand and share information of what the truth really is…
The opening of the game exemplifies mystery – our protagonist, Ouiji wakes up after seemingly crashing her ship on a giant cosmic sarcophagus, carrying an ancient evil entity known as Ultros (we’ve all been there, right?). Caught in the eternal loop of a black hole, anyone unlucky enough to be trapped in the sarcophagus will have their psyche undergo scrutinizing attacks. Ouiji feels the need to venture across the time-loops and break this eternal cycle.
This loop-based gameplay mechanic means that across multiple runs you’ll uncover secrets at every turn all whilst unlocking different abilities on a branching skill-tree. This means you can cater to your preferred playstyle and impact the environment across different loops.
One of the first things that’ll hit you when you see Ultros is the vivid neon color palette and eccentric art style we’ve created; this stems from the enigmatic mind of renowned artist El Huervo, known for their work as an artist on the Hotline Miami series. We’ve created a unique blend of hand-drawn art with big juicy sprites, topped off with dynamic zooming, creating a hypnotic effect. The goal has been to create a look that feels like one big canvas, where every frame is like an isolated piece of
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