Known for his work on titles such as Halo 3, Halo: Reach, and Destiny, former Bungie Design Lead Niles Sankey has announced the release date and price for the pilot episode of the series Asemblance, which is set to premier on PlayStation 4 and PC on June 21st, 2016 for 9.99 USD. The series will follow in the steps of Twilight Zone by Rod Serling as well as Black Mirror by Charlie Brooker. The series’ first episode has already aired with a few trailers that will make one question everything around them as they take on a unforeseen turn of events.
“I was growing tired of AAA development. In my experience, AAA studios are forced to develop with giant audiences in mind, which makes creative experimentation really challenging,” says Sankey. “I wanted to see what could be done with a very small team and a particular vision. Asemblance as a series hopes to tackle the psychological thriller genre through stories of ‘man vs. machine.’ Each episode will be self-contained and driven by simple gameplay, fun but challenging narrative experiences, and sold at a cost that is relative to the player’s time investment. We hope this initial episode sets the stage for a long-run of games under the Asemblance banner.”
The Asemblance pilot is a first-person, narrative-based puzzle game that draws its influences from games like PT and The Stanley Parable, the questioning of perceived truths exposed in the Serial podcasts, and the psychological methods and soundscapes of David Lynch.
“We wanted sound design to be a core to the Asemblance experience, to really take advantage of how immersive games can be and just bury you in sounds to pull you even further in,” says sound designer and co-composer Adam Burd. “We worked with local Seattle electronic artists Kid Smpl and Johnny Goss to set a tone that whispers to your subconscious in some pretty weird and abstract ways.”
In the opening episode to the series, players take on the task of exploring a building that’s run by an experimental memory machine. In turn, players will find themselves trapped within its mindset of systematic logic. The choice is yours to escape or go deeper within ones memories to begin uncovering the truth. To progress? Players will be required to move through a set of hidden clues that will help solve puzzles as well as the games overall narrative possibilities.
ABOUT NILO STUDIOS
Nilo Studios was born out of years of experience in AAA gaming, science fiction literature, and the Seattle music scene.
Developers at Nilo have concepted, designed and implemented key sequences for Bungie, Monolith, and Volition; expanded universes for New York Times bestselling science fiction and fantasy series, including the game worlds of Destiny, Dead Space, and Halo; and worked with artists including Beat Connection, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and Hey Marseilles.
Asemblance is their pilot in a series of games meant to evolve the narrative gaming genre through experiences that will remain resonant in people’s imagination. As The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, and The X-Files offered mind-bending stories for television, Asemblance delivers psychologically thrilling tales for the next generation of interactive entertainment.
DEVELOPER BIOS from Nilo Studios:
NILES SANKEY was the designer at the helm when you were surrounded by possessed mannequins in Condemned, the space flight level and fight to the death at the end of Halo: Reach, and the 2013 Destiny e3 reveal. With over fifteen years in game development, Niles founded Nilo Studios to make games with a small hand-selected creative team free of corporate drivers—games that engage the imagination and put the player at the center of the experience.
ADAM BURD has been the House Engineer at Avast Recording Co. for eight years and is a musician in the Seattle Music scene. At Avast he’s engineered for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Beat Connection, Hey Marseilles, and Zubatto Syndicate, among many others. He also does sound design and mixing for film (Frequencies: The Music of League of Legends; Welcome to the End of the World) and commercials (Uniqlo; Microsoft). Adam joined Nilo Studios to help create an audio landscape to give players an immersive psychological experience that engages more than the imagination.
ERIC RAAB is a writer and veteran of the publishing industry, working with authors including Michael Moorcock, Norman Spinrad, Steven Erikson, R. Scott Bakker, Peter Watts, Brian Evenson and Felix Gilman. In 2011 he joined Bungie Studios and helped build the world and stories behind Destiny,culminating in the curation, editorial, and contributions to the Destiny Grimoire. Eric joined Nilo Studios to give players stories just beyond the core experience and challenge their imaginations beyond logic.
Stay tuned for our review coming for the first episode on Monday.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.