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What's it all about?

Developed by Swedish developer Frictional Games, Penumbra: Overture is a first person action adventure that plans to enthrall us through the use of an advanced and internally developed real-time 3D engine which conveys player freedom and immersion aiding a captivating storyline where the player has to use his/her wits to guide the protagonist on his quest to unravel the past.

Storyline

The first episode takes place in an underground facility on Greenland where the player finds himself alone, confused and with no way to get out. Something is wrong… where is everyone, and what are those strange noises?

It has been two weeks since Philip's mother died when he receives a letter from his late father, whom he never met, telling him to retrieve a book in a safe-deposit box and burn it. Intrigued he ignores the request and studies the book intensely, discovering clues that points to a place in Greenland and after much thought Philip decides to go there. Arriving in Greenland and certainly unprepared he almost instantly gets lost in a blizzard. Nearing exhaustion and frantic as hypothermia starts to wash over his body he stumbles upon a strange metal hatch. Convinced this hatch is what he is looking for, Philip enters. As he descends into the depths of the unknown, what started out as a quest for the past turns into a struggle for survival.

We hooked up with Jens Nilsson from developer,Frictional Games, to ask him a few questions on the progression of the spooky adventure.

HEXUS: We’ve been doing a bit of research into what exactly Penumbra means and we’ve discovered that it derives from the Latin for ‘almost-shadow’. How did you come up with the name and how does it relate, if at all, to the story?
J.N:The name came about after endless discussions on a name for the game. Penumbra was the only name the entire team could agree upon. The connection to the story is that it is not about absolute evil and good. We do not believe that you can split the world into good, light, and evil, darkness. Instead all actions that are made belong to a grey middle area, the penumbra. This is a very important aspect of the story.

HEXUS: We understand that the game will be split up into three episodes. Will this be a developing story-line or three totally separate games?
J.N: It's a developing story-line, but each episode will have closure to ensure that it will be a full game experience. Of course there will also be a sort of cliff-hanger, making those eager to continue playing longing for the next episode!

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HEXUS: Can you tell us the reasoning behind the decision and how you will ensure that gamers will get good value for money?
J.N:The only possible option for us to finance the development of this game was to make it in episodes, dividing the development period into three parts. From this we also saw a couple of really positive possibilities for this sort of game. As an adventure game we feel that it will be most useful if the players can give their input on the gameplay and story, influencing the following episodes development.

Also players will be able to get each episode quite cheap and will therefore be able to buy other games as well.

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