If you didn’t want to listen to my last podcast episode, here were my thoughts about the upcoming PlayStation exclusive, Concrete Genie from PixelOpus.
PixelOpus is a developer that had just been a blip on my radar prior to 2017; I’d played Entwined back in 2014 and it sure was pretty – rhythm games just really weren’t my thing unfortunately. However, during Paris Games Week of 2017, they took the stage at Sony’s presentation with a game called Concrete Genie, and my brain was ALL ABOUT THIS.
The announcement trailer featured a boy, an artist named Ash, going through a run down town, but he had this magical paintbrush that could turn the wall of any building into an amazing work of animated art. And when I say animated, the landscapes that Ash painted would come to life, and the creatures he’d paint would come to life as well.
More information about the game came out in subsequent interviews during Paris Games Week with the PixelOpus dev team. It’s part puzzle game, part action-platformer. You, as Ash, live in a tiny, sleepy town called Denska, which has seen better days, and the whole town is just waiting to be a canvas for Ash’s bright, sparkling art. All the while, he’s being plagued by bullies, who seemed determined to keep Ash from spreading his art through the town.
What’s an artist without their brushes? Equipped with his magic brush, PixelOpus has said there will be somewhere around 50 shapes or patterns to find, across five different colors. The colors come to play an important part; red brushes, for example, can be used to burn down boarded up doors.
Something else important? It won’t matter if you’re artistically inclined or not. There’s no ratings system for your murals; it’s all for you. “There is no punishment for doing something wacky or bizarre,” Dominic Robillard, creative director of PixelOpus said in an interview with Engadget at Paris Games Week.
I’m also excited to see that they plan to deal with more mature themes in the game. Robillard said in the same interview with Engadget that at the core of the game, it’s about bullying and the effect it has on people, and their ability to make friendships and express themselves. The creatures Ash paints? They’re the friends he wishes he has in real life. (And the fact they look like they came straight out of Where the Wild Things are is another bonus in my opinion. Six year old me LOVED that book.)
News was few and far between about the game after the announcement, which was unfortunate. With the Ghost of Tsushima tease, the controversial Last of Us Part 2 trailer, and the announcement for the Horizon Zero Dawn DLC Frozen Wilds, it was a jam-packed event. Initially announced for release in 2018, it was early 2019 before Sony and PixelOpus announced the game would be coming out in the fall, eventually settling on October 8th, 2019.
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