Initiate The Callisto Protocol
The creator of survival horror Dead Space brings chills to this space prison
Not only is this 2320 jail state-of-the-art, but the surrounding moon is uninhabitable.
We might have to wait for 2022 for Striking Distance Studios’ debut project, but we’re already confident it’ll bring the thrills. The studio is led by Glen Schofield, who had a hand in the first Dead Space, alongside other ex-Dead Space devs, and it’s looking to bring those space scares to PlayStation 5.
Publisher Krafton has given the team the opportunity to make a game that matches their vision. “They basically have given me carte blanche and creative control,” says Schofield proudly. “I’ve heard that before, and not always gotten it, but they have been right to their word, man, and they have been great to work with.” The Callisto Protocol has been in the works for a while, with the idea of a survival horror set in a prison being the original pitch (as part of a detailed 20-slide PowerPoint presentation).
You might recognise Krafton as the publisher of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. The Callisto Protocol is actually set within the same universe as the game that ignited the battle royale craze, though the two aren’t too tightly linked. Striking Distance is also helping Krafton create lore for PUBG. “They have a timeline, and we fit on that timeline now. It’s not going to be really deep, our connection with it,” says
Schofield. “But there will be little connections here and there. We’ll probably be referencing one another from time to time.”
In The Callisto Protocol, Callisto, one of Jupiter’s moons, is home to the Black Iron Prison. It’s where people are incarcerated to ensure they’re completely isolated from humanity. Not only is this 2320 jail state-of-the-art, but the surrounding moon is ice-cold and uninhabitable. When an alien-like horror takes over the base (one monster we see even has an extra bit of mouth like a Xenomorph), there’s nowhere safe to run – unless you can escape to space.
Striking Distance researched the real moon, which is about -139°C at surface level. However, the frozen ocean that’s thought to lie beneath the thick ice is why some scientists believe the moon could be colonised, harsh though the conditions may be. It makes it the perfect place for some shady government to shove undesirables.
From there, “it’s just a lot of imagination and studying Antarctica a bit, and studying the other cold places on Earth, and how we survive there,” says Schofield. The game might be set 300 years in the future, but the way people try to survive is based on the approaches humans have taken throughout history, and from there the devs have extrapolated how better tech could lead to an icy, hellish prison literally in the middle of nowhere. And besides, it’s science fiction. “That’s what I like about it. Right?” says Schofield. “People can’t really tell you that you’re wrong.”
SPACE JUMPS
You play as a prisoner trying to escape Black Iron Prison after something has gone horribly wrong, resulting in humans being slaughtered by aliens. Those in charge of the prison seem less perturbed, so there’s a shadow of conspiracy upon the slimy extra-terrestrial outbreak.
There’s a genuine uneasiness to the dirty metal atmosphere, and the strange way the creatures move. The back of the prisoner’s neck sports a green readout, hinting at a
diegetic display system for health similar to the one in Dead Space.
Creating horror is a fine art, and requires a degree of imagination and creativity that can’t be reduced to a formula. “Scaring people is hard. I’ll admit, it’s a challenge, but it’s always been a challenge, right? On Dead Space, it was a challenge,” says Schofield. “We already know because we have people testing it, and playing it, and going, ‘Man, you’ve got me. You’ve got me on that one.’”
Creating a true horror experience takes more than designing spooky monsters to jump out at the player. “You can use old tried-and-true methods, and then, you know, we’re trying new stuff for how we can get them. But it’s not just about the jump scares. It’s also about creating the tension,”
Schofield says. “What’s around the next corner? As long as you can keep them tense like that for a while, then the jump scares come easier, or a normal scare, or whatever a normal scare is. […] The main thing is trying to get this atmosphere – this really good atmosphere of, you know, ‘Sometimes I’m scared, sometimes I’m terrified.’ Other times we’ve got to hold back the brakes to let you have a chance to catch your breath.”
HEAR YOU SCREAM
The goal is to build an action horror game so scary that it’ll define the sci-fi horror genre in much the same way that first Dead Space did. And that means taking full advantage of new-generation technology.
“What we’re building, right? It looks real,” says Schofield, talking about the graphical power of new consoles. “And, you know, they’ve looked real before, but it looks more real. There’s so much detail we can put into it now, it’s crazy.” The CG trailer revealed at The Game Awards back in December definitely looks stunning.
The detail isn’t confined to things like textures; Striking Distance has been able to put much more into environments. “There’s so much detail that it’s taken a lot of time. You can put everything that’s in my room here into a room in the next gen,” says Schofield. “I mean, pencils and pens and every little detail you could possibly think of. And we’re trying to do that. We’re trying to get every kind of detail in there.”
Most horror devs we’ve spoken with praise PS5’s Tempest 3D AudioTech, and with good reason. Sound plays a huge part in making a good scare work. “The sound is pretty amazing. It’s the 3D sound, and what you can do with that. And that is integral to creating a survival horror game,” reveals Schofield. “You’ve got to have great sound. So the sound alone – I could just talk about the sound because it’s amazing. You can hear something, and it sounds like it’s behind your back, or it’s just above you. With headphones on, it’s insane.” The team have ideas for using the DualSense’s haptic feedback to immerse you in the horror too. “We’ll see how we can get that to work. But I think we can get a couple of scares right out of the controller itself,” he says. “There’s a number of things that are really going to help us make a next-generation survival horror.”
Are you ready to try to survive on Callisto’s surface? Tweet us @opm_uk.
The sound is amazing. You can hear something, and it sounds like it’s behind your back, or it’s just above you.