What’s the Big Idea?
Looking across the videogame landscape in 2021, it seems difficult enough for developers to get prospective players to take a look at their games, let alone buy them. We have never seen so many games, of so many different types, on so many devices, from so many developers as there are right now. And the big names (Minecraft, Fortnite, GTA) have never been bigger, gobbling up so much of the available oxygen. In this environment, even the plump cushion of an enormous licence such as Marvel’s Avengers isn’t guaranteed to give you much of a boost, as Square Enix can attest. More than ever, the most important thing right now – even more important than the opportunity to put an image of Iron Man or The Hulk on the front of the box – is the Big Idea.
It doesn’t need to be a mind-scrambler – not so long ago, “It’s styled to look like something from 30 years ago” was enough to make a game stand out – but that approach can definitely help. Lemnis Gate is a good example. It takes you on a journey that begins with tying your brain into a bit of a knot. Next, a lightbulb incandesces and you find yourself smiling. Eventually, you’re left thinking, well, yes, of course this is an excellent idea for a videogame – I can’t believe I didn’t think of it already. But that’s the key bit. Indie developer Ratloop Games Canada did have the idea – and ran with it. This month we get the opportunity to sample the studio’s work for the first time, and talk to the team about what happens when you fuse some of the fundamentals of chess into the firstperson shooter.
A game as uncustomary as Lemnis Gate deserves a different kind of cover, and hopefully this issue’s lenticular treatment fits the bill. You have to reach all the way back to issue 107 to locate the previous example of such a thing, when Infogrames was trying to resurrect the Atari name as an enduring force within the videogame industry. As we all know, it didn’t succeed. Having a time-twisting sci-fi FPS on its roster would no doubt have helped. Our Lemnis Gate cover story begins on p56.