FAR: CHANGING TIDES

Game lead Don Schmocker takes us into the depths

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 1 MAR / DEV OKOMOTIVE / PLAYERS 1

PLAY: In Changing Tides the player leaves their vessel more often than in Far: Lone Sails. Could you talk about the decision behind this?

Don Schmocker: We wanted to create a stronger contrast between the feeling and gameplay inside the ship and the exterior environment with its challenges. Outside, the player has to do everything alone until they can eventually return to the comfort of the ship. This also gave us the opportunity to utilise the depth and verticality of the water as a new space we hadn’t had in Far: Lone

Sails. Another reason was that the ship is much bigger than the vehicle in Lone Sails, so we couldn’t show the ship’s full interior and much of the landscape and environmental storytelling at the same time. The player leaving the ship gives the chance to put the focus on the environment and the story it tells.

PLAY: What are some new mechanics and perils that players will face now the ship can go underwater and sail across the sea? DS: Because it’s a new ship we designed many new mechanics, while keeping the ones that worked well in Lone Sails. The most prominent one is that it can dive and navigate underwater. The character, Toe, can also dive by himself, which creates a nice new dynamic and some variety with which the player can explore the depths and solve the new underwater puzzles.

Speaking of puzzles, the obstacles in the game are bigger compared to [those in] Lone Sails so we were able to show more about the world and we could create more rewarding outcomes, most often with the help of the ship. The ocean and its changing nature are an omnipresent part of the game and it can only take a few moments until the ship is engulfed by giant storm waves.