In the eerie new Somerville trailer from new indie studio Jumpship, a family faces the shattered remains of the world following an alien invasion.
The premise is as follows:
"In the wake of catastrophe you must find the means to make your family whole again. Somerville is a Sci-Fi adventure grounded in the intimate repercussions of large scale conflict.
Immerse yourself in a hand-crafted narrative experience set across a vivid rural landscape. Navigate your way through the perilous terrain ahead of you to unravel the mysteries of Earth's visitors."
Jumpship was launched by Chris Olsen, an animator and previz artist based in the U.K., and Dino Patti, ex-CEO and co-founder of Playdead (one of my personal favorite game development studios).
Somerville began as Olsen's personal side project, which he worked on from 2014 to 2016 developing his own playable prototype. Soon after, Olsen and Patti initiated discussions around the possibility of a collaboration, which led to the creation of Jumpship.
As the trailer reveals, Somerville echoes the critically acclaimed Playdead games Limbo (2010) and Inside (2016) in its darkly atmospheric storytelling and gorgeous art style in a limited color palette. However, while the prior two games were side scrollers featuring a single main character, Somerville expands on gameplay with a larger cast (hopefully providing additional emotional conflict) and more depth in the way the characters explore the world.
Somerville is set to initially launch on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S in 2022. While there is no confirmed release date for Playstation as of yet, I remain hopeful that it will be made available on the PS4 and PS5 at a later date.
