ScottishGames.biz

The Ship 2: Electric Boogaloo - An Interview With Outerlight

Edinburgh-based developer Outerlight caused quite a stir with their first title, The Ship, a game based around assassination and murder, set on an art deco steamer.  Everyone from Penny Arcade and Gamespot through to Scotland's very own Consolevania picked up on the game's quirky approach to the run/shoot/repeat FPS standard.

Since then it's all be kinda quiet.  We've been waiting for nearly a year, since the sequel to The Ship was announced to the world - via the CV fluff piece created for EIF 2007.

We visited Outerlight in their damn cool Leith offices and spoke to Operations Director Ailsa Bates and Managing Director Chris Peck about the sequel, their experience working with their first major publisher and what the future holds for the company...

SG: The last time we saw you - in the now infamous Fluff Piece - you told the world that Outerlight had just signed a new deal with a publisher for a sequel to The Ship.  Can you tell us who the publisher is yet?

Ailsa: No, we can't! We're still not allowed to discuss our contract. I am hoping this will change soon.

SG: What's happening with the sequel, can you tell us anything about it - platform/s, setting, characters, release date? 

Ailsa: Again, I'm very limited in what I can say about the new title. The hope is that the new game will be released before Christmas.

Chris: I can also say it's not a direct sequel to The Ship, although it retains a lot of the good gameplay elements from The Ship, and it is a lot of fun to play. It will be a PC & Xbox360 release. The settings are no longer only on Ships, which widens the scope of the gameplay, and the characters are all more contemporary than those on The Ship.

Christmas Roundup - Outerlight

Wednesday the 19th.  Less than a week to go!  Shopping finished, wrapping done, cards but a distant memory and the end of the week beckoning like a golden puppy bearing a mug of lovely soup...

Or so we'd like to hope.  If you're still awaiting deliveries from your favourite online retailer, or worse, have yet to brave the high street, then you have our commiserations. 

One thing to take the edge off the whole hideous mess is the next installment in our, wholly original series of Christmas and New Year questions.

Today's lucky, err, victim, is Ailsa Bates, Operations Manager for Outerlight; developers of The Ship.  Ailsa reports that not only is all of her shopping and wrapping done, but she's had time to make mulled wine for orphans, help the postie with his huge load of cards and rescue a tiny robin which injured itself while bob, bob, bobbing along...

Ailsa?

1) What are your three highlights from 2007?

• Highlights from 2007 would include signing a deal for the sequel to "The Ship"
• One will most likely be the Outerlight Christmas party
• And being filmed for the infamous scottish games industry film!

2) Three less pleasing moments/events from 2007?

• Hearing that the infamous Scottish games industry film had been badly received by some people! Tsk!
• Finding out quite how little support there is available from public bodies for the games industry.
• Having our Metacritic score spammed by some people who had a bone to pick with us. (Luckily this was corrected).

3) Three things you're either looking forward to, or would like to see in 2008?

• "The Ship" gaining some recognition in Scotland and the UK as the ground breaking game it is.
• Outerlight being recognised as a force in the Scottish games industry.
• Me having an actual holiday.

4) What two gifts would you most like to see in your stocking come Christmas?

• I would most like an XBox 360 but not sure if my stocking is quite big enough
• A handheld 4 track recorder, a Zoom H4...

5)  What should we look forward to from Outerlight in the next 12 months?

• Not a great deal as we're mid production but probably there will be some press releases about the new game.

The Ship Now Available On Steam

The Ship, the Art Deco themed game from Outerlight in Edinburgh is now live on Valve's Steam network.

The game seems to be picking up quite a bit of positive coverage so far with even Tycho from Penny Arcade mentioning the launch on the site.

It's great to see a new title coming out from a Scottish company.  SG will try to get Outerlight on the site at some point soon to tell us more about the game's background and development.

The Ship from Outerlight

Outerlight's anticipated unique murder mystery 'The Ship' is available for download from 11th – via the Steam network!

Welcome aboard The Ship, a new unique murder-mystery game for the PC. But as one of many "lucky" recipients of a free ticket, you arrive on board to find there's a catch to your luxury cruise…

Set on a series of luxury, art deco cruise ships built by ‘Mr X’, this devilish game challenges you to kill or be killed. The rules of the hunt are simple: Each of you is given the name of one of the other contestants on board, and you must Hunt them down and kill them with any weapon you can find. But as well as having someone to Hunt, you have another player hunting you, so keep looking over your shoulder if you want to stay alive!