Moss Book II gets a development update
Developer Polyarc gained a lot of positive attention for their VR title Moss and while the game has been out for a number of years, they have kept busy, bringing it to more platforms and working away on the sequel. Thanks to the PlayStation Blog, we have new information on Book II, so lets dive in.
Mike Felice, the engineering director from Polyarc was the one to provide the update, which as the game is set to launch sometime in the next few months, seemed like a good time for the update. Moss: Book II as the game is officially called, will see the sense of scale brought to life in all-new ways, with rooms that are bigger and richer with detail, reminding you that Quill, for all her spunk, is but a small mouse. The size of the rooms being larger, has also given the team more space to work with, meaning more detailed puzzles to attempt to solve.
To navigate these larger-than-life rooms, the team implemented a new seamless camera, that cut using familiar transition fades with no load time. Now, you can reach new vantage points within the room, inspect previously unnoticeable details, discover secrets, and solve puzzles without worry of jarring motion or discomfort.
In addition all of the rooms in Moss: Book II are connected, which not only improves spatial understanding of the world, but allows for elements like tension to be added, plus with surprise scenarios when revisiting a known place, that can give players who want to experience everything a reason to return. Now, when you re-enter a room, you may experience it from a new angle via a camera cut, find it peppered with visual differences resulting in story progression, or be able to solve past mysteries with recently discovered tools. Whatever your motivations are for re-exploration in the game, you will now see how the world evolves along with the adventure.
Quill’s personality, expressive movements, and interactions with the player make her the real star of the game, so the team took the time and made sure there were even more moments to deepen the bond with our pint-sized companion. This means more cinematics, interactions, reactions, and character-based storytelling to colour the world and further strengthen our relationship with her.
There is a lot more to discover about Moss: Book II, so I do suggest giving the PlayStation Blog post a read, as there are also some small videos to help showcase some of the improvements.
The game is aiming for an Autumn 2022 release and is coming to PlayStation VR at launch, much like the first game though, it should come to other platforms in time, just no word on how long that wait could be.
