Sci-fi Adventure forma.8 Coming to PS4 and PS Vita

Hi PlayStation.Blog! Italian indie studio MixedBag here again. Last Tuesday, we announced our crazy shoot ’em up Futuridium EP Deluxe, coming exclusively to PS Vita. Today, we’re here to bring you more PlayStation love.

Our big project – the one we opened MixedBag for – is a game we always wanted to make. We’re immensely proud (drumroll) to announce forma.8, coming to PS4 and PS Vita.

forma.8 is an action adventure game and our own personal take on the classic Metroidvania formula. We started working on forma.8 more than two years ago, beginning with a little gameplay concept centered on an experimental control system for touch devices. It evolved into an adventure of epic proportions.

In the distant future, a small exploration probe, forma.8, is stranded alone on the surface of an alien planet. It was parted from its companions by chance, and has a life or death mission to accomplish: it must find and recover a powerful energy source deep under the surface before it’s too late. Ancient civilizations, great perils, and dystopian visions await it, and not everything is as it seems.

Floating gracefully in mid air, with a control system that aims to give players a true sense of flying, forma.8 starts with no powers, no weapons, and no hints of what to do and where to go; it’s up to the player to explore the planet, deal with its often hostile inhabitants, and slowly uncover the story. There’s no verbal communication in the game — everything is conveyed to the player with images, sounds, and the gameplay itself.

Physics is a big part of forma.8, too; everything in the world is physics based, with plants, ropes, liquids, enemies, rocks, and all the moving elements interacting and reacting in a realistic way, offering unexpected twists to the game.

As you can see for forma.8, we opted to use a peculiar visual style. We used hand-drawn vector graphics mixed with 3D elements, and we rendered everything at the highest resolution possible, with a massive amount of antialiasing to get a very clean and crisp look. The results? You don’t see pixels, only smooth lines, and the game looks gorgeous on the PS Vita screen as well as on a big TV rendered in 1080p. And it runs at 60 frames per second, obviously.

The soundtrack and all the sound effects of forma.8 are in the skillful hands of Qubit, AKA Omar Ferrero, who is also working on some music tracks for Futuridium EP Deluxe. If you like the audio vibes from the trailer, he’s the one to thank.

So a little recap:

• an expansive world
• everything is physics based
• exploration
• puzzles
• secrets to uncover
• an intriguing and mysterious story
• lots of enemies
• lots of BIG enemies
• some even BIGGER enemies
• …and all the power-ups you need to take care of them and to avoid all the nasty stuff you’ll face on a remote, alien planet
• 60 frames per second of superfluid action

A big thank you from Mauro Fanelli and Andrea Gellato, the two co-founders and members of MixedBag. We’ll share more information about forma.8 and Futuridium EP Deluxe soon. As always, I’m here to reply to your questions, so don’t be shy!

For more updates, please follow MixedBag on Twitter and Facebook.