Playdead, the Danish independent studio behind the 2016 critical darling Inside, took to Twitter to tease what appears to be a screenshot of its next project.
Thanks for your warm reception of INSIDE. Since release, Playdead founder Arnt Jensen and the team have been working on the next adventure. pic.twitter.com/RfejnH39mR
— Playdead (@Playdead) January 20, 2017
The screenshot is all we currently have on the game, but it’s enough to show that Playdead’s signature aesthetic, established with 2010’s Limbo, will remain for its next game. The characteristic dark colors make it hard to discern much, but the character looks to be wearing a helmet and dragging a parachute across a sandy surface. The cascading light in the background is perhaps a falling asteroid or comet. All of this seems to hint that the adventurer will be exploring a foreign planet.
If this is indeed Playdead’s next project, the reveal comes much quicker than it did for its last game. Inside was announced at the Microsoft’s E3 2014 presentation, nearly four years after the release of Limbo. It was originally slated for 2015 but was pushed back until summer 2016.
The wait was, by most accounts, worthwhile. We awarded Inside a 9/10, calling it a “…masterful, atmospheric puzzler, and one of the best games of the year.”
One thing we do know about Playdead’s next game is that it will be made without the help of one of the studio’s co-founders, Dino Patti. Patti departed the studio shortly after Inside was released, in what initially appeared to be an amicable exit.
A new report from Gamasutra suggests he was actually forced out of the company. In a bizarre twist, it was actually Arnt Jensen, Playdead’s other co-founder, who initially tried to resign from the studio. All of this stemmed from ongoing differences between the two. Upon learning of Jensen’s resignation, Patti proceeded to expunge Jensen’s name from company record. The feud reached its climax when the Danish Business Authority intervened, and forced Patti to relinquish his 49 percent share of the company, amounting to $7.2 million. Jensen stayed on after Patti was ousted.
Now that the dust has settled, it appears that Jensen and his team are moving on with their next project. That is certainly good news for fans of Inside and Limbo.
