There's a well-known phenomena in video games development known as time-to-penis. It's a somewhat tongue-in-cheek measurement of the time players, when given an exciting suite of new customisation tools, will take to create the first inevitable in-game dong. Ecstatica sort of implies it works the other way round too. That developers - when giddy with a new tech toy - can't always help themselves either. But maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

Ecstatica, developed by Andrew Spencer Studios and published by the long-defunct Psygnosis, originally released back in 1994. It follows a bumbling traveller who unwittingly becomes embroiled in the fate of a demon-cursed medieval village after making a rest stop in search of water. It was heavily inspired by survival horror game granddaddy Alone in the Dark (and arrived a full year before Resident Evil), but while it adopted a similar fixed-camera approach to its adventure, it had some tricks all of its own.

Most immediately notable was the decision to build its pre-rendered backdrops and characters out of ellipsoids; giving the medieval village of Tirih and its surrounding environs a softer, more organic feel compared to the angular lines afforded by the limited polygons of the time. And even today its bold, vibrant, and decidedly spherical aesthetic is quite unlike anything else.

Ecstatica isn't, I should say, new to me. I first played it back on its original release. And it's a game that never quite left my mind; in large part, I'll admit, because of the relative proliferation of dick, boob, and bulge.

Source link