The latest game designed by American game-maker Lucas Pope, the mind behind Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, is set to be released in a couple of weeks. However, it will exclusively launch on the portable Playdate console with a monochromatic screen.
Titled Mars After Midnight, this new venture shares resemblances with Papers, Please, albeit devoid of passport control, desktops, and paper mess. Additionally, it transports its events to Mars.
In Mars After Midnight, players will be involved in a Martian settlement, helping its inhabitants with a spectrum of challenges. There are a variety of daily-changing sessions on offer which include:
- ‘Anger management session for cyclops’
- ‘Hyenas with knives’
- ‘Windproof warriors’
- ‘Assistance with a gas blaster’
The game promises a total of 60 different Martians. The alien designs are procedurally generated from the elements manually created by Pope. To achieve the targets set by the author, the faces must be ‘interesting’.
Just like other Playdate games, Mars After Midnight will feature a stylized monochrome graphic in low resolution, making use of the console’s physical rotating handle.
In the recently conducted Playdate Update #5 presentation by Panic, it was revealed that Mars After Midnight would exclusively release on Playdate on March 12 of the current year.
In addition to Mars After Midnight, 16 exclusive games were showcased at the same event, all set to debut on Playdate in 2024 and beyond. The console’s current game catalogue now boasts a total of 130 games.
