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<\/article>\nObsidian\u2019s upcoming game Grounded takes one of my favorite setups \u2013 little guy in a big world \u2013 and builds a complex survival adventure around it. Don\u2019t let the kid-friendly veneer throw you off; at this scale, the backyard is a perilous place, with danger lurking around every corner. Or, more accurately in this case, around the other side of that titanic discarded juice box. The setup got my attention, but the studio\u2019s attention to detail and determination to make the most of this unusual scale kept it. With that in mind, here are three big ways Grounded is fulfilling the promise of its micro-sized world.<\/p>\n
The Sense of Scale<\/h2>\n
When you start Grounded, you begin in what appears to be a rainforest. Everywhere you look is lush and green. Surprise! Those \u201ctrees\u201d are actually blades of grass. And if you look up, you can see a tree, house, and other things you\u2019d notice in a backyard \u2013 though they tower over you, and are impossibly far away. Obsidian makes the most of this change in perspective, not only pulling you down to ground level and showing you life at that scale, but having fun with it, too.<\/p>\n
Things operate at a different level when you\u2019re a centimeter tall. As an example, surface tension is such that you can kick a blob of dew if you manage to knock one down from a plant. And if you yourself happen to get knocked down from a plant, you can slow down your fall by holding onto a tiny piece of dandelion fluff and gliding softly down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll get into it more in an upcoming feature, but the backyard is also home to a variety of objects, such as discarded toys and other familiar sights. Here, the team balanced how things would actually look at the scale with meeting your expectations. \u201cWe\u2019ve noticed that there are some manmade objects that don\u2019t look quite right at the small scale,\u201d says game director Adam Brennecke. \u201cSo think of a soda can or something else like even a quarter. You imagine how big it is in your head, and when you actually see it at that scale, you think, \u2018Actually I thought it was going to be smaller or bigger.\u2019 So sometimes we fudge it a little.\u201d<\/p>\n At this scale, you\u2019re in danger of becoming the next meal for creatures you\u2019d ordinarily ignore. Grounded\u2019s backyard is like a lot of other backyards, in that it\u2019s home to a wide array of insects. At one end of the scale, they\u2019ll ignore you completely. Others are curious about this strange new intruder, and want to get in close to size you up. And unfortunately, there are more than a few insects that would like nothing more than to munch on your tiny body like the crumb it\u00a0has become. They\u2019re all part of a larger ecosystem, and your job is to find a safe place within it.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s something that we wanted to try out and push the technology as best as we can to see where can we take the simulation aspect to where it feels like a living world, where all the insects are doing their own thing,\u201d Brennecke says. \u201cAt first, they\u2019re not interested in you because they don\u2019t see you as a threat, but then as you get\u00a0stronger, they see you as a threat and a hostile thing and they\u2019ll want to fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n Take the ants, for example. When you encounter them at first, they regard you with curiosity. They\u2019ll certainly fight back if you attack, but otherwise they\u2019re content to take a look at you and move along. They\u2019re more interested in food, and fortunately you aren\u2019t an obvious meal. Get between them and their next meal, however, and that\u2019s when trouble can form.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s something like a large apple core or a hot dog bit or a cookie, the ants will actually form a trail to those large food objects and bite off a little piece and go back to their anthill,\u201d Brennecke says. \u201cYou can interact with the simulation in different ways. You can build a base around that, and the ants will ultimately be like, \u2018Hey, what are you doing? You\u2019re hoarding all the food,\u2019 and they\u2019ll send out soldier ants to go beat you up and destroy your defenses.\u201d<\/p>\n Spiders and other aggressive insects aren\u2019t quite as nuanced. If they see you, they\u2019ll immediately attack; you aren\u2019t getting in the way of their food, you are the food. Or in the case of creatures such as bombardier beetles, their corrosive spray will hurt your character, regardless of the insect\u2019s ultimate motivations.<\/p>\n In true survival-game fashion, the trick is finding ways to explore the world safely to get crafting materials to further extend your range of exploration. \u201cAn analogy I\u2019ve used in the past has been similar to an Indiana Jones movie, where it\u2019s action and excitement, and there\u2019s a real sense of danger, but it also has a level of approachability to it,\u201d says lead environment artist Sean Dunny. \u201cWe want it to look recognizable like a backyard, we wanted it to be this sort of, pardon the pun, larger-than-life and inviting world for you to be a part of. Where you\u2019re like, \u2018Ah, there\u2019s danger out there, but there\u2019s also excitement and adventure.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n After spending several hours with Grounded, I was most impressed with how much fun it was to simply explore the yard. The team took great pains to make sure that something weird, recognizable, or interesting is just over the next hill or around the corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that I really like, just from a visual standpoint, are the garden lights,\u201d Dunny says. \u201cAt night, in our nighttime you see almost what looks like a lighthouse in the middle of the fog. That\u2019s something that we talked about for nighttime gameplay, it can be really imposing. So having these points of light to act as landmarks during the night, even these things that don\u2019t necessarily have direct gameplay impacts have this indirect thing, where they provide a way to find your way around at night.\u201d<\/p>\n Those lights come in handy, since you never know what you\u2019ll bump into in the dark. \u201cEach creature has a vital system that tracks its own hunger level and\u00a0sleepiness level,\u201d says art director Kaz Aruga. \u201cIf you follow something around like spiders for instance, we have two types: we have the orb-weaver that roams around during the day, and then we have the nocturnal wolf spider. One type will go to sleep, and the other type will come crawling out, and the yard kind of shifts in that dynamic way.\u201d<\/p>\n Whatever the time of day, Grounded isn\u2019t just having you survive for survival\u2019s sake; there\u2019s a reason why you\u2019ve been shrunken down to this size, even if you don\u2019t know what that is. I\u2019ve had a blast scouring this backyard inch by inch, but let\u2019s face it \u2013 once you\u2019ve seen everything, you need something to do beyond merely staying alive. Grounded is doing something a little different from other survival games, in that it\u2019s telling a structured story, too.<\/p>\n I got a glimpse of it while I played. During the early moments of the game, you\u2019re guided through the process of powering on several high-tech pylons by a mysterious voice. When activated, these should help to return you to your normal size. Things don\u2019t go well, and the machines eventually overload. The demo ends just as you meet your helper, a tiny robot named BURG.L.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve played my share of survival games over the years, but it\u2019s not a genre I\u2019m naturally drawn toward. I like the freeform nature of these experiences, but I also appreciate having more formalized goals and motivations. I only dipped my toes in Grounded\u2019s story, but it seems like a fun mystery to dive into. And it just happens to be one set in an innately fun location, both to play in and to create.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everyone is staring at the ground now, just looking and dissecting what they\u2019re seeing,\u201d Brennecke says of his team. \u201c’Hey that would be an interesting material to use or a little setting.\u2019 Everyone is taking pictures of weird things that they\u2019re finding on the ground. ‘Oh, this is a weird mushroom patch, it might be a cool place to explore.’ It\u2019s been a lot of fun, thinking about the things that you interact with on a daily basis at scale, and how can that fit into our world.”<\/p>\n Grounded is coming to Xbox One and PC via Game Pass and early access on July 28.<\/p>\n \t\t\tPublisher: Microsoft Game Studios<\/p>\n \t\t\tDeveloper: Obsidian Entertainment<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t…<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Three Big Ways Grounded Nails Its Micro-Scaled Setup - ITTeacherITFreelance.hk","description":"Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Developer: Obsidian Entertainment ..."},"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16026"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16026"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43065,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16026\/revisions\/43065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/prod-media.gameinformer.com\/styles\/body_default\/s3\/2020\/04\/28\/7ca832fb\/grounded3.jpg\")
<\/article>\nPint-sized Peril<\/h2>\n
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<\/article>\nA World You Want to Explore<\/h2>\n
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