You may have seen them already: luminescent, moody, glitchy-looking gifs on Twitter and Reddit. No, they’re not teasers for the next Tron movie, but snippets from an indie title called Recompile – a 3D platformer by Phigames.
After weeks of observing these teaser images, I was finally able to get my hands on the game at this year’s EGX Rezzed, and ask the game’s creator, Phi Dinh, about the process behind designing the game. Unsurprisingly, it turns out Recompile feels just as good as it looks, but it also boasts a variety of unexpected influences. And that’s not all – as the developer has some ambitious plans in mind.
Recompile – Reveal Trailer Watch on YouTube
Hearing the term computer virus normally doesn’t bring positive images to mind, but in Recompile, are the virus. You’re tasked with infiltrating a pseudo-military facility during an “apocalyptic war-type future”, and according to Dinh you’ll function as “a catalyst for creating the first ever sentient AI”.
“The idea is the facility is semi-sentient, semi-intelligent, but you’re a catalyst to make it fully sapient,” Dinh explains. “It’s like a Skynet – Terminator situation there at the end of the game, you merge with the world and everything turns into a technological singularity, and suddenly the computer system becomes self-aware – that’s kind of the ending.”
Getting to that point, however, is another matter. Puzzles, robots and winding pathways are just some of the obstacles in your way – and in the mainframe (the overworld between levels) a sinister presence closely watches your progress.
“My inspiration for the overworld is Zelda Breath of the Wild,” Dinh says. “You can see the volcano in the background, and you can’t get near but you know eventually you will get there. Like in Lord of the Rings you can see Sauron’s Eye, or Mount Doom.