MEET THE DEVELOPER
About a boy: Inside an indie masterpiece
Playdead's INSIDE
From the Creators of LIMBO
More than 100 awards and a swathe of perfect scores from critics still can’t quite explain just how much you need to play INSIDE.
So let us try, at least. Though mechanically you might call this game a puzzle-platformer, to play INSIDE feels more like stepping into a horror-tinged thriller. Mystery, dark humour, shadowy figures, a sinister setting – it’s all here.
Most of all, there’s tension. As the vulnerable boy in the red jumper, careless play will end with a grim death. It puts players on edge throughout the game. To offer some respite, there are puzzles to solve, too, but there is this constant sense that there might be a sting in the tail.
Founder of INSIDE developer Playdead Arnt Jensen describes this game as “an evolution” of its debut, LIMBO.
It’s not quite a sequel, but it’s “more than a follow-up”, he says. “The games share the same creative philosophy,” continues Jensen, who promises players “mystery, surprises at every turn and moments that will stay with you for a very long time.”
So while it clearly shares LIMBO’s mechanics and its evocative atmosphere, INSIDE’s scale is far greater; this is a game that first arrived on consoles, remember.
“During the production of INSIDE, Playdead grew to twice the size it had on LIMBO and the budget quadrupled,” Jensen tells us. “Everything, including sound, gameplay, rendering and graphics was much more ambitious and complex.”
That vision was not compromised when it came to INSIDE’s App Store arrival, either. Technologically speaking, this is the same game that arrived on PS4, Xbox and PC, but with controls reworked for iPhone and iPad.
“The public might not realise how difficult it is to fit a console game into a handheld device,” continues Jensen. “We have been working extremely hard to make sure that people on iOS get the best possible experience with INSIDE.”
Intrigued? We hope so. INSIDE is one of the most gripping games to arrive on any platform in the past few years; with its arrival on the App Store, yet more accolades await, surely.