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Alpha Polaris: A Horror Adventure Game launches

14

Alpha Polaris is a point and click horror adventure game for the PC, set in the snowfields of Greenland, where an ion storm high in the sky above is causing strange paranormal activity. The games pre-rendered 3D backdrops and cut scenes were all made in blender rendered with blender internal.

The game features puzzles, a character-driven story line and an original soundtrack to set the atmosphere, and is available as a digital download from Turmoil Games. English and German versions are currently avaliable, with plans for more languages in future.

Lassi Pentikäinen writes:

Turmoil Games, in partnership with Berlin-based Just A Game, is proud to announce the launch of Alpha Polaris, a point & click horror adventure game for Windows PC.

 

What might be of interest for Blender community is the fact, that every bit of 3D in the game was made with Blender. The game has pre-rendered backgrounds, realtime characters and over 12 minutes of rendered cutscenes. Because of the complexity of the project Blender's internal renderer was used.

In the midst of the snowfields of Greenland lies Alpha Polaris, an American oil research station. High above, the ion storm of the century is gathering, bringing about a strange intermixing of reality and night terrors. It is up to Rune Knudsen, a Norwegian biologist, to take on a desperate struggle against fear and death, and to face the primordial force lurking beyond the veiled sky.

 

"The heart of the game is its restrained horror setting. It allows us to explore a wide range of human themes in a realistic way: paranoia, isolation, friendship, love and so on. To us, that is the core of a good horror adventure." says project leader Teemu Vilén.

 

Main features:

  • Mature, character-driven storyline
  • Streamlined point & click interface
  • Puzzles are an integral part of the story
  • 3D characters in beautiful, pre-rendered scenes
  • 1280 x 800 widescreen resolution
  • Expressive, hand-drawn dialogue portraits
  • Atmospheric soundscape including original soundtrack

The game now available as digital download from www.turmoilgames.com and in localized German retail version from Greenwood Entertainment. Several more localized versions are soon to follow.

 

Platform: Windows PC

Genre: Point & Click Adventure

Developer: Turmoil Games

Publisher: Just A Game

 

Turmoil Games is an independent Finnish game studio founded in 2008 by a diverse group of media professionals. The team strives to combine years of experience in academic game studies, graphic design and dramatic arts in pushing the envelope in gaming and interactive storytelling.

14 Comments

  1. Grandmaster B on

    That looks really really good! I remember the first rendered scenes posted here on BlenderNation. Everything looks fantastic and the gameplay seems nice too.

  2. Fantastic! I was already keeping an eye out for Alpha polaris. It's great to hear that it was made in Blender. Perhaps they will be so kind as to do a "making of" for the blender magazine.
    Great work.

  3. Really good Indy game with some fantastically hard old school point and click gameplay, completed it twice now, It's well worth a look. Some of the detail in the pre-rendered backdrops is awesome.

  4. yeah i had my eye on this one too. now i hear the voice acting... and meh. normally wouldn't matter, but given that they describe it as a character-driven point-and-click puzzle adventure (a CDP&CPA for those who like acronyms :) makes me believe there will be some backstory requiring exposition, and main guy's voice sounds a bit whiny/nasal. i heard the same actor being used for a different character at half-shout and the actor was able to cover up the tone a bit better. maybe they wanted a whiny main character, idk.

  5. I hope a sensible donation from the profits are given to the Blender Foundation... at least equivalent to the cost of a copy of Maya!

  6. I too agree with : Reaction, on that one.

    We, as a community, are always keen to see and hear from those who use Blender to create great work that is of commercial quality...

    Sadly, I have found there to be only a small number who are willing to openly promote the use of such a fantastic tool, whether that be by giving the Blender foundation/institute ten seconds of air time during trailer/credit rolls, of by openly donating to the institute.

    Blender is enriching the lives of a great number of people over any number of borders and obstacles. It allows people to express and create emotion, through a possibly limitless toolset.

    Code-Wise, it is constantly being pushed to within the very fringes of modern technique and peer product capability. To the dev and support community, I feel a gratitude for all the effort people have given, and i hope there has been growth in those peoples lives through their kindness to Blender.

    I use Blender simply because i am blown away with the level of usability, accessibility and modularity that Blender provides. I also ' Love to Learn ', and with blender there is : [ " 'Plenty' to learn ".]

    Anyway, Game looks great guys, i kinda get the voice style used here, but, as was mentioned by H-blade, it gets kinda annoying. Sorta feels like that style was used because, as they say, " Thats what they do in the classics ".

    I hope both studios receive recognition in their efforts. And when the whirlwind of success dies down, and the dust has gone, that you can sit back and contemplate this, :-' All of those wonderful times had in creating and collaborating, many of those happy memories, were provided by just 50'ish MBytes. A small number of Bytes for such an amazing and diverse toolset.

    The real provider of those memories, is the blender foundation's dedication and work and the many Dev's that have given their time and knowledge to the community.

    Put simply, many more people should support Blender and it's use in the industry.

  7. I'm a big fan of classic adventure games, so the voice acting doesn't bother me. Even so, it could be much worse -- I thought it sounded pretty good for what the trailer showed anyway. Bravo.

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