After almost five years of blood, sweat and tears we can finally make the following announcement:
SOMA, our upcoming sci-fi horror game, will be released on the 22nd September this fall on PS4 and PC.
SOMA is now in BETA
After much blood, sweat and tears we can now inform you all that SOMA is finally in the Beta stage! This is a huge thing for us and easily the biggest milestone prior to the actual release of the game.
SOMA – Theta
Scenery and voice-over from the upcoming sci-fi horror game SOMA.
SOMA – Lambda
In-game shots from the upcoming sci-fi horror game SOMA.
SOMA enters pre-beta
So what exactly does that mean? First of, it isn’t the same as Alpha. SOMA was in Alpha mid-March this year, and since then we’ve made loads of additions, changes and fixes based on feedback and our own evaluation of the game’s state. The pre-pre-Beta that happened a few weeks back was our final big test of that work. The game’s current state, pre-Beta, is a milestone in preparation for the proper Beta, basically the full game without the final polish, which will happen a few months into next year. The pre-Beta marks final our chance for us to evaluate a number of crucial elements in the game.
SOMA is now Pre-Pre Beta
Today is the day SOMA reached Pre-Pre Beta, which marked the first time the game could be played from start to finish.
Thoughts on Alien: Isolation and Horror Simulation
Alien: Isolation is an interesting game. It is the latest entry in a lineage of games that I refer to as horror simulators. It does an excellent job at creating tension and uses a lot of the knowledge built up over the years to great success. But, because it has such a laser focus on a certain type of play a bunch problems arise and other parts of the package suffer. It is a great game in many ways, truly excellent really, but there are some fundamental problems. These lead to, for me at least, a devastating flaw: At its core it fails to be a faithful emulation of the original Alien (1979) movie.
People of Frictional: Samuel Justice
My name is Samuel Justice. I became audio lead here at Frictional Games in February of this year. However, I’ve been directly and indirectly involved with the studio for 3 years. I work from home in a place called Worthing in England – a small seaside town that’s fairly sleepy.
Peter Wester: Engine programmer
I’m Peter Wester and I have been an Engine Programmer here at Frictional Games since late 2011.
I work from my apartment in Stockholm, Sweden. I used to have a nice big desk, but after getting a PS4 Devkit it has become cramped.
Editor Fly Mode
Hey there! Vacation time is really close now and there’s so much to do before it arrives, but I still wanted to drop by and keep you posted on new editor stuff, so I’m gonna keep it short this time.
