The seed that would become Next World began, when one young teenager went out on a limb and pulled an old PC game called Outpost 2 out of a bargain bin. It was an underrated, unexpectedly literary gem of real-time strategy, which sparked a lifelong love of colony stories.
In the years that followed, the concept developed in fits and starts. It briefly flourished as a potential comic in 2006, with some art and scripts drawn up, but never got beyond the preliminary stages and was soon buried again. Until that teenager became a game developer and decided to revive an almost-forgotten idea from 15 years ago.
That teenager was me, obviously, and this is the game that I've dreamed of making for well over a decade. After Euclidean came out back in September, and while my compatriots at Alpha Wave were busy completely redeveloping our strategy for our next few games, I decided I wasn't going to wait for that process to shake out. Take destiny into my own hands, all that. Work like a demon to make an amazing, full-featured game at a lightning pace.
I wanted to play to my strengths as a writer, and my love of storytelling in games. I wanted to make it old-school like the games I used to love from my childhood. Outpost 2, and Dune, and King of Dragon Pass, and others besides. I especially wanted to make it in beautiful 2d. 3d games are great, but I grew up with 256 colours, and my fondest memories will always be sprite-based.
A visual novel was the natural choice. Working 16-hour days for 6 months was what it took. That, and learning to program in Ren'Py from scratch. I managed to attract an amazing team of visual and sound artists who deserve all credit for their hard work - Savannah, Anastasia, Sydney, Salvatore, Kia, Steve, Kolby and Nicolas.
Now here we are, and I'm really proud of what we've achieved. But that's not the point. The point is, it was made for you, and you'll have to tell us if we've done it well enough.
- Ryan & Team
Illuminated Games