FuturLab has shared new alpha footage and screenshots of Velocity 2X, its upcoming PlayStation 4 and PS Vita shooter–platformer.
Over at the PlayStation Blog, FuturLab managing director James Marsden outline the game’s art style.
“One of the major influences for Velocity 2X was the art style of Flashback on the Amiga,” Marsden said. “For those of you too young to have played Flashback (poor you, play the original!), it was a stunning visual achievement, using rotoscoped animation and a simple yet stylish art style to create a highly atmospheric experience. 12-year-old me fell in love with it.
“Artistically speaking, we wanted Velocity 2X to be the spiritual successor to Flashback (and indeed Another World), and also to create a level of atmosphere and production value that is rarely seen in 2D games.”
The team put together a series of benchmark images at the beginning of the game’s development. They weren’t sure if it would be possible visually, but replicating it on PlayStation 4 and PS Vita was the goal.
The bar was originally set pretty high, but Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s indie man Shahid Ahmad asked if the bar could be raised higher for PlayStation 4. So new benchmarks for the PlayStation 4 version were created.
“As time went on it became clear that the game was actually going to visually exceed our original benchmarks, and it was even starting to look as good as the PS4 benchmarks on PS Vita,” Marsden said.
Since then, the team has “achieved and surpassed” what they set out to create. The game now offers particle explosions, dynamic environment lighting, vignetting, environmental effects like leaves in the wind and twinkling stars, bloom, light refraction, anamorphic lens flare, color correction, a smooth 3D camera zoom, and screen shake and camera turbulence.
Watch the new footage below. View the screenshots at the gallery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8Ovc4Jwge0
