Nov 25, 2022

Superbrothers: from #sworcery to JETT's interstellar demo

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP - superbrothers

Hey hi hello there. How're you?

Craig from Superbrothers A/V here, ie. that bozo what co-created both #sworcery and JETT.

A few weeks ago I popped up with a post to tell you about where #sworcery and JETT overlap.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/204060/view/3433458944730393702
Today I'm here to tell you a bit about: how #sworcery led to JETT, how JETT's memorable interstellar demo came about (incl some of my 2013-era character previz), and how my IRL experience as a new parent influenced aspects of its tone.

Before I dig in on those topics, I'd like to lay out a little fall 2022 snapshot to catch you up on what my fellow #sworcery co-creators are up to!

@craigdadams on Twitter (RIP?) and Instagram
@superbrothersHQ on Twitter (RIP?), @superbrothers on Instagram

COSMIC FRIENDS FOREVER

For Capy, that beloved Toronto videogame studio that caused #sworcery to happen, here are a coupla notes:

#sworcery's co-lead designer Kris Piotrowski headed up the audiovisually immaculate roguelike videogame Below, available here on Steam and on Switch, featuring an outstanding score by Jim Guthrie.
Capy's latest videogame is the puzzler Grindstone, which lit up Apple Arcade in 2019 with rave reviews, and is now here on Steam and on Switch, featuring a heckuva score by Sam Webster.

Oh, and worth a mention: Nathan Vella, who was the head of Capy back in #sworcery days, is now co-running the show at Annapurna Interactive, publisher of amazing videogames like Outer Wilds, Simogo's Sayonara Wild Hearts, Stray, and many more gems.

As for maestro Jim Guthrie, he has been keeping it real in Toronto in his 'shedquarters', his backyard recording studio, belting out great scores for videogames like Nobody Saves The World from Drinkbox Studios, Bleak Sword, and Capy's Below.

Alongside those efforts, it's worth noting that Jim Guthrie had a pretty key role to play in JETT. Jim composed a song called Out Of Our Hands that pretty reliably melts minds as it closes out the JETT demo.

Check out the JETT demo yourself and see what you think!

Note: Before and after Jim's song you'll be hearing JETT's epic musical score by composer scntfc (OXENFREE, Old Man's Journey), who also composed the moon grotto music in #sworcery. You can get ears on scntfc's JETT: The Far Shore OST album here.

If you're curious about what the JETT demo has on offer, or if you've already played it and you're curious how it came to be, then read on!

. . . . .

DEEP DIVE ON JETT'S INTERSTELLAR DEMO

Co-creator Patrick at Pine Scented and I had a JETT prototype in 2011, but it wasn't until 2013 that we started chipping away at the full concept, just the two of us. That's when the characters, the narrative and JETT's unorthodox gameplay came into focus. Note: If you'd like to see a glimpse of baby JETT from this time, here's Patrick's #jettdev thread on Twitter.

By 2015, we had The Far Shore and Given Time campaigns roughly mapped out, but at that time the experience began with Mei and Isao deploying from The Mother Structure to the unfamiliar planet of the far shore. An epic science fiction moment, for sure, but as time went on it began to feel too abrupt. Who are Mei and Isao? Why are they deploying to this planet? What is a jett and how do I fly it?

It occurred to me that, before immersing people in this complex unorthodox videogame, we really oughta consider cooking up and bolting on a kickass prologue.

The spec was to 1) intrigue and interest the player right from the get-go with an intricate and distinct storyworld 2) put the player on the hook personally and emotionally, and get them to be curious about and care for the people in this society 3) give players a sense of the gee whiz thrill of how it feels at the helm of a jett...then 4) give the player an opportunity to get familiar with the ensemble cast all before 4) melting some minds and taking players across space and 1000 years into the future.

Ideally we'd get all that done in a smooth 30 minutes. It was a tall order, particularly for two people, but a few months into 2016 we had it roughly in place and playable.

When people played it in mid 2016 we could see it was delivering pretty well, and that was before Jim's Out Of Our Hands song showed up in 2017.

Since those olden days the prologue and everything else got a metric ton of production effort, shaping and polish from dozens of people in the JETT Squad era from 2019 to 2021. I'm real proud of how it came together, and I hope it resonates with you.

At cosmodrome z-13 you'll meet the characters who make up your scout unit, from the leadership -- Misha, Pasha -- to Jones, jett ace and commander.

In the JETT demo you'll get a sense of who they are and what kind of headspace they're in, as they leave everything and everyone behind and embark on a one-way trip across space and 1000 years in the future, in the hope of carving out a future on some faraway world.

Here are a couple character drawings I had made back in 2013, including Mei's co-pilot Isao (a young George Takei) and jett ace Jones (what if Grace Jones was Captain Kirk).

In the olden times of 2014 to 2016, when it was just Patrick and I, it was up to me to create all the 3D models and pretty much anything else visual. It was a relief when we were able to bring in help, with my old pal Chris Beintema on deck for models and rigs for the characters and creatures in the shipping game.

Eventually, the time comes for Mei to lapse into torpor -- JETT's version of cryosleep -- and for her and her fellow scouts to be put aboard a rocket.

As the rocket ignites, we drop the needle on Jim's song "Out Of Our Hands"... and off we go, to dock with The Mother Structure in orbit above, and then set off across the sea of stars, to the far shore.

Here's a possibly interesting aside, about the tone of 0.Embark:

At TCAF 2015 I crossed paths with Dan Berry and I bought his comic Carry Me, a book about parenting, life and death that stuck with me. Related to Carry Me, in 2015 I was a new parent, my daughter having been born in 2014, and I got to thinking about who I most identified with in JETT's emerging story.

The short comic Carry Me by Dan Berry can be read in a handful of minutes at the following internet website. http://www.thingsbydan.co.uk/2017/04/read-carry-me/

Upon reflection, I became aware that the character with whom I resonated most in JETT was the protagonist's father. We meet him once, he apologizes, then wishes Mei well. He is to remain behind, while she sets off to the stars. There's a very specific agony and heartbreak at work here, because a parent knows that, if all goes well, their child will outlive them, and that there will someday be a tearful parting. What's more, parents here on Earth in the 21st century feel an additional weight, a heavy brew of regret and helplessness at the thought of the troubled future our children have been born into. I felt compelled to reckon with these feelings, and bottle some of them up in JETT.

Fast forwarding a few years, and Dan Berry found himself in JETT's orbit, climbing aboard the squad that delivered the Given Time expansion. Small world! You can read all about this in our recent JETT squad profile featuring Dan and Richard Flanagan.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1761600/view/3404184263846060375

Speaking of Dan, him and I are starting to broadcast dev commentary streams on the JETT Steam page. Keep an eye out for when our streams are live.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1761600/JETT_The_Far_Shore__Given_Time/

I hope you enjoyed the above!

To get in the loop with Superbrothers and all things #sworcery, please like and subscribe and so forth.

Wishlist JETT on Steam and Download Demo - it helps!

Play the prologue to get warmed up, and ensure your PC rig works.
Note: We recommend playing on a controller, with headphones!

If you're a streamer or press, and if you'd like to play JETT: The Far Shore + Given Time and help us get the word out, please get in touch!

We have piping hot preview keys near-at-hand, and we're around to chat.
Get in touch at http://mailto:hello@superbrothers.ca and/or http://mailto:pr@popagenda.co.

Hop on the Superbrothers A/V - Enthusiasts newsletter via http://www.jett.fyi

Give us a follow:

Twitter (RIP?): @jettxyz @superbrothersHQ @craigdadams
Instagram: @superbrothers
Hive (?): @superbrothers

Poke around our websites:

Thanks for your time and attention, cosmic friends!

we will meet again at the appointed time

Nov 3, 2022

The new videogame from Superbrothers A/V is JETT: The Far Shore + Given Time

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP - superbrothers

Oh hi–I didn’t see you there. I was just putting the finishing touches on JETT: The Far Shore’s new campaign expansion, "Given Time," due early 2023.

Who am I, you ask?

I'm Craig D. Adams, the bozo who founded Superbrothers A/V way back in 2003. I'm also the co-creator of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (2011/2012), as well as the co-creator of JETT: The Far Shore + Given Time (2021/2023).

In my job as creative director at Superbrothers A/V, an ongoing videogames conspiracy a totally normal company that creates videogames, I've been laser-focused on breathing life into the preposterously grandiose JETT, pretty much ever since the golden old sworcery days of yesteryear.

To give you an idea on how far back JETT goes, here's a #jettdev fun fact:

The JETT prototype was born at the Toronto Game Jam in May 2011, about five weeks after sworcery's initial launch.
Fun fact: Capy's Super T.I.M.E. Force was born at the same game jam, just the next table over from the Superbrothers (me) and Pine Scented (my old pal Patrick).

Well, a few years have passed since then, with JETT slow-cooking and getting shipshape.

Then, in 2021, JETT alighted with its its acclaimed narrative-driven campaign "The Far Shore".

Only it turns out, there's even more to JETT, and *that's* what we're talking about today.

Now in fall 2022 -- the future! -- I'm here to tell you that JETT is coming to Steam in early 2023, including a free new expansion that adds a full length campaign, called "Given Time." Personally, I'm elated to be delivering on the total vision for JETT with this release, after all these years.

JETT is an unorthodox science fiction videogame that evokes Ursula Le Guin, Stanislaw Lem, Frank Herbert, Werner Herzog, Ridley Scott and Stanley Kubrick. Its gameplay is built on a moment-to-moment locomotion that feels like snowboarding, within a design that relates to Metroid Prime.

If all that whets your appetite, then you really oughta take it for a spin. Yep that's right, there's a JETT demo and folks let me tell you: it's worth your limited time, and I'd love for you to play it.

Go to the JETT Steam page now, wishlist it and Download Demo.

If you're curious about how sworcery and JETT fit together, read on.

pic from @superbrothersHQ on Twitter

JETT's actually a lot like sworcery, despite the surface differences (polygons vs pixels, science fiction vs fantasy, stoic vs irreverent, complex controls vs simple controls). JETT's another unorthodox DIY-feeling effort from a tiny team, with some great music, some deep vibes, plus a smattering of bold choices and distinct ideas that'll sit with you for forever and a day.

Here are some specific ways that JETT resonates with sworcery:

an experience with style, soul and heart
- because I was on deck on both projects defining narrative, characters, tone, music cues and art direction, as well as co-creating design, you'll find a lot of resonance between the two projects -- they're cut from the same cloth
- just like in sworcery, in JETT you'll find yourself moving through a lush world in a vibes-heavy adventure, where great music is often front and center
- in terms of pacing, as you play, occasionally a threat'll pop up and you'll have some action to take care of, and often you'll encounter scenarios that involve a bit of puzzling
- alongside the bombast, spectacle and puzzling, there are a plenty of quiet intimate moments, as well as a few strange dreams... and even a familiar-feeling nightmare apparition haunting dark corners
story-wise, some echoes
- there are some rich themes that are going to resonate with some of you out there
- gently radical
- a silent woman with a spooky destiny finds herself on a cosmic adventure and eventually goes up a weird mountain, then, much later on, she goes up the mountain again and di--
coupla composers in common
- composer scntfc created the moon grotto music in sworcery, which is a neat cameo in a great Jim Guthrie score
- composer Jim Guthrie created the interstellar trip song Out Of Our Hands for JETT, a neat cameo in a great scntfc score
also, a bit of intentional sfx overlap
- you might notice the 'adventure lead-in' sound is used in both
- sworcery's 'trigons' make something of an appearance inside JETT's 'phosfiends'
- sworcery's 'sylvan sprites' aka space babies and JETT's 'brine wisp' sounds are the same - why, you might ask?

Given all of the above resonances and linkages, you may find yourself wondering: do sworcery and JETT take place in the same universe? Are the two projects connected, and if so, how directly are they connected?

Devoted JETT-heads may have discerned the truth, but now isn't the time to just spell things out.

Well, thanks for reading all this, whoever you are, and I hope you're getting curious about JETT. It has been a labor of love for me for a long time, and it would mean a lot to me if you sworcery-folks checked it out, and if you do, I hope you resonate with it and tell your cosmic friends!!

To get in the loop and hear more about sworcery-things, plus JETT and its upcoming early 2023 release, and other Superbrothers-related happenings, please click around below.

Wishlist JETT on Steam and Download Demo - seriously, it's a good one!
- Play the prologue to get warmed up, and to check that your PC rig works.
- Note: We recommend playing on a controller, with headphones.
If you're a streamer or press, and if you'd like to play JETT: The Far Shore + Given Time and help us get the word out, please get in touch!
- We have piping hot preview keys near-at-hand, and we're around to chat.
- Get in touch at http://mailto:hello@superbrothers.ca and/or http://mailto:pr@popagenda.co.
Give us a follow:
- Twitter: @jettxyz @superbrothersHQ @craigdadams
- Instagram: @superbrothers
- Hop on the Superbrothers A/V - Enthusiasts newsletter via http://www.jett.fyi
Poke around our websites:

To hear more about what Capy and Jim Guthrie have been up to, keep your eye out for another post like this here on Steam.

Ok, that's it* for now - thanks for your time and attention, cosmic friends!

* Oh, are you still reading?

Looking for more?

Well now, let's see.

Ah, there is this one thing.

Here:

What's this? Well, it's a little slice of a playable something special related to sworcery that will surface at the appointed time, a few moons hence.