Insomniac Games, the studio behind VR games Stormland (2019) and The Unspoken (2017), announced its acquisition by Sony Interactive Entertainment back in August, and while we imagined their last independent project was surely the open-world Rift adventure Stormland, it appears the studio had another title sitting ready in the wings for Magic Leap One called Strangelets.
Strangelets is Insomniac’s second ML One title, which follows December the release of Seedling (2018), a game that puts you in the shoes of a space cadet tasked with repairing a dying galactic ecosystem due to the effects of ‘The Schmelling Incident,’ a catastrophic cosmic event.
Playing in the same universe, strangelets (cute alien creatures) find themselves “trapped in pockets between dimensions,” the studio writes in a Magic Leap blog post.
Here’s how Insomniac describes the game:
With the help of a mysterious companion known only as “Bulby,” Strangelets invites players to search their homes for dimensional rifts, reach inside to rescue strange alien creatures, then care for their collection by using harvested energy from real-world objects. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience that encourages physical movement through multiple rooms, transforming players’ familiar spaces into a playground of discovery and surprise.
“After the launch of Seedling, our small team of spatial computing pioneers were more inspired than ever by the potential of this new platform,” said Nathaniel Bell, Creative Director for Strangelets and Seedling. “We were ready to dive headfirst into our next experimental experience and to continue collaborating with our passionate partners at Magic Leap. Our goal moving forward was to build on lessons learned from Seedling and to venture into new territories of spatial computing not yet experienced by players.”
It will be interesting to see where Insomniac goes from here, and whether it continues to focus on VR/AR, or keeps its main focus on traditional ‘second party’ games for PlayStation. However it goes, Insomniac is one of the most experienced studios in immersive gaming, so we’re hoping for something good for PlayStation 5 and the next iteration of PlayStation VR to say the least.