Developer Brendan Greene, also known as PlayerUnknown and the creator of PUBG, has given more details of his next game – or rather concept and technology – tentatively known as Prologue.
Earlier this week (September 1), Greene announced his departure from Krafton to found his own studio PlayerUnknown Productions to work on a new kind of experience he has “envisaged for years”.
The creator of the battle royale mode had first teased this next project with a short clip back at 2019’s Game Awards, titled Prologue. Showing just a first-person perspective in a wilderness environment, there was little indication what kind of game this would be.
Shared on a video post on Twitter today, Greene has provided some more details on just what he has planned next, which seems to continue his fascination with “sandbox-style open world games and the freedoms they give their players”, but on a far grander scale.
— PLAYERUNKNOWN (@PLAYERUNKNOWN) September 3, 2021
“We want to create realistic sandbox worlds on a scale that’s seldom attempted, worlds hundreds of kilometres long with thousands of players interacting, exploring, and creating,” he said.
Greene clarifies that the focus is less on a game but rather the world itself with the aid of machine-learning technology to generate realistic and massive worlds in real-time at “runtime” – that is, each and every time a player presses play.
To build and test this technology, the studio will be releasing Prologue as a tech demo that serves as “a simple introduction to an early iteration” of this technology, although it will also give players a goal.
“You’ll need to find your way across a runtime-generated wilderness, and use found tools and gathered resources to survive on a journey where harsh weather is your constant foe,” he continued.
“There will be no guidance, no path for you to follow. Just a world, a spot on the map to reach, and the tools needed to get there.”
The tech demo will be available as pay-what-you-want, meaning players can sample Prologue for free or pay a contribution to support the team’s work.
For even more details, Greene says he has spoken to VentureBeat in an in-depth interview that is set to publish tomorrow (September 4).
Elsewhere, it’s been reported that Jet Set Radio artist Ryuta Ueda has returned to Sega after a hiatus from the games industry.
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