For this week’s Xbox Indie Spotlight, we chatted to developer Alien Pixel Studios to find out everything we could about its portal-filled platformer, Unbound: Worlds Apart, with cofounder Sergiu Craitoiu having been kind enough to answer our questions!What is Unbound: Worlds Apart?Unbound: Worlds Apart is an atmospheric platformer from developer Alien Pixel Studios, which revolves around the young mage Soli. When does Unbound: Worlds Apart launch? Unbound: Worlds Apart luckily isn’t worlds away, and instead launches quite soon on February 11th. It’s already out on Steam, where it’s met with “very positive” reviews. Unbound: Worlds Apart launched its Kickstarter back in 2019, which Craitoiu says was “was a rollercoaster of emotions for us. Back then we were only two people in the team and we found out that we need to do everything by ourselves in order to succeed, from preparing a demo to marketing and engaging the community. We learned a lot through the process,” Craitoiu continues. “The whole campaign has to be meticulously prepared and it will take a lot of time to put everything together. I would say that the last three months before launching the campaign are crucial and you need to do everything by the book. “Launching the game is a different story,” Craitoiu says. “We knew quite early that besides PC we wanted to launch it on consoles as well. So during the development, we tried to have that in mind when we coded or designed to have it compatible with the consoles as well. But even with that, we didn’t manage to do simultaneous shipping. The effort is simply too big for a small team. For all the console requirements and console launching we worked with Digerati Games. They helped a lot throughout the process.”What’s it about? In Unbound: Worlds Apart, we play as the young mage Soli of the Rhu tribe, who is able to open and control the portals between worlds. Soli has no small amount of pressure on his shoulders — according to the Steam page, we must “use every skill Soli has to defeat a ruthless evil that is tearing reality apart, while learning the shocking truth behind your world’s collapse.” Craitoiu expands on this, adding, “In his journey to save his kind, he will meet lots of interesting characters which will explain why there is a great evil in the world and what the reason is behind those atrocities, how realities are interconnected, why the portals work and so on. He will find out that there are some dark secrets behind all of this.” Soli will gradually unravel the narrative through exploring, discovering world lore, and meeting the eclectic cast of NPCs. How does Unbound: Worlds Apart play?According to the Steam page, Soli can control “the unique properties of each world — such as inverse gravity, time manipulation, super strength and more,” and he’ll need them all to combat the array of monsters, puzzles, and traps waiting for him. Craitoiu expands on the worlds of Unbound: Worlds Apart, saying, “players can explore three different worlds full of mysteries, puzzles, and challenges as well as charming characters or vicious creatures… Each world has a well established role in the story and has its unique charm.” As Soli travels, he’ll unlock new skills that allow him to access more of the map.“We wanted to do a game with switching between worlds. We were struggling to find a good mechanic to do that,” explains Craitoiu. “Changing the whole screen at once can create design confusion or it can quickly become boring after a while. But one day I saw a music video of the band Architects called ‘Gone with the wind.’ In the video, the musicians had a huge bubble behind them. And the idea was to show the world changing only inside the bubble. After we did the prototype and it felt good, we figured that we can have multiple portals that can give the player different abilities and mechanics,” Craitoiu continues. “That way we believe that we can keep the game fresh and throw different surprises and challenges to players without repeating the puzzles or the platforming parts.”Unbound: Worlds Apart looks to offer a challenging experience, which will test your reflexes and your abilities with twitch platforming. “If players are into challenging adventure puzzle platformers and metroidvanias then this game is for them,” adds Craitoiu. “We hope that Unbound: Worlds Apart brings a fresh experience for players.”Any news on Unbound: Worlds Apart achievements?Yep, we’ve got the Unbound: Worlds Apart achievements! Craitoiu also gave us an idea of their design process for achievements. “First we wanted to make sure that some achievements are unlocked if the player is completing the main quest. So there are achievements for defeating bosses, talking with different characters, or getting new abilities,” begins Craitoiu. “Then there are achievements for completing different optional challenges or finishing secret levels. Those are much harder to achieve but they are also fun to do.”What do you think? Will you be trying out Unbound: Worlds Apart when it launches on February 11th? Let us know in the comments!
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