Ultros: A galactic adventure that will make you think about the loop of existence

For a start, remember that Ultros proposes a psychedelic canvas set with a soundtrack that opts for string sounds –to achieve a delicate depth at a spatial level–. Ouji, who is the protagonist, wakes up in a ship called the sacrophagus and will have to wander through a world that is trapped in a loop. Ouji will begin a special journey, moving very quickly through this setting full of vegetation that plays with the emergence of destruction and imbues a feeling of rebirth in the middle of the abyss.

Narrative lines are a very important element for a balanced video game -although of course there are all types of players, from those who do nothing more than pass through the interaction dialogues, to those who look for more sensitive words in the characters' speeches-. Hence, Pelle Cahndlerby believes that the narrative world cannot go unnoticed by you when you play Ultros. At the end of the day, as Barthes said, we are speeches of speeches, and this delivery is memorable proof of that.

Pelle Cahndlerby focused especially on two essential points of the narrative questions of Ultros:

• The narrative combined with the dynamics of the video game format. The narrative works in correlation with the mechanics, art and sound, without it, everything is meaningless. In this way, the narrative of Ultros It is an arrangement of facets and works like a kaleidoscope.
• The textual narrative is and is not important. The aesthetic experience is the end and it is expected that something will remain in the player's memory. At the end of the day, as Pelle Cahndlerby mentioned, it could be that some player remembers only the colors, but also that someone promotes the spiritual and environmental ideas that he, as a writer, meditated on when making the project.

Ultros: The Origins

The germ of Ultros It was a night walk, a fact that makes a lot of sense when we start to see the corners of the video game. Yes, the demon that we must defeat with peace was born between steps of silent rhythms and ended as a polyphony of ideas that were interwoven with the passage of time:

“The story has several 'beginnings'; […] For me, it started quite a few years ago, when I was walking with Niklas, while he was telling me some ideas, and not exactly for a video game, but He talked about a demon and how to destroy it passively, almost as if without intentions to do so, without harmful ideas, as if you just wanted to pass by it to cross a place. […] And the composer, Oscar [“Ratvader” Rydelius]talked about seeds everywhere and the idea of ​​care and growing. […] At the end of the day [los distintos gérmenes se unieron para crear un proyecto sofisticado y hermoso que proyecta la idea del caos como origen del cambio]ideas about philosophy, spirituality, the environment and evil came together to give birth to Ultros.”

Now, if we are a kind of loop of myths and voices that repeat, attack, and transform over time, where does the mythological and spiritual inspiration of Ultros come from?

“We tried to investigate different perspectives on how to see the world through different religious ideologies, we used several, quite a few, but for that reason I believe that we could not name a determining influence. I think you can't recognize them, [Ultros tiene] a fused argument of everything we want to express, and yes, it is a line with several starting points, which is lost especially by the art of Niklasalthough perhaps in his art we can see the influence of Moebius [Jean Giraud] […]. It seems to me that we are trying to make people wonder how we behave towards Mother Nature and how we think and relate to each other in this world of worn-out lungs, we try to put some order in order to give birth to Ultros so that “It could really communicate something, but considering, of course, that it said things through sounds and colors, not through the recognition of philosophies of the world.”

Of course, let us remember that it would not make sense if the result were a carbon copy of past speeches that, as Pelle Cahndlerby also mentioned, the team took into account before the myth of Gilgamesh. To all this, ¿Ultros Was he born before the myth of the king of Uruk or in the middle of a starry night?

Leaving a sarcophagus and beginning a new journey in the middle of the galactic abyss: a look at the composition of the narrative lines in Ultros

Ultros It is a dynamic narrative, how does a writer come to unite a textual narrative with the other links to, in reality, forge a coherent, clear story that manages to communicate?

“As a writer it is difficult, since in video games the title has to speak for itself: the mechanics, the settings, the movement. You have to see how you can rely on art, on sound, because there are fewer times in which the poetic sense that perhaps you want to print in the speech is taken into account. It is in itself, the space you are in, I mean, our protagonist comes out of a sarcophagus to exist, there is a big monster and loops, from when Ultros begins I have 30 seconds for a strong approach, after that, the players click, click, click, and by that time, we must rely on the entire structure, you must have marked the impulses that players may have, and you build by anticipating the possibilities of those curious impulses. Yes, I want to talk about the environment and the emergency of its care, about the connections with people, about how we share each other, but there is a lot that I should not explain, but rather show, that the world [de Ultros] It invites you to explore it, it seduces you. You should play with the silence of words, spaces, incite curiosity. Each player will have reasons and will redefine the story according to their background; and the interpretation of it will never be 'wrong'. I say 'There is something I want to offer you, please feel something', but it depends on you what you can feel, on your past, on what you have brought to this opportunity.”

Definitely, Ultros It will communicate different things depending on the type of person you are and it seems that the delivery has a lot of seduction that will make you think about environmental chaos, the cycles of life and death, and the way you relate to people.

What is it like writing for a video game? How much influence do they have on art issues? For example, when the story relies on settings in a very special way, what is it like to create a narrative with so many hands and still achieve what you set out to do?

“One of the most important things one should do is reduce the words so that the environment has the possibility to say things, at the end of the day, I am a fan of David Lynch, who is a master of saying things with humor, colors, the sounds and of course, without saying too much, he can offer you a nightmare in which you would want to live and he can do it with camera angles and with things that do not make apparent sense, but do make sense at an experience level. We don't have to understand it, we have to feel it. […] As a writer you have to learn not to write, but to find balance, find things to put to read in objects and then propose something poetic. I have to look for my chance to put something else in, the dialogues shouldn't be so heavy. […] Sometimes you can play with the unexpected, the mystery of poetry. You must find the right places and moments for the world to tell you something literally and work like a bomb, because words do not always express everything we want to say, or what we feel, so we have to choose when the message should be reach the player. For example, at the moment you realize that you wrote too much […]and that you should worry about connecting everything, Every single thing could be stellar: the music, the art, the text; and you must learn to exchange them at the right moment. Make it perceived: this color is a warning”.

Brief reminder to be kind to others. Remember that our video games are made thanks to excellent teamwork, Maybe it's worth remembering that when you start flaming your peers.

On the other hand, video games must have a very specific organization to be a truly stable project, so there must be a lot of communication and affinity to balance and exploit the potential of each of the elements that a certain platform offers us.

Is Ultras designed for one type of player? The ones who read or the ones who 'click, click, click'?

Ultros It is an art that reached the world. Pelle Cahndlerby believes that no, there is no established target audience. Although it was created and started from psychological and spiritual pillars, in addition to a philosophical ideology of life and death, in reality, the video game is a delivery that landed here without worries:

“There will be players who find it, there will be people who like it and others who are motivated to think deeply about certain things, some more will forget it.”

So no, Ultros It just arrived and hopes that its audience finds it and remembers it, with no major aspirations other than to get to the right place, will it be you?

We recommend you: Ultros: A psychedelic journey full of enigmas and challenges that will help you recognize yourself

What platforms will Ultros be available for? When does it come out?

Ultros It will make your mind resonate, either because of its colors and shapes or because of the speeches and silences that build the adventure that will keep you hurried, but cautious.

Ultros It will be available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Mac OS. Its launch will be on February 13, 2024, remember that it is one of the splendorous deliveries by Hadoque and El huervo. Are you ready to play it? It will be an indie gem!

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