Brendan Greene, creator of the mega-hit Battle Royale PUBGbetter known under the pseudonym PlayerUnknown, is about to release a new game. It's called “Prologue: The Way Back!” It will be released in early access on November 20 and will be the first game from his new studio PlayerUnknown Productions. It's also not the game you're probably expecting.
Prologue: Forward! there is no combat at all. Instead, it is a game based solely on survival – navigating the forest and facing the often ferocious elements. What's particularly interesting here is the technology: every level you play is procedurally generated, and everything that happens during the game is also procedurally generated.
In fact, the game is the first step in realizing an extremely ambitious master plan for procedurally generated worlds—entire worlds. Prologue is, in a sense, a terrain-level implementation of this. But it's also a game to be played, not just a tech demo.
In the game, you need to read paper maps and a compass to navigate through forested areas in all kinds of adverse weather conditions. You will leave the relative safety of forest huts, trying to avoid snowstorms and heavy rains, while coping with hunger and thirst, as well as your personal warmth. If you get too cold, you'll get hypothermia, like I once did in the game, and die. If you get too wet, you'll dry out or freeze and die, and potentially get stuck in dynamically generated swamps.
You'll have to deal with fuse boxes, generators, wood-burning fireplaces, pots and cookers, clothing, and even a hammer and nails as you re-enter the run-down cabins before they let in too much of the harsh cold air. There are many systems in the game, and new ones are being added all the time; This is an early access version.
And while playing I was amazed at how scary the weather could be. Of course, this is something we know well from real life, but in reality, games only ever use weather as a background. However, the weather is at the forefront here as the only source of threat in the game, which strikes me as a very bold creative vision for a 2025 game. I admire her very much.
I also admire the big idea behind the project, grand procedural generation, because it's a sort of “shooting for the stars” concept that can be so exciting to get carried away. And let me tell you: Brendan Greene's big idea is truly colossal, and I know this because I recently spent an hour talking to him about it. Expect more soon as soon as I can write this.
