The crushing atmosphere of the surface is too much for anyone to survive outside of the complex nauti-crawl, so players will need to learn what its various knobs, levers, buttons, and interfaces do to survive their journey in 20000 Atmospheres.
The protagonist of 20000 Atmospheres has snuck out with one of these durable machines to explore the deadly surface world, and therefore lacks the training to know how to use it. As such, the player will join the protagonist in figuring out the machine’s many controls, playing around with its various interfaces to learn how the machines works, how to scan the environment to know where they are, and how to deal with the machine as it becomes damaged.
The controls draw inspiration from submarines, Dune‘s Ornithopter, Disney’s Nautilus, Alien‘s Nostromo, and an old tram. These, along with a deliberately old and bare-bones computer interface, create an experience where the player must learn how to read the unclear tech to move the machine around, while also dealing with the various troubles they will find on the surface world. The game is also a roguelike, so learning these systems will be key to a long life.
Players who wish to know more about 20000 Atmospheres’ development and the challenging machine they’ll be piloting can follow the game’s creation on Twitter.
