Here's a first look at Thirty Flights of Loving dev's sci-fi sandbox shooter Skin Deep
"You're outnumbered... and have no shoes."
Blendo Games, the developer behind such celebrated (and delightfully oddball) offerings as Thirty Flights of Loving and Quadrilateral Cowboy, has unveiled its latest project - "immersive" first-person sci-fi shooter Skin Deep.
"Stalk through a vast non-linear starship and sneak, subvert, and sabotage to survive in this stellar sandbox," explains Blendo Games on Skin Deep's newly materialised Steam page, "You're outnumbered, outgunned, and have no shoes."
"When insurance corporations want to keep valuables safe, they freeze you and stow you onto their cargo starships," it continues, "And when space pirates board the starship and trip the silent alarm, you unthaw, take a deep breath, and handle the situation. Good luck, operative."
I've watched the accompanying reveal trailer about half a dozen times now, and, honestly, I'm still not entirely clear what's going on in there. At one point, the player leaps into an air duct, inadvertently filling up a sneeze meter and terrifying an NPC far below. In another section, the player does that fancy action movie thing where you press your feet either side of a small corridor to shimmy up out of sight. Shooting and flipping then ensues.
There's also a bit where players can choose to either 'threaten', 'cough blood', or 'sit down'. Although the recorded participant ultimately decides to pick shards of glass out of their feet. The whole thing culminates in player and enemy NPC being sucked through a window and out into space, as the huskily spoken title once again fills our ears. So yes, still unclear.
Skin Deep currently has a release date of "the future", which suggests that it might be some time before it's ready for public consumption. While we wait though, Blendo Games suggests keeping an eye on its Twitter, Discord, and Twitch (in the latter case, every Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm BST) for further details.