If there is one thing on the horizon, it is that the world order is going to change. Between the decline of the West, China taking over almost all areas, Saudi Arabia which launched its Visio 2030 program and which we will have to count on no matter what happens, whether we like the country or its leader Mohamed Ben Salmane or not, radical things are going to happen in the next 15/20 years. And that also applies to video games. And today, I came to talk to you about a game, Black State, not from a big American, Japanese or European studio, no, but from a very small Turkish studio, called Motion Blur, and which also wants to show the whole world that the future of video games belongs to them too.
“We make AAA games with an independent developer spirit”. This is what you can read when you go to the official website of the Motion Blur studio. This name probably doesn’t mean anything to you, and that’s normal, Motion Blur is a studio totally unknown to the general public, and yet, it’s been 20 years since the studio was created, in 2004 to be precise. They are based in Istanbul, the capital of Turkey, and if we rely on their Wikipedia page, they only have 2 games to their credit: a PC game in 2006 called Kabus 22, which is heavily inspired by Resident Evil, it almost seems like a copy/paste, and Space Cake, a mobile game released in 2014 and which is a horizontal scrolling shoot’em up. What you also need to know is that at the time of their first games, Motion Blur had to deal with the lack of legislation in their country, which meant that once their games were finished, they could not sell them and to get around the law, they were forced to present their game as films to get around the law. Only here, in Turkey, there is no video game publisher, it did not exist at the time and it is the Vestel chain of stores that agreed to sell their games directly. It is as if Auchan or Leclerc sold a game in France because no publisher existed.
SMALL TEAM, BIG AMBITION
In short, that was 10/15 years ago, but since then things have changed, both in the country and for the studio, which decided to move on to the next step: making AAA games that rock, to the point that today, the Western world is interested in them. And the images you’ve been seeing for a few minutes are from gameplay of Black State which was announced a few days ago with the help and support of IGN.com who even had the chance to talk to the developers. OK, but what is Black State? It’s a 3rd person shooter developed under Unreal Engine 5 and which seems to be a mix between Metal Gear Solid and Portal. Metal Gear for the military look and tactical infiltration approach and Portal for the use of portals that allow you to change location in the blink of an eye. The game has been in development for 3 years, only on PC for the moment and it’s the work of a small team, there are about fifteen of them today. Kadir Demerden is the game director, he’s the one with the long hair that you see in the picture and the guy who wears the mustache wonderfully, it’s Salyangoz Taciri who is the scriptwriter of the game. In this same interview of which you see the pictures, we learn that the script of the game is about 500 pages and that it took 2 years to write.
The story of Black State will tell us how a former military veteran is summoned for a mysterious mission, namely to save a scientist who has been kidnapped, while discovering the truth behind a cataclysmic event. The mission, which was assigned by mysterious architects, is covered in mysteries and uncertainties because portals allowing instant travel have been opened. Each portal transports us to new lands and with its missions and secrets of course. This idea of portals that allow you to change worlds instantly has helped build the gameplay of Black State, and like the latest Ratchet & Clank on the PS5, the game will allow you to move from one world to another without any transition or loading screen. This is what we can see when we see our character move from a subway car to a military complex. This will also make it possible to offer radically different environments and why not, move from an urban environment to a lush jungle for example.
THANK YOU EU 5
Listening to the main development managers, Kadir Demerden and Salyangoz Taciri, we learn that games like Metal Gear Solid, Uncharted or even The Last of Us are games that have had a significant influence on them. Even if they know that they will not be able to reach such a level of quality and finish, given that the budget and the size of the teams are not the same, they are nevertheless committed to providing the best quality of development, while proposing gameplay ideas. They want players to have a great experience and also to come out of the shadows. And in truth, it is difficult not to shine the spotlight on them, when we see the in-game result. Visually, the game impresses with its high-quality graphics. I told you, Black State is developed under Unreal Engine 5 and Kadir Demerden has been working with the different versions and evolutions of Epic Games’ 3D engine for over 10 years. So he knows. It gives rich textures, 3D models for detailed characters, which allows them to place a camera close enough so that we can ogle the work done. It’s pretty cool and as soon as we find ourselves outside, we have additional effects that give it this “next gen” side. The wind that moves the clothes, the rain that falls with visible drops, all that’s missing is the wind effects to move the vegetation, the trees and raise the dust. There is also work to be done in terms of lighting which is not yet perfected, and we also need to add facial expressions to bring life to the main character.
The animations on the other hand are pretty clean, with a soldier capable of many things, like running, jumping over an obstacle, being stealthy, taking enemies from behind, throwing remote-controlled drone grenades and even slowing down time. The game also promises cool melee moves like this immobilization with the foot before shooting a bullet into the skull of his enemy. Moreover, the developers have indicated more than 100 brutal cinematic kill moves, with human soldiers as opponents, but also tougher Robosapiens. Black State will also offer its share of bosses to take down, knowing that each confrontation will be a challenge, with patterns to study and weak points to spot. We feel that Souls-like also had a certain influence on the developers.
No release date yet and only PC as a platform announced, but with this craze created by the gameplay reveal, the Motion Blur studio hopes to attract developers who would like to join the team, a bit like GameScience did in 2020 with Black Myth Wukong. In any case, the concept of Black State was born 10 years ago in the head of its game director and I am very happy to see other studios emerge, especially since it comes from Turkey, a country that is not at all comfortable with video game production. But as I keep saying, things change and will continue to change. And competition is healthy!