Edinburgh, March 8, 2023. It’s around 6 degrees outside when we first enter the premises of Build a Rocket Boy, located at the city’s harbor in Leith. This studio name probably doesn’t mean much to you and that’s normal, its creation dating back to 2016 and at the time, the firm was still called Royal Circus Games. A name that will be changed the following year due to a legal notice from Take Two Interactive (the parent company of Rockstar Games) who accused Leslie Benzies of wanting to create confusion with the initials of his studio to make believe it is a Rockstar Games studio. Because yes, Build a Rocket Boy was born from the tumultuous departure of Leslie Benzies from Rockstar Games in 2015, where he held the respective positions of President of Rockstar North studios and producer of all GTA from 2001 to 2015. Suffice to say that the man weighed heavily in the Scottish studio, but unfortunately not enough for the Houser brothers to decide to get rid of him. The reasons for his forced departure have also been revealed in court documents, where we learned that the brothers Dan and Sam Houser did not appreciate that Leslie Benzies placed his name in priority in the credits of GTA Online that he managed in its entirety, however, because the Houser brothers had nothing to do with the multiplayer part of GTA 5 at this precise moment in history. Ten years later, it is indeed the persistent world of GTA which has become the financial locomotive of Rockstar Games and we understand why the departure of Leslie Benzies has left its mark in the wake of the starry firm.
WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD
This disappointment, however, will have taught Leslie Benzies something: the very connected formula of GTA Online on which he will have worked on his side is proof that it is possible to retain a community for years on a single game, at provided that it becomes a place of meetings and conviviality. The success of Epic Games’ Fortnite is also further proof of this, especially if we manage to renew ourselves to keep player interest intact. It is from this premise that Everywhere was born, which is indeed a game in its own right (a sort of larger and more evolved Fortnite), but also a playful and social platform / portal / hub in which the player can access various activities, game modes, but also act as a launcher to access other games, with AAA ambitions, such as this MindsEye which was revealed by its first teaser, and which we will come back to above here for a few moments. For Leslie Benzies, Everywhere is a mix of video games, discovery and creativity, with just enough varied content to attract all kinds of players. Whether you are a forty-something who prefers narrative solo games or a young person under 20 who has been fed up with Fortnite and others, everyone should find something for themselves. It’s not yet clear if people allergic to Everywhere’s Fornite be like sandbox vibe will just be able to use it as a launching pad for their favorite AAAs, but it’s obvious that mixing communities and types of players (especially with such different age brackets) can create multiple tensions. To this question, Leslie Benzies did not wish to answer it, probably leaving him time to think about it for a little while longer.
For others who adhere to the Roblox / Fornite spirit, they will discover the world of Utropia (the “r” is important), broken down into several biomes, representing different universes and atmospheres. Lava, Canyon, Greenlands, Forest, each of these universes also have sub-biomes where exploration will obviously be welcome. If the developers play the card of silence and embarrassed gaze, our various questions allow us to understand that other biomes will emerge over the course of the game’s existence, undoubtedly by taking up the principle of the seasons of Fortnite and its island capable of renewing itself through one-off and staged events. We are speculating for the moment, but if there is one thing we can confirm for you, it is that the world of Utropia is indeed anchored to a real planet and that it is in no way of an isolated island as is the case with the title of Fortnite. On the other hand, Everywhere will integrate a day/night cycle and weather management that will bring more character to these biomes that are just waiting to be explored. Obviously, faced with the vastness of the world, the developers have planned some fast-travels which will take the form of portals which will be able to communicate between the worlds, and thus save a lot of time in terms of travel.
Moreover, it will be possible to use vehicles to move around, but also to participate in various and varied activities or game modes. Do you want to race in vehicles? It will be possible to participate, knowing that the cars can obviously be personalized. You prefer confrontations with firearms, no worries, the whole structure of Everywhere is made for PvP combat, with the added bonus of the addition of puzzles and other enigmas to bring a little bite to the adventure. Even a semblance of a narrative story was created to provide some semblance of direction when one first lands in Utropia. People who prefer calm and voluptuousness to noisy confrontations will be able to have a good time in their house or apartment, which will be possible to shape. The developers have even provided a DJ Night Club area to have a good time with other people through their avatar. Yes, there is also a Second Life side to Leslie Benzies’ new game, so much so that Art Gallery, Game Lobby and Cinema areas will allow you to have a good time.
It is also in the Cinema area that you can launch MindsEye and access this AAA game which has already caused a lot of digital ink to flow since the broadcast of its first teaser. Because under the guise of a social platform game, Leslie Benzies also worked on this single-player narrative game that takes place in a world of visionary corporations, conspiracy and dark new technologies. Some will talk about Cyberpunk 2077, but we remain quite far from this Blade Runner atmosphere made of neon lights, the game evoking a lot of GTA in its very urban approach as well. It obviously takes place in the future, but in the fairly near future where cars aren’t flying yet. In any case, there is indeed a sci-fi approach that GTA has never explored, and it may well be that Leslie Benzies wants to impose his style as well. MindsEye immediately breaks with the very childish and colorful atmosphere of Everywhere with a more adult and mature graphic style where our hero appears with odd eyes, that is to say that each eye has a different color. We do not know if this detail will be detailed in the scenario, but we were able to witness a conversation between our character and a scientist with a neglected look who could well be a useful partner to better understand the usefulness of neurological implants. In any case, as the first teaser shows so well, gunfights, chases and intrigue will be at the heart of this MindEye which should be placed fairly quickly in competition with a certain GTA VI. Inevitably, when we managed Rockstar Games for almost 20 years, we ended up having a few facilities on certain types of game…
Since Everywhere is a platform for sharing and conviviality, it is not prohibited for the Build a Rocket Studio studio to open access to its portal to other studios and publishers who would like to integrate their games there as well. Indies, for example, who find it difficult to exist outside of their communication circuit could, for example, have a good exposure by being part of the Everywhere catalog, if the platform explodes. Anyway, the other interest of the game is creation and for this, the game designers have set up a tool to create your own game or mode yourself to share with the rest of the players. We were treated to a demo of the tool that will be rolled out to players and the possibilities are endless. We start from a blank area and we can literally create whatever we want, provided we have imagination and a lot of patience. If the software seems tamable on PC with the keyboard and the mouse, one wonders how the developers will make the tool accessible with a joystick in the hands. On the other hand, if you are used to playing with it, it is literally possible to create entire levels in the space of ten minutes. We are well aware that the person who gave us the demo works with the tool on a daily basis, but that means that the margin for learning is therefore quite strong.
