Polyarc, the Seattle-based team behind the award-winning 2018 VR adventure game Moss, is producing a sequel.
The news came Thursday during Sony’s latest State of Play broadcast, a semi-regular livestream that highlights new and upcoming games and news for the PlayStation platform.
Founded in 2015 by former Bungie employees, Polyarc is coming off a $9 million round of funding from last year, which Polyarc had marked to work on multiple new projects at once, as well as branching out into augmented reality.
In Moss, the player took the role of the “Reader,” who stumbled across a magical storybook that’s transported them into a new universe. There, the Reader teamed up with Quill, an anthropomorphic mouse on a quest to rescue her uncle Argus.
Moss: Book II picks up immediately after the events of the original game. Quill’s accomplished her original goal, and Argus is free. That’s put a target on her back, however, and an unnamed “winged tyrant” is now after her specifically. Quill, with help from Argus and the Reader, is being hunted, and it’s up to you to help her escape from the castle that used to be Argus’ prison.
As the Reader, players can both control Quill and the world around her, using the manipulable nature of virtual reality to change perspectives and interact with the environment. You’re sort of playing the hero and the narrator at the same time, where Quill handles the fighting while you help her solve puzzles.
More importantly, Quill is entirely aware that you exist, and will occasionally communicate with the player through untranslated American Sign Language. The result, according to Polyarc, is that players have “built an extraordinary bond” with Quill as a character. Playing Moss feels like you’re building a partnership with your little virtual mouse buddy.
“Countless emails, tweets, streams, and fan art postings made us feel like we had created something special,” said Josh Stiksma, design director at Polyarc, in a press release. “We’ve since poured our hearts into ensuring Book II is a worthy continuation of Quill’s journey.”
Quill is back—and she’s being hunted!
Moss: Book II announced during @PlayStation’s State of Play.#Moss #BookII #Quill #Polayrc #PSVR #VideoGames #VR #StateOfPlay pic.twitter.com/nJAB2zAtIL
— Moss (@PolyarcGames) July 8, 2021
Moss: Book II has no scheduled release date at time of writing. Neither Polyarc nor Sony have made announcements regarding Book II‘s planned platforms, but its announcement at a State of Play show suggests that it, like the original Moss, will have a period of exclusivity to the PlayStation VR platform.
Polyarc was founded by Tam Armstrong, Danny Bulla, and Chris Alderson, all of whom are former employees at the Bellevue, Wash.-based indie developer Bungie. All three worked on the original Destiny while at Bungie.
