| When I first visualised Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons I knew I wanted to combine the deep, engrossing storyline of a film with the physical experience of a video game, allowing players to emotionally connect with the characters as they trek across sweeping, interactive environments such as peaceful vistas, foreboding forests and dangerous mountainsides. |
Unique Controls
Josef Fares fought suggestions from fellow game developers that the game should be co-op, with each brother controlled separately, and instead settled on a new and unique set of controls.
Each brother is individually controlled by their own analog stick, a system which may take a moment to adapt to, but in fact is easily adjusted to by the player. The brothers sole action button, which is used to interact with many objects and people, has been bound to the right and left trigger buttons of the controller. This allows the player to control one brother with the left side of the controller and the other with the right.
Brotherly Interactions
The game, which does not contain any text or dialog interactions, focus' on the two brothers and their distinct personalities. To facilitate this, each brother can interact with NPCs and perform actions that fits their personalities.
Examples are as follow:
- When the brothers approach a woman sweeping with a broom outside, the younger brother will grab the broom and use it as part of a balancing act performance, causing the woman to laugh and clap. On the other hand, the older brother will take the broom and help the woman tidy the area.
- When the brother come across a man gardening, the older brother will talk to the man and be shooed away. Little Brother, however, kicks the man in the legs and jump away laughing.
This is just an example of the many in-game interactions that display each brother individual personalities.
Puzzles
On their journey, the brothers will be faced with puzzles to hinder their progress. While not designed to be difficult, per say, they do require the play the utilize both brothers to solve them. For example, one of the puzzles revealed in the demo requires each brother to cross a series of platforms while dodging an angry dog. In order to progress, one brother must distracts the dog so the other can advance. Other puzzles, Fares says, will have the brothers taking different paths on screen to perform co-op style gameplay all from one controller.
