Escape to The Penrose Hotel on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, with a Switch release to follow later this summer.
Press release:
London, United Kingdom – July 11th, 2018 – BAFTA Young Game Designer winner, Dan Smith, and development and publishing partner, Ripstone Games, are proud to launch The Spectrum Retreat today on PlayStation 4 in Europe, with Xbox One and PC (Steam) releases going live on July 13th. The Spectrum Retreat is priced at €12.99 / £9.99*, and pre-orders on Xbox One will include a 10% discount. A Nintendo Switch release will follow later this summer.
The Spectrum Retreat puts players in the role of a valued guest at the lavish Penrose Hotel, an idiosyncratic resort where a staff of robots anticipate your every need and nothing is as it seems. Players will have to explore this art-deco inspired lodge and solve a series of ingenious colour-coded puzzles to uncover the truth behind this peculiar, pristine hotel during their seemingly never-ending stay.
Having won the BAFTA Young Game Designers Award (YGD) 2016 for the prototype when he was only 18 years old, Dan Smith has subsequently developed The Spectrum Retreat with the support of Ripstone, building an intriguing narrative and exquisite aesthetic around the intuitive first-person puzzle action.
“After five years of working on it, I’m thrilled for people to discover The Spectrum Retreat,” said Dan Smith, Designer of The Spectrum Retreat. “When I created the prototype a few years ago, I never could have imagined that it would grow into the ambitious sci-fi mystery that it’s become. The folks at Ripstone have been instrumental in helping me flesh out my vision with amazing art and clever storytelling.”
“Ever since we saw his award-winning prototype, we knew Dan Smith was a major talent and it’s been an honor to help him bring this project to fruition,” said Matt Southern, Head of Development at Ripstone Games. “Dan’s puzzle design has only gotten stronger over the years, and now it supports an emotional, intelligent narrative adventure, of interest to anyone concerned with how new technologies might impact our lives in the near future.”
*Price liable to change depending on platform.
To order the game on PlayStation 4
To order the game on Xbox One
Visit The Spectrum Retreat webpage on the Ripstone website: https://ripstone.com/game/the-spectrum-retreat
For more information about the BAFTA Young Game Designers please check out http://ygd.bafta.org
About Dan Smith
Dan Smith Studios is an independent game development studio, represented by Dan Smith. Founded in 2016, its first focus has been on the development of first person puzzle game ‘The Spectrum Retreat’, which is due for a 2018 release for PC and consoles. Dan Smith is a BAFTA YGD Game Making Award winner and Computer Science student at the University of Leeds. He is based mainly in Newcastle and Leeds, England.
About Ripstone Games
Ripstone is an independent games label that fully fund the development, distribution, marketing and sales of games made by indie teams worldwide. Founded in 2011 by publishing and film industry veterans, to date they have financed and published 15 games across 14 platforms and have worldwide sales in excess of 10 million units. Their focus is on supporting indie developers to make games for PC and home consoles, making sure gamers know about them, and rewarding the talent for it.
Ripstone’s back catalogue includes Ironcast, Stick It To The Man, Pure Pool and Extreme Exorcism. At their home in Liverpool, England they also have a first-party development studio, and their stunning first title Chess Ultra launched in Summer 2017. www.ripstone.com
Jonas “O.J” Ek
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround
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Tags: Dan Smith Studios, Indie games, PC games, PS4, Ripstone Games, Switch, The Spectrum Retreat, Xbox One