Wayward Strand

Factsheet

Team:
Marigold Bartlett
Jason Bakker
Maize Wallin
Russell Dilley
Georgia Symons
Kalonica Quigley
Aspen Forster
Josh Tatangelo
Victor Mahnic
Olivia Haines
Rory Sampson
Matthew Dobrich
Alexander Perrin
Charlie Renwick
Jonothan Rubock
Tfer Newsome
Jack Kirby Crosby
Su-Yiin Lai
Cecile Richard
Cameron Hopkinson
Elise Marchouba
Susan Dang
Allison Walker
Joe Toole
Cherie Davidson
Thomas Ingram
Joshua Laurence
Crys Kirk
Kyra Bellamy
Alex Griffin

Based in Melbourne, Australia

Release date:
September 15th, 2022

Platforms:
Steam
PlayStation 5
PlayStation 4
Nintendo Switch
Xbox Series X|S
Xbox One

Website:
waywardstrand.com

Description

Wayward Strand is a heartfelt interactive story, told in a unique and curious way.

Play as Casey Beaumaris - intrepid teenage journalist - as she visits an airborne hospital for the first time.

Uncover the airship's mysteries, and explore the lives of its inhabitants.

Each playthrough of Wayward Strand is personal to the player.

With limited time, choose the relationships you wish to nurture, and connect with the patients and attendees of this unique airborne hospital.

It's the summer of 1978, and Casey Beaumaris is trying to make the most of her holidays, when her mum asks her to spend a long weekend helping out at the airborne hospital where she works.

Casey prefers the company of books to people, but she agrees, secretly planning to write an article about her visit for the school newspaper.

With her trusty notebook at the ready, Casey arrives on board the airship. The staff are overworked as they prepare for the visit of an important official, while the patients react to grief, or deal with active trauma.

In the midst of these and many other interlocking and overlapping stories, Casey spends time with patients, learning about their lives, and, as the stories unfold, discovering what she can do to help.

Within the world of Wayward Strand, time passes for everyone - characters continue their lives without waiting for you to interact with them. In Wayward Strand's unique narrative structure, the stories of over a dozen characters constantly unfold around you in real time, as you, as Casey, roam freely throughout each day.

Choose which story to be a part of by following people, having conversations, and exploring the hospital.

The hospital's residents are an eclectic cast of characters – some charming, some eccentric, some rude – each with their own desires, goals and imaginations. Every character moves and acts of their own accord, at their own pace, on their own timeline - sharing news with each other, arguing, joking, gossiping - or having a chat with Casey when she comes by.

Every playthrough gives you the opportunity to discover something you previously didn't see - what you missed the first time, you might see on the second, third, or fifth time around.

When you see a character, you can follow them, to see where they go and what they get up to. You can eavesdrop on characters' conversations, or come into the room and be a part of the discussion.

Spending time with particular characters will unlock new storylines, locations, revelations and resolutions.

As the journalist for her school newspaper, Casey keeps track of events and information in her notebook. Players can use Casey's notebook to delve deeper into characters' stories, to make new discoveries, and to piece together mysteries.

Some of our key influences in developing this multi-linear narrative style - simultaneous stories that you explore as they play out around you - are Sleep No More, a fascinating piece of interactive theatre, the late ‘90s adventure game The Last Express, and Building Stories, Chris Ware's graphic novel collection of intricate, multilayered stories.

Features

• A deep story - Over a dozen characters, each with their own timeline and story.
• A living world - All stories play out in real-time, along-side each other, throughout the ship.
• Follow your curiosity - Eavesdrop on, follow, and talk with your favourite characters to discover their stories.
• A unique experience every time - Choose your own path through the world as it moves around you.

The Wayward Strand Team

Marigold Bartlett
Marigold Bartlett is an illustrator and artist. She works in paint, pencil, digital media and videogames. She has worked as an artist and story consultant on games such as Florence, and was art director on Movement Study 1, a short adventure game which was awarded Best Visual Art at the Freeplay Awards 2015. Her illustration and game art has been warmly reviewed in Paste Magazine, as well as on Kotaku, TheAuReview and IGN, and she has made several contributions to the international graphic novel collaboration Bartkira.

Jason Bakker
Jason is a writer, producer and designer on Wayward Strand. He previously worked at League of Geeks, where he lead development on Armello through to release on Steam and PlayStation 4, and at Wicked Witch Software where he worked on several games, most notably as lead programmer/designer on Catapult King. He collaborated with Kalonica Quigley to create the experimental driving game Need 4e+9 Speed, and also co-created the FUTUREVOX series.

Maize Wallin
Maize is a sound designer, audio programmer and composer. They have worked with companies across VR (VRTOV, Deakin Motion Lab), mobile (Draknek, Square Rose Games, Glitchnap, LoveShack) and are currently working with Ghost Pattern on Wayward Strand, and their own VR musical instrument NoiseDrawers. Maize also is heavily engaged within advocacy being on the board of Widget, co-founding Non-Binary Zone, and worker advocacy as part of Game Workers Unite.

Russell Dilley
Russell is a programmer and game designer. He previously worked at Wicked Witch where he spent eight years developing ports, sports, and mobile games, eventually moving into a dual programming and production role for Rugby Challenge 3.

Georgia Symons
Georgia Symons is a writer and creative producer working on the lands of the Kulin nation. She writes and makes things that use playfulness to challenge and disrupt power. She has a Master's in Writing for Performance from the VCA, and is the program manager for City of Melbourne's Melbourne Knowledge Week and Melbourne Conversations programs. More information about her work can be found at georgiasymons.com

Kalonica Quigley
Kalonica Quigley is a game developer and 3D artist based in Melbourne, Australia. As well as being animation director on Wayward Strand, she worked as an art consultant with House House on Untitled Goose Game. She was previously lead 3D artist at VRTOV, where she crafted virtual reality experiences at the borderline of film and game - this work included fairytale The Turning Forest, documentary Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel, and their 2017 project A Thin Black Line. She has also created acclaimed personal projects such as Another Sunrise, an honest and quiet interactive self-portrait.

Aspen Forster
Aspen is a 3D Artist and Technical Artist from Melbourne. She spent 4 years working at Firemonkeys EA and during that time discovered a passion for creating tools to improve the lives of artists. She has a knack for translating between artist and programmer-speak and gets very excited about workflow/pipeline improvements, low poly modelling techniques, and cats. She is currently doing a Masters in Software Engineering and teaching games art students how to program at RMIT University.

Josh Tatangelo

Victor Mahnic

Olivia Haines

Rory Sampson

Matthew Dobrich

Alexander Perrin

Charlie Renwick

Jonothan Rubock

Tfer Newsome

Jack Kirby Crosby

Su-Yiin Lai

Cecile Richard

Cameron Hopkinson

Elise Marchouba

Susan Dang

Allison Walker

Joe Toole

Cherie Davidson

Thomas Ingram

Joshua Laurence

Crys Kirk

Kyra Bellamy

Alex Griffin

Contact

Inquiries
hello@waywardstrand.com

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Key sign-ups: Terminals.io
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Twitter
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Facebook
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Web
waywardstrand.com