Kodansha Game Creators Lab will release BOKURA: planet on April 25 for the PC (Steam). The upcoming title is a successor to 2022’s hit two-player puzzle adventure game BOKURA. In a departure from the first game’s format, BOKURA: planet gives you and the person you’re playing with different objectives and stories, which you’re supposed to hide from each other as you play over voice chat. Add to this that you’ll be able to push each other off cliffs in-game and… you can probably already see where this is going.
AUTOMATON talked to the BOKURA series’ solo developer Tokoronyori to find out more about the new chaos the sequel will bring.
Much like the first game, Tokoronyori designed BOKURA: planet for people who are close. “Couples, friends, spouses. The kind of relationship where you’d naturally want to play a game together.” But what happens if you play it with someone you’re not as close to as you think you are?
“If you already have a strained relationship, this game is designed to make things worse. Even with close friends, if there’s a bit of a power imbalance between you – like one person secretly looking down on the other – this game can really bring that out.”
Tokoronyori noticed this phenomenon with the original BOKURA, when people who were supposedly close got fed up when the time came to follow the other’s orders in-game. “Isn’t it fun though? Seeing relationships shift because of a game mechanic you created? Watching those hidden tensions surface – it’s exciting, like a story unfolding before you,” Tokoronyori admits, scaring us a bit in the process.
But BOKURA: planet will double down on ways to get people at each other’s throats, thanks to a new mechanic that allows you to push whoever you’re playing with. “The first BOKURA already provided ways to mess with your partner, or rather, kill them – like luring them to get crushed by a gate. People found that kind of mischief funny, so I decided to make those kinds of interaction possible at any time. Now you can push your partner at all times. Try it while they’re concentrating on solving a gimmick, it’ll be priceless.”
These devilish schemes of Tokoronyori’s come not only from his “creator” side, but from his “player” side: “As a player, I love it when developers put me through the wringer. That’s the kind of experience I want to deliver.” As a result, a big part of his creative process consists of imagining things he’d hate having done to himself and then promptly putting them in his game (although, he promises that he discards the truly unpleasant ideas).
BOKURA: planet releases on April 25 for the PC (Steam). In the meantime, you can try out its special demo, which offers a different storyline from the full game.
