Overgrowth (video game)


Overgrowth is an action video game released by Wolfire Games available for Windows, macOS and Linux. It was announced on September 17, 2008 and released on October 16, 2017, after 9 years of developing and being available as early access.
Overgrowth is the sequel to Lugaru, a 3D action game made by the same company. As before, the player character is Turner, an anthropomorphic rabbit with combat skills. The game plays as a 3D third-person action game, set in a pre-industrial world of anthropomorphic fighter rabbits, wolves, dogs, cats and rats. The game is designed by David Rosen.

Setting

The story takes place on the island of Lugaru, an unknown number of years after the fall of the human race, indicated by the ruins of tall man-made structures overrun by vegetation. Lugaru is a chaotic world, inhabited by anthropomorphic rabbits, wolves, rats, cats and dogs living at a pre-industrial level of technology.

Synopsis

Overgrowths story takes place several years after the events of Lugaru and follows the same protagonist: Turner. After avenging the murder of his family, killing the Alpha wolf, and killing the corrupt king Hickory, Turner refused to take Hickory's place on the throne, instead choosing to leave the monarchy headless and wander the island in search of some new purpose. Major plot points specific to Overgrowth have not yet been revealed.

Gameplay

Overgrowth is built on the gameplay of its predecessor, Lugaru, and as such uses a hand-to-hand combat system that bases attacks and counters on timing and context using context-sensitive action buttons rather than different key combinations.

Features

Overgrowth utilizes a game engine called the 'Phoenix Engine'. The engine includes a number of useful features like an animation handler in which animations can be smoothly blended between, a scripting system using AngelScript that is tied into the game engine allowing for a lot of control over various engine features, and an ambient sound system. The game is shipped with a fully featured level editor and the developers wanted to make sure that the tools required to mod the game would not be too costly or preferably free; for instance Blender.

Development

Since 25 November 2008, Wolfire Games has released new Alpha tests every 2–5 months, containing most of the features so far implemented in the game. These are available to people who have pre-ordered the game. Overgrowth was released 17 December 2013 as an Early Access title on Steam.
On January 18, 2017 the game was officially updated to beta status. The game reached 1.0 and was released on October 16, 2017 which had been revealed as the release date a week earlier.