take pretty photos in a shitty future

June 2, 2020 9:26 AM

Umurangi Generation [Game Trailer] “The pitch for Umurangi Generation is that it's a photography game. Much like Pokemon Snap, you're venturing around, trying to capture the best snapshot possible of your surroundings for cash. But Umurangi Generation isn't on-rails, and it isn't about cheerful monsters and surfing rodents. It's a first-person photography sim set in a "shitty future," where it sometimes feels like you're taking pictures in the ruins of the old world—or the origins of a new one. The city is in a crisis, and that means it's the best time to start exploring the streets and filling up a few rolls of film. [...] Players can either chase the bounties and objectives or, like me, wander aimlessly, trying to line up whatever shot strikes their fancy. Did I often fall off the building trying to get a picture of a seagull? Yes, but we all make sacrifices for the craft.” [via: US Gamer][Free Demo via Steam]

• Shoot and edit photos on the go in a troubled city. [PC Gamer]

“It's the destruction, or rebirth, of a scarred world but still holds its own kind of beauty. While it might seem like Umurangi Generation's future is hopeless, its vibrant environments and characters bring life back to a city in crisis, which you can go out and capture on your increasingly flashy camera. Every level gives you a shiny new piece of camera kit to play with, so you'll begin with a basic lens but eventually get access to wide-angle, fisheye, and telephoto lenses letting you play with space and perspective. Every time you take a shot, you'll also get the option to mess with the colour grading of your photographs, making for some really wild snaps. The levels are pretty static but are filled with exploration potential. One bounty tasked me with taking a picture of some graffiti, so I needed to navigate my way through the levels of the city to get the perfect shot, jumping from ledges and dropping from balconies as I went. The bounties push you to look and explore the city in new ways rather than just wandering through—it's like a photographer's playground.”

• I can't stop snapping Umurangi Generation's dazzling Jet Set Radio cityscape [Rock Paper Shotgun]

“Much as I’d like to believe, I’m no photographer. But damn if Umurangi Generation doesn’t make me feel like a seasoned shutterbug. Released earlier this week, Veselekov’s first-person-photographer is a defiantly indigenous photography sandbox packed with sharp looks, smooth sounds and extradimensional giant squids. Heck, you might even learn how to take a good photograph along the way. Each location across the trash future cityscape of Tauranga Aotearoa – whether a vibrant rooftop hangout or winding urban labyrinth – tasks you with a list of shots to take before making a delivery and moving onto the next stage. Sometimes they’ll specify certain lenses or close-ups, but how you take these shots is largely up to you – with bonuses for filling your quota within a time limit, or simply for snapping a nice pic of your mates. It’s crucial to note that at Umurangi never tries to judge your art. Instead, “bounties” act more as a guiding hand, nudging you towards objects and shot types that might make for a good snap. Even if you’ve never picked up a camera in your life, Urumangi’s tight, multi-layered stages are careful to direct you to the perfect composition. Is it a bit of a pixel-hunt at times? Oh, for sure. I absolutely spent upwards of 10 minutes scouring Otumoetai for a “Sarcastic” phrase only to find it printed on a lad’s hat. Did the resulting shot teach me something about portrait composition and focus? I reckon so, yeah.”

• Umurangi Generation is all about taking photographs during a crisis [Eurogamer]

“The sense of being immersed in the youthful culture of Tauranga is wonderful. The first level sees you up on some rooftops, graffiti on the walls, a skate ramp set up in an alley. There's a long list of things you have to get pictures of to complete the levels, and another list of optional extras. I spent a long time hunting for certain items - a disposable camera at first seemed impossible to locate and then I found two - and a couple of challenges are more a question of framing than anything else. Birds are everywhere, but where do I stand to get seven in a single picture? While I was doing all of this, I was enjoying the atmosphere that the game creates - people taking it easy, listening to music, making little spaces of the world their own. Later levels pile on the storytelling - it turns out that hunting around for details in a scene is a pretty excellent way of letting the player make sense of a narrative - but for now in this first level I got to enjoy a lazy day with new friends. Umurangi Generation is brilliant about photography. The camera is a lovely chunky, mechanical thing, even before you start to get new lenses and bits of kit. It's fun to focus and see how the frame changes your view of the world, carving a scene into little vignettes. The game is also pretty great about how it grades photos. It doesn't really want to tell you what a good or bad picture is. It wants you to get the pictures you have to get, but it also wants you to express yourself.”

posted by Fizz (12 comments total)

> Much like Pokemon Snap, you're venturing around

Uhh, I read this as "Much like Pokemon Go, you're venturing around . . . " and thought--wow, great, a game where you roam around town IRL with your cell phone trying to get cool photographs of this or that.

So I guess it's not that after all, but anyone is welcome to run with that idea as it sounds like a lot more fun than Pokemon Go to me . . .
posted by flug at 9:49 AM on June 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

I'm definitely picking this up at some point in the future. I wish we had more games in this same style, like just give me a photography focused MMO. I know that photography modes exist in various games and you can take some beautiful photographs/screenshots but it'd be kind of wonderful if that was the main focus of the game, that your only "weapon" is a camera. I wish this kind of art was the focus for more video games and not so much an afterthought. But this certainly moves the needle forward.
posted by Fizz at 9:54 AM on June 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

I did not think that I needed a Beyond Good And Evil / Jet Grind Radio genre mashup but I've just learned I was wrong about that.
posted by mhoye at 10:39 AM on June 2, 2020

FYI, a common complaint about this game is the 10 minute timer stressing everyone out. But you can just ignore it with no penalty.
posted by vogon_poet at 11:48 AM on June 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

aaaaand wishlisted. Thanks for the heads up.
posted by koucha at 12:17 PM on June 2, 2020

Wanted to highlight that the game setting is Māori. As is the developer, Veselekov (aka Tali Faulkner), who comes from Ngāi Te Rangi iwi. He has a Youtube channel as well.

There's a lot of deeper articles about the game if you want to learn more. The Umurangi Generation is Asking You To Care has some comments from the developer. Photography game Umurangi Generation channels Māori culture and Jet Set Radio , Dystopian look at Tauranga in Kiwi-designed video game sends climate change warning, and What a video game about a futuristic Tauranga can tell us about our present are some reviews from New Zealand media.

There's a bunch of screenshots on Twitter from people's photographs.
posted by Nelson at 12:36 PM on June 2, 2020 [8 favorites]

Thanks for sharing those links Nelson.

The Waypoint crew has been talking about the game extensively in the last few pods they've released. I'm cash poor right now but looking to pick this up during my next payday.
posted by Fizz at 12:40 PM on June 2, 2020

I decided to take a chance on this, and was very pleased with it. Once I started ignoring the achievements and just started playing it like a creative puzzle game I really started having fun with it. I'm about four levels in right now, getting the story as it evolves through environmental storytelling, and the environments are both varied and beautiful.
posted by codacorolla at 2:19 PM on June 2, 2020

Kiwi cyberpunk. Awesome.
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:44 PM on June 2, 2020

Enjoying this too. I ran into a bug on widescreen systems; I had to set my desktop resolution down from 3440x1440 to 2560x1440 to get the game to run right. No big deal, hopefully they'll fix it.

Here's screenshots from my first level. Thanks so much for the warning the 10 minute timer isn't that important; it was super stressful. But I happily ignored it and took 30 minutes shooting my first roll.
posted by Nelson at 2:59 PM on June 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

how the hell do you get 5 american flags in a zoom shot in the train level?
posted by xiw at 3:54 AM on June 3, 2020

(of course the instant i post about it after banging my head on it for 30 minutes, i manage it)
posted by xiw at 4:03 AM on June 3, 2020 [1 favorite]