Degrees of Separation is a co-op puzzle platformer, written by famed RPG wordsmith Chris Avellone, that follows the adventures of two very different characters named Ember and Rime. Ahead of its release next month, publisher Modus Games has put out a video that digs into the game's narrative and its hot-and-cold game world.
Ember and Rime are each surrounded by a pocket of their natural environment wherever they go: Ember's world is warm, sunlit, and alive, while Rime's is encased in pale blue ice. Those environments have a direct impact on the world that they now share, so where Ember travels underwater, for instance, Rime walks on its frozen surface. Managing and interacting with those opposing environments will be central to solving the game's puzzles.
"As Ember and Rime move between different worlds, the barrier between them, they gain various kinds of control over it. At one point it becomes an explosive force between them and and they can use that to their advantage," the producer explains in the video. "At other points in the game it becomes a solid barrier that they can manifest and use it to climb up obstacles that they wouldn't be able to reach."
Avellone gets a nod for his part in the project as well: "It's definitely a lot different from a traditional RPG. There's even a lot of challenges with the way that the story is structured, just because Ember and Rime, the characters that are playing through them, they have most of the agency. So it was definitely a new challenge for him, but I think he did a really, really great job with it."
Degrees of Separation is set for release on February 14. Find out more at dofsgame.com.
