Ubisoft's latest PC game, Grow Home, started off as an experiment of an eight-person development team at Ubisoft Reflections. The experiment kept growing and growing until it became Grow Home — the story of BUD.
BUD is a Botanical Utility Droid sent on a mission across the galaxy to search for new species of plants to oxygenate his home world. On his mission he comes across the Star Plant – the perfect specimen for oxygenation. According to Producer Pete Young, "BUD’s mission is to grow it to maturity and harvest the seeds it produces. The plant ends up being a towering two-kilometer-high bridge from the ground to his space ship."
In the game you will take control of BUD and help the Star Plant grow and climb your way to the top of that plant. The shape of that the plant takes as it grows (and you steer it) is entirely up to you. As you climb up the stalk of the plant, you will discover floating islands, new locations, and strange plants and animals. If you ever fall or want to return to another level of the plant, there will be teleportation pads available to speed up the movement process. Oh, and falling won't exactly kill you – there will be flower parachute to slow your fall.
Grow Home is said to be 'best experienced using a game pad' “We’ve mapped the hand controls to the left and right triggers and this gives a very physical connection to the grabbing and the climbing,” says Young. “It really elevates the experience.” The game will be in a fully open world, BUD won't have any predefined animations making traveling the 3D space a broader experience.
Grow Home will be coming to PC on February 4.
[Ubisoft]
This game is giving me horrible flashbacks of my inability to climb up the beanstalk in GEX: Enter the Gecko.