Last Wednesday, I was invited to a private preview session for SEGA’s newest updated version of their recent achievement, Two Point Hospital. This game is a delightfully funny and visually stunning treat, and the developers have just created a new updated version with more maps and challenges than ever before. I was able to play this revamped version and also interview the main art director; below are my impressions of both.
First of all, the main premise of the game is to design and manage your own hospital, complete with a staff of medical workers and a variety of treatment machines. There are many levels of complexity involved, but thankfully the first round walks you through the steps of building the essential rooms and hiring your first staff members. As your first patients arrive, you suddenly realize how quirky the game is: the diseases are not actual illnesses, but fictional ailments such as “light-headedness,” which turns people’s heads to actual light bulbs. This brought a humorous and zany element to the game, which I really enjoyed. Other hidden details begin to emerge: for example, the voice on the overhead speakers is rather sarcastic, and staff members can simply leave their offices and wander around if you do not keep a close eye on them. When patients are not treated well enough and subsequently die, the janitor turns into a ghostbuster to deal with them. These unexpected little twists are what make the game unlike any other, and I applaud the originality of it all.
The first round takes place in a location called Hogsport, but the updated version includes several other areas that have different climates and features: for example, Lower Bullocks, which is the other level I played, has a population of people who specifically seek psychiatric treatment. This results in different doctors and treatment rooms, which come furnished with a classic red psychiatrist’s couch and chair. Other hospital areas include Flottering and Mitton University, which sits in a frigid climate. The newer locations are also more advanced in difficulty, so you are able to grow your management skills and treat a greater breadth of patients. As each hospital grows, it becomes more and more challenging to keep everything running smoothly, so I am sure these higher levels will be an even greater challenge. But I love the diversity and constant innovation that Two Point Hospital is giving us!
Next I interviewed the art director, Mark Smart, and a paraphrased version of our conversion is as follows:
Q: What was it like working with this team of developers?
A: Great! We started with just 6 people on the team, and now there are 16 of us. It took about 2 years developing the game. I’ve worked on a previous game called Startopia with some of my teammates, and most of us have 20+ years of experience; but at the same time we also have younger team members who just recently graduated. So it’s lot of fun having a mix of veterans and newcomers.
Q: How did you come up with all these wacky diseases?
A: Sometimes we started by just coming up with the worst puns ever, like “PAN-demic,” and then coming up with visuals that fit, like people with pans for heads. Other times it was the other way around—for example, we thought of the lightbulbs-for-heads image first, then came up with the name “lightheadedness.”
Q: What was your vision regarding the aesthetics of the game?
A: I wanted it to be very clean and quite simple, and I wanted the characters to be easily seen from a distance since you can look at and manage the entire hospital from a bird’s eye view—that’s why we gave the characters such large hands and feet! As for the color scheme, we consciously made it very even-toned, with lots of different colors but nothing too heavily saturated or distracting.
Q: Is there anything you would like to say to the people playing your game?
A: I just hope you guys enjoy it! We had a great time making it, and hopefully the joy that went into making it translates over into the playing experience.
Check Out the Two Point Hospital Trial of Trevor Trailer:
Two Point Hospital launches on August 30, 2018. For more information you can sign up for the Hospital Pass at www.twopointhospital.com where you will receive the coveted in-game item, the Golden Toilet. You can also follow the game’s progress on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Related: Two Point Hospital Now in Pre-Order Phase, New Video Released
From the moment I first played Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy on the original Xbox, I have always had an avid curiosity and enthusiasm for video games. I admire their ability to immerse us in completely different worlds, and I am always eager to see how they integrate the newest breakthroughs in digital technology to make virtual reality feel real. I am currently a senior at UC Berkeley, but when I'm not studying I always make time to play Xbox One with my younger brother.
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