picture of mike sessions gollum from lord of the rings

'Essentially I wanted to do a Robin Hood story, a kind heroic thief narrative and what you very quickly realise when you're trying to do that story is you kind of have to be aware of the political side,' he says. But there's a political backdrop to this certainly.' 'But you know, I wouldn't say its a statement game, it's not an activist game. 'I've taken a lot of time over that story and I hope that it represents an interesting kind of political landscape behind the game,' he says. Bithell tries to balance the statement that the game is making with the entertainment it will provide. In Volume, the protagonist, Locksley is essentially playing a game, asking others to risk carrying out his plan. The game promises to be a refreshing twist on the done to death premise of a future dystopia, Volume's narrative appears to be politically charged, drawing inspiration from modern armchair activism that most of us engage in on networks like Twitter. I watch a lot of let's play content and I kind of wanted to experiment with telling story about characters like that.' 'Talking about that in a sci-fi context made sense and mistakes a little bit higher than the kids just showing their game off.

I find the whole medium really interesting,' he says. 'I find it fascinating, the way in which personalities produce video content using games and make something transformative and bigger than some of its parts. This is a culture that Bithell is a fan of. If you're not familiar with the concept, these are recordings of ordinary people's playthroughs, often with funny commentary, instead of trying to be objective sources of information. This is coupled with riffing on live streaming and the burgeoning 'let's play' culture on YouTube. Volume's plot that borrows from Robin Hood and is set in a dystopian future. Here's what we found out on a Skype call with Bithell. It's an indie stealth game that has big name talent in the form of Andy Serkis (Gollum from The Lord of the Rings) and a fresh Lego-ish art style. While we'd respectfully disagree about The Order: 1886, we picked his brains on his upcoming game, Volume. In terms of AAA fare, he played The Order: 1886 and found it 'fun and brash for five hours.' He manages to sneak in a few sessions of Threes! since it's a simple game that can be played for five minutes. In the middle of production for his next game, Volume, Mike Bithell (famous as the creator of Thomas Was Alone) has very little time to play other video games.

Picture of mike sessions gollum from lord of the rings