The appearance of Bernband during last night’s PC Gaming Show had a few of us at RPS clicking our fingers and pointing at our monitors yelling: “Bernband! Bernband!” This remake of the best sci-fi walking sim of 2014 has been in the works for a while. Creator Tom van den Boogaart has dipped in and out of working on the alien wanderer, often switching focus to other projects such as Grunn. But now it looks like we are once again getting a trickle of sweet extraterrestrial wanderlust. Here’s a trailer.
“Bernband is a sci-fi exploration sim set in a bustling alien metropolis,” says the Steam page. “Wander the streets at your leisure. See the sights, from dodgy dive bars to sprawling mega-marts. Discover secret areas, or hang out with the locals! There are no missions or timers; your only goal is to take a stroll.”
That lack of goals and objectives puts it once again firmly into walking simulator turf, but if it shares even a bit of the atmospheric richness of the original walkabout, that is absolutely grand. When Bernband first appeared, it offered a crowded little world of alien barflies, night clubs, high walkways, creepy alleys, xeno churches, school classrooms, and plenty of elevators connecting it all together.
It was a wonderful city to get lost in, and a reminder that simply dandering around a strange place can be exciting without having to collect anything, or even speak to anyone. As Alice O put it at the time, it’s “about the freedom of being alone in a crowd, the joy of noise washing over you and filling you, and the pleasure of wandering with no purpose beyond wanting to have time to yourself and see some interesting things.”
The original game’s maker, Van den Boogaart, has periodically shared some of his ongoing work on the remake. But it would often submerge again for some time as he worked on other things. After all, the creator is a member of the busiest gang of Dutch game tinkerers in the world, the Sokpop Collective (who are also credited as helping on this remake). Sokpop are a a kind of romantic ideal of the games industry – a crowd-funded independant gang of mates who have made over 100 games after announcing their plan to release a new plaything every two weeks. Their many many works include village building card game Stacklands, and tiny controller-friendly RTS King Pins.
No release date for Nu-Bernband yet, but we will stay ever vigilant. Bernband. Bernband!
