Sonder trailer presses all our indie experiment-lovin' buttons

Guys, guys, look at this: Sonder is a third-person action adventure game, apparently set on a space station, with no protagonist "or (if you wish) every character is the main protagonist". What does that even mean? The tag line is "no heroes. No villains. Only choices" and the music in the announcement trailer through the break is all kinds of rad.

Gameplay is carried out through third person exploration, dialog and object interaction - all in real-time, as events "proceed with or without the player’s intervention or cooperation". The idea is to have players - alone, or in multiplayer - constantly questioning their choices and the consequences, and so it offers a "rewind-anytime" mechanic, even all the way to the beginning, allowing you to see how other paths would have played out.

"Usually, the characters that are not the main protagonist are merely a backdrop for him, existing only to fulfill a specific role within the narrative arc of the main player. Not so in our game, where you are free (and indeed encouraged) to play as any other character, and perceive the single game narrative from their perspective. You can do this any time during play, as many times as you wish," developer Kamai Media wrote on the game's website.

"When you play as a specific character, you make the choices for him – and they have direct consequences on the game world, other characters or even himself. The choices you make determine who, if anyone, survives the adventure that transpires in the game.

"The goal of the game is to illustrate that judgment is heavily influenced by perspective- acts that seem random, irrational, malicious or even generous or noble, may register differently when you are put in the position where you have to choose to make them. Ultimately, it is a question whether any action, in itself, is intrinsically good or bad or is it simply perceived as one or the other."

Sonder is in a pre-alpha state, and headed to PC and next-gen consoles, with single- and multiplayer modes. Kamai Media is actively pitching the project to publishers with a prototype.

Thanks, Blue's News.