A Class Of Its Own: Sir, You Are Being Hunted

Sometimes a game’s title can tell you all you need to know about the game itself. From early platformers such as Jumpman (he’s a man who jumps) through to more tongue-in-cheek offerings like Shoot Many Robots (where you, guess what?), gaming is pebbled with plenty of prosaic titles. Then there’s the upcoming Sir, You Are Being Hunted. From the name alone you’ll likely have gleaned a sternly British, aristocratic feel along with an obvious nod to the horror genre. And if you also discerned a game featuring upper-class killer robots and a sprinkling of sci-fi hokum, well, you’d be right on the money.

“It's certainly less derivative than making another game full of space marines,” jokes Jim Rossignol, game designer and founder of Big Robot, the team behind Sir. “We came up with the name immediately so the issue we've had wasn't conveying the themes through the name, but the name implying how the game had to be. It says everything, and so we've found ourselves trying to match the expectations it seems to create in people.”

So, whilst taking place in some fanciful alt-universe, Sir is simultaneously grounded in a rather more mundane setting; the English countryside that Rossignol and his team call home. “We live in Somerset and Wiltshire, so that environment is all around us,” he explains. “Adding the countryside we see every day to a fictional legacy that includes things like Dr Who, that’s something very logical for us. They say ‘write what you know’ and we think applying that to games is a good idea.”

---

“The line between horror and comedy is pretty thin and one can quickly become the other” – Jim Rossignol, Big Robot

---

That then was the genesis of Sir, You Are Being Hunted, a first-person survival horror game with a very surreal thread running through it. Players emerge from a MacGuffin prologue about locating the scattered pieces of a broken teleporter before finding themselves strewn on a procedurally generated set of islands patrolled by various classes of vicious robots. The whiff of faint ridiculousness wafts through the robot design too, with initial encounters likely to emit chuckles of disbelief rather than instil any fear or dread. That is until they clamp their metallic eyes on you…

“The line between horror and comedy is pretty thin and one can quickly become the other,” says Rossignol on the tonal balance the team have strived for. “Look at the Evil Dead movies, or British comedies like The League of Gentlemen. A funny situation can become horrifying pretty quickly. I think the point is vulnerability - particularly in games like this. There's a certain comedy available to muscle-bound death machine characters, and another to the fragile man on the run. Obviously we favour the latter.”

Indeed they do, and players will quickly discover this upon entering the bizarre world of Sir. Scavenging is a major proponent of the game, with our protagonist thrust into this nightmare with nothing but some raggedy clothes. A quick search of a nearby robo-corpse or a tentative trundle to a solitary house may or may not bring up anything of value. On some playthroughs, The Skinny was lucky enough to find weaponry without too much trouble whilst in others, finding some stray bullets (but no gun) was the highlight of our pickings.

Even when finding some steal, Sir’s mechanics do plenty to dissuade you from using it. Robots are, as to be expected, able to take a reasonable drilling, whilst the very act of discharging a weapon will likely bring other robots from the vicinity towards you. Even recharging your ever-depleting health is a taxing game of cat and mouse. You may find a nice bit of rabbit in the wilderness but you’re going to want to cook that bad boy on an open fire, which could easily alert an already-savvy patrol unit. Of course, you’ll need to find some matches first!

If you’re looking for a gung-ho FPS, this is definitely not the game for you. However, if you enjoy the idea of stealth play in an increasingly deadly world, with enemies who will chase you down with the effectiveness of a T-800, then Sir could be worth your time. “Every enemy behaves radically differently, which has been something of a headache,” exclaims Rossignol on the unfolding classes that the game generates. “Mostly though, the idea is to escalate the feeling of being hunted. So initially it's just shotgun-carrying hunters and their dogs, and later poachers with traps, culminating in mechanical riders and The Landowner who will be the deadliest foe on the map.”

With the basic mechanics in place, the team at Big Robot are now giving their metallic exterior a spit and polish for the game’s planned release in April. However, the current alpha tests have been a learning curve for the developers as they communicate with eager players. “It's back and forth,” says Rossignol of the process. “The response hasn't changed any specifics in the plan, but it does provide us with serious feedback on things such as balance and NPC behaviour. It's been a learning process, and we've discovered a lot about shipping and maintaining a game like this.”

Furthermore, a Kickstarter campaign to fund completion of the game garnered more support (and cash) than the team had originally envisioned. “Obviously we were pleased with the additional money it brought in, but we knew there was a certain level of interest that we were catering to,” says Rossignol. “It essentially allowed us to make the fully-featured game we were aiming for, rather than some chopped down version. I think the original scope of the game would still have been fun, but a lot of the variety and weirdness would have been missing. There wouldn't have been a playable trombone, for example.”

In a world where first-person shooters are currently enduring an identity crisis, Big Robot’s approach to tone and design is a refreshing change. Its quintessential British humour may not be everyone’s cup of Earl Grey, but Sir, You Are Being Hunted looks set to serve up a slice of tasty gaming goodness.