'District 9' Director Unveils His New Video Game

Neill Blomkamp, director on films like District 9, Chappie and Elysium has revealed that he is working on a game with his current studio Gunzilla Games.

Blomkamp moved over into the world of games in 2021 when he joined Gunzilla as ‘chief visionary officer’ announcing he was working on a new multiplayer shooter. He later stated that he wanted to work on a large open-world game, similar to the Grand Theft Auto series. However, in an announcement this week (4 May) it appears his new game Off The Grid is an entirely different genre. 

You can take a look at the trailer for Blomkamp’s new game Off The Grid in the video below.

In an interview with Gamespot, the director revealed that his new game was to be a mix of battle royale and story driven narrative. 

"The approach is to try to inject the story in a way where players have the option of engaging straight up in the battle royale or have the option of diving into story and story missions, almost like a campaign that you would be playing to follow a story narrative. We're trying to decide the best way of doing [factions], But I think the idea of a larger story that is told from different points of view is definitely a key pillar."

The style of gameplay he is describing here would be similar to games like Detroit Become Human where you take control of multiple protagonists whose storylines converge at multiple points in the game. In the interview he also discussed the difficulty of mixing a gameplay focused genre such as battle royale with a story driven narrative.

"Players can choose to take missions where your faction may be directly opposed to the mission of an opposite faction, both of those tie into the narrative on a much bigger scale. And you're doing that in an environment where a straight-up battle royale is taking place. So, you're sort of like fending off attacks from two different directions and you're trying to fulfil, if you're interested, the narrative obligations that you have."

He has not given away too much of the story yet, but there were mentions of “corporate sabotage and espionage” entwined in “a world of refugees and contractors and mercenaries.”

Blomkamp is still working in film alongside this project. In 2021, he announced that he would direct District 10, a direct sequel to his previous award winning movie. The film is currently still in early development.