Fix your eyes at middle distance, that’s where most of Stela — but far from all of it — takes place. This mysterious and eerie trek through the apocalyptic final days of an ancient world makes the most of its scenery by constantly playing with the foreground and background. There’s a cinematic bent to the way depth is manipulated.
The descriptor “cinematic” is fitting, which is fortunate, because it’s entirely what developer SkyBox Labs was aiming for. Citing the likes of Lord of the Rings‘ majestic pulled-out establishing shots of the Fellowship crossing a mountain range, producer Aubrey Tennant tells Destructoid “We really like when platformers have a deeper world and more scale. At points, we pull the camera back so the character looks a little smaller so we can try to bring out the world.”
(As an aside: If SkyBox Labs sounds familiar, it’s probably because the studio is primarily focused on one of the most-anticipated upcoming games. SkyBox Labs is a support studio on Halo Infinite. Tennant says that of the company’s 200-ish employees, approximately 15 of them are dedicated to making Stela.)
Source: Destructoid Take a look inside Stela, the creepy Inside-like cinematic platformer that’s out next month