Another World

About the game

Another World begins with a lightning strike on a particle accelerator and strands physicist Lester Knight Chaykin — Ferrari, cigarette and all — on a hostile alien planet. From its opening swim away from tentacled shadows, the game unfolds as pure cinema: no HUD, no score, no tutorial, just a man running, and an alien companion whose wordless friendship becomes the emotional spine of the story.

Éric Chahi built the game almost single-handedly, animating its flat-shaded polygon figures with rotoscoped fluidity that made every stumble and leap feel weighty. Death comes constantly and theatrically — dissolved, crushed, shot — but checkpoints are brisk, and each demise teaches the choreography of the next attempt. The laser pistol's charge-shield mechanic supplies the few firefights with surprising tactical depth.

Its influence runs through every game that trusts imagery over exposition — from Flashback the following year to the wordless indies of the 2010s. The archive documents it in its DOS incarnation, one stop in a journey across virtually every machine of the era.

Technical notes

A bespoke polygon engine — geometric figures, rotoscoped motion, full-screen cinematic cuts — small enough for Chahi to iterate alone, portable enough to reach a dozen platforms. Documented here in its DOS release.