Art Deco adventure Close to the Sun is the latest game to appear exclusively on the Epic Games Store. It's a first-person horror romp that looks quite a bit like BioShock but contains no combat. You'll be stuck on a boat with Nikola Tesla, and bad news: he's a dick.
Developer Storm in a Teacup previously received an Unreal developer grant before it found a publisher, but before that it was using Unity. Epic's surely considering it a double win, then, with the game using both its engine and store.
“Our relationship with Epic and the decision to use Unreal Engine have provided fantastic opportunities for our studio, enabling a greater creative freedom and the ability to double-down on quality for our games," said CEO Carlo Ivo Alimo Bianchi. "To launch on the Epic Games store feels like the perfect next step and we are delighted that our partnerships with both Wired Productions and Epic Games will help propel Close to the Sun to achieve our ambitions.”
Close to the Sun takes place in an alternate 19th century where technology seems to be a bit more advanced. Tesla's built a great big ship for all the world's eggheads to do science in peace, but of course there's been a disaster and the whole place has been quarantined. Unfortunately, you're stuck onboard, and Tesla ain't letting anyone out.
It's due to launch in 2019.