Hello. I’m Tom Jubert, one of the writers on The Talos Principle for PS4, and I’m here to tell you a bit about the game because the other guys are lazy busy with finishing it.

Announced during the PlayStation press conference at E3 in June, The Talos Principle is a first-person philosophical puzzler from Croteam, the guys behind the Serious Sam games. It’s a bit atmospheric, a bit sci-fi, and a proper challenge if you’re looking for one.

The guys brought myself and Jonas Kyratzes on as writers around 9 months ago to deliver on their aspirations for the atmosphere and story. In The Talos Principle, you inhabit a robot body in a digital recreation of the ancient world, and explore at the behest of an omnipresent voice in the sky. We’re keeping our cards close to our chest on this one, but you could say Philip K. Dick’s oeuvre is a close match for our general motif. We hope there’s loads here to dig into and piece together if you’re so minded, but equally if you’re just here for the puzzles it won’t get in your way.

About those puzzles. The concept has its roots in experimental puzzle mechanics developed for Serious Sam 4, and shares with that game the latest iteration of the Serious engine. Its trial by fire was playtesting around the office — on coming out unsinged, Talos was born. In a funny kind of way, you can see the FPS lineage here in the lengths the guys have gone to find creative alternatives to the red key, red door mechanics of yesteryear. Combine these new ideas with Croteam’s reputation for packing a game full of more secrets than you can shake a chainsaw at and I think you’ve got something pretty special.

I was 16 when I played the original Serious Sam, and I was blown away by what a small team could achieve. We’ve had to wait 13 long years to see what Croteam can do when they’re not looking down the barrel of a gun, and I’m excited to be helping them deliver that.

The Talos Principle will launch on PS4 later this year.