Brimming with a strong ambition to tell stories that make a difference, two veteran developers founded Out of the Blue in 2018. Their destinies got intertwined by the mid 90s when they met through roleplay club. At that time, Tatiana Delgado was training as a Telecommunications Engineer and Manuel Fernández studied Psychology. There, they reinforced their taste for video games, wargames and TTRPGs, as well as a shared dream that would last for almost 30 years.
Rebel Act Studios marked the beginning of their journey as game developers, as both of them were hired as level designers for Blade: the Edge of Darkness. Many years later, in 2016, they would reunite again and co-found Vertical Robot to explore the possibilities of VR in puzzle games. Until then, Fernández grown as a project manager at Indra and took part in the Proyecto Arcadia (Haunted House) creating short roleplaying adventures. Delgado became an experienced and quite renowned game designer — she went through Zinkia Entertainment, producer of Pocoyó; Tequila Works (Deadlight, Rime), Gameloft (Gods of Rome) and King.
Virtual reality was an area that was as attractive as it was unfamiliar to both of them, so they set out to develop an original release for Meta, named Daedalus, and Red Matter, a story-driven sci-fi adventure set in the Cold War.
In 2018, these friends parted ways again for a few months before founding Out of the Blue, where they finally could create the kind of titles they always dreamed of. And their first bet was Call of the Sea (2020), a first-person puzzle adventure inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth. The story takes place in the 1930s and follows Norah, a woman on the trail of her missing husband’s expedition. The investigation will lead her to a strange paradise in the South Pacific, where nature hides a supernatural secret waiting to be discovered.
As typical as it sounds, Call of the Sea was highly innovative in more than one aspect:
- It departs from the typical scenarios in Cthulhu stories and brings the action to an unexplored setting: Polynesia, in the South Pacific. Out of the Blue put a lot of effort into building a credible setting full of cultural references and even had an external consultant to guide them.
- On the visual side, it’s widely inspired by titles such as Firewatch, The Witness and Sea of Thieves. It builds a colorful and wild environment that encourages the desire to go on an adventure.
- As for Norah’s fate, Tatiana Delgado always described her journey as “a rise to sanity”. She’s not your average tragic character dying horribly after her first encounter with a cosmic deity, but a persevering, strong woman that finds her own way to live on.
It’s worth mentioning that the game was originally released on Xbox Game Pass and Steam just a few days before Cyberpunk 2077. A situation like this usually means bad news for an indie developer, but they became very popular worldwide. Surprisingly, Destructoid recommended it as a nice alternative for people who’s “sick of Cyberpunk dominating the discourse”.
Call of the Sea was nominated for most important game awards of the indie scene (BAFTA, Independent Games Festival), and won in the NYX Game Awards and the TIGA Games Industry Awards. Here in Spain, Out of the Blue won 7/10 award categories in the DeVuego Awards and Tatiana got recognized by the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media (CIMA) with their first award to Talent in the Video Games Industry.
In 2023, players could finally enjoy Out of the Blue’s new game. American Arcadia is set in a retro-futuristic metropolis where all citizens take part, without knowing, in a 24/7 reality show. There, the lack of popularity pays with death, which is the awful situation that Trevor is about to face. At least, until a stage technician of the show, Angela, decides to cross professional boundaries and help him escape.
Here, Out of the Blue goes from having a single character to building a story by two different characters. Each brings a different perspective to the same story and unique gameplay mechanics — 2D stealth is made for Trevor, the action hero, and the parts with 3D exploration belong to Angela, his ‘guy in the chair’. In addition, players will discover that the protagonists talk a lot with each other to exchange information and get to know each other, because it’s something that Tatiana would have liked to do for Call of the Sea.
American Arcadia is visually inspired by the aesthetic and feel of the 70s, a decade especially remarkable in terms of fashion trends, music and much more. The team even took visual references from their own family photos and home decorations, and then mixed it with tech elements that might fit the setting. It brings back some memories from Bioshock’s Rapture and The Truman Show.
As it could not be otherwise, the game has a strong message on media manipulation. American Arcadia wants its players to reflect on the veracity of TV shows and what we consume on social media, since their content usually motivates people “to be very individualistic”. Given the increasing digitalization of our societies, this topic is more present than ever in our daily lives. The after-game debate is served!
And speaking of social injustice, we can’t finish this entry without reminding you about Out of the Blue’s latest announcement — the political narrative RPG The Vigilante Diaries is set to release in 2024. Here, players step into the shoes of a war veteran who returns to his hometown to find an environment engulfed by crime and corruption. Full of anger, the man takes the decision to impart justice in the only way he knows. By force.
The story will change according to the priorities of the Vigilante, offering several endings where the player could be come a gentile vigilante or a ruthless criminal who will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. If you love games where choices matter, don’t miss this one when it arrives on Steam.
THE VIGILANTE DIARIES🔅, the new game from the creators of Call of the Sea and American Arcadia.
— THE VIGILANTE DIARIES - ?????? (@OutBlueGames) April 11, 2024
Launching on Steam and Nintendo Switch in 2024. Wishlist available now: https://t.co/4rmnQqUI3c pic.twitter.com/deXo2yljJB
The Vigilante Diaries is the first installment of the Out of the Blue Story series, a set of story-driven games that will explore the limits of humanity in extreme situations. What other surprises will the studio give us in the coming years? Let us know what you’d like to see from them.
Activity funded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport.
Find Games from Spain on