Press release

Ex-Subnautica Devs Create Controversial New Studio: Inner Party

Lead Programmer and Narrative Director of Subnautica found Inner Party, a new micro-studio building experimental story games.

Inner Party website: https://www.inner-party.dev
1984 - Announce Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Xb3FF509E


London, UK, 28th September 2023
Tom Jubert (Narrative Lead on Subnautica, Talos Principle, FTL, The Swapper), Jonas Bötel (Technical Lead on Subnautica) and Sönke Seidel (Technical Artist on Kane and Lynch 2 and Codename: Gordon) are pleased to announce the foundation of new development studio, 'Inner Party'.


Inner Party has already released a trailer and Steam Store page for its controversial first project: a faithful interactive adaptation of George Orwell's 1984. Appropriate to its subject matter, 1984 is on a collision course with authoritarian publishing laws which place Orwell's novel in the public domain almost everywhere in the world except the USA, where lobbying by powerful corporate interests secured unprecedented control of intellectual property rights via the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/01/something-is-not-right-with-copyright-this-public-domain-day-conan-doyle.


It remains to be seen whether the American audience will have a legal route to play 1984.


Inner Party is also working on a number of other demos, and is committed to fully transparent and open development. Fans can follow and influence progress on Trello: https://trello.com/b/bFwcTY1d/1984-development


Co-owned by its three founders, Inner Party has already turned down significant external funding in order to retain its independence.


Press contact
press@inner-party.dev


Links
- Inner Party website: https://www.inner-party.dev
- 1984 announce trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Xb3FF509E
- 1984 presskit: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RGKYbY9xPEf3LjWRNHRwkYK7bpXreqYT
- 1984 on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2390780/1984
- 1984 Development tracker: https://trello.com/b/bFwcTY1d/1984-development