There is a disease in Two Point Hospital that will cause patients to get naked and then do “everything you wouldn’t want a naked person to do in front of you”, according to the devs – including things which they describe as “horrendous”.
The disease is called Emperor’s New Clothes, and in homage to the proverbial story, describes a delusion in which they believe they are fully dressed in the latest fashion, when in fact they are naked.
The patient’s model will be pixelated in an effect first developed to censor the game’s operating theatre, even though surgeons “don’t really dig anything out of bodies which is real guts and gore – [they] find things like rubber ducks”, design director Gary Carr tells us.
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“But we still pixelated it, just to make it seem more like you’re watching one of those surgery programmes on the Discovery Channel. So we got this tech to do pixellation, and then we thought: ‘actually, let’s just do people who actually think they’re fully dressed, though they’re bollock naked’.”
So you needn’t worry that the spiritual successor to the wholesome Theme Hospital has suddenly become a pornographic drama, or that you won’t be able to show Two Point Hospital to your kids: much like The Sims, genitals will not be discernible.
The nudity isn’t the point, says Carr: “it’s not about them being naked – it’s about what actions they take as naked people.” At this point, Two Point Studios’ animators step up. Art director Mark Smart says sufferers of Emperor’s New Clothes will do “everything you wouldn’t want a naked person to do in front of you”, while lead animator Chris Knott says “it’s just horrendous”.
They’re schtum on the details, but that’s more than enough to fire our imaginations – squats, lunges, thrusts, perhaps even the much-admired hip-helicopter, for the especially *ahem* cocky? We’ll find out when Two Point Hospital releases later this year.
For more, check out the Steam page, or our Two Point Hospital preview from our hands-on time with the alpha build. Ultimately the devs are hoping to build an integrated world of management sims, with Two Point Hospital interacting with, say, Two Point Service Station, or Two Point Rhinoplasty, in a connected Two Point County. A tantalising goal.