The Ship earns a big budget sequel for Xbox 360, PC

Scottish developer Outerlight has confirmed that they had been signed by a "major publisher" to develop The Ship 2 for the Xbox 360 and PC.

For people who are unfamiliar with the little known first game: The Ship is primarily an online multiplayer murder-mystery title with a unique set of game rules. (It also has a short two-to-four-hour single-player campaign.) It was originally released in 2004 as a Half-Life mod, and then upgraded to Valve's Source engine and re-released in 2006 as a commercial product.

The Ship is set on a 1920s cruise liner, where each player is given a series of mystery targets whom he or she must correctly identify and secretly eliminate. At the same time, the player must also stay alive from other would-be killers. The game combines elements from Cluedo, The Sims, and Quake, into a unique concept but is presented with low-budget, generally underwhelming graphics.

[ktchong]

"Major publisher" = Microsoft

[zonetrooper5]

Well The Ship is on Steam btw, no not a pun people. On Valve's Steam program thingy lol. It actually looked like a great game, mutiplayer only I think but you get given a name of someone you have to find and kill on the ship, someone else also has your name as well, you have to kill with any weapon or just a single weapon.

You can also go to jail btw.

[Caxtus750]

i played the orginal, it was fun but a tad empty... XBL is just what the game needs! and a larger audience exposure? Cross platform? Oh pretty please! YES!

but yes..this is some cool news :)

[ktchong]

From what I've read about the game, I think what it really needs is a BUDGET. The gameplay sounds like an intriguing concept, but the implementation (of the mod and first game) was meager and compromised due to the lack of funding.

[zonetrooper5]

Well if this major publisher can provide a bigger budget then the game can certainly improve alot. Its probaly on the 360 and PC because its easy to port over as such. The publisher could be EA, MS, Ubi etc.

[_insane_cobra]

Great news, another interesting game from a less known developer.