We’ve dealt with some sweaty interviews in our time – awkward questions, tiny conference rooms, and so on – but never before have we been offered a towel to mop our brow partway through asking a question. Here, though, it’s a sign that Quell is doing its job properly. We’ve just played a demo of its debut game, Shardfall, a PC/Mac firstperson Roguelike mixing exploration and melee combat, played using Quell’s Impact peripherals, a collection of motion controllers, body sensors and resistance bands. The result is the most intense workout we’ve had playing any game.
It’s no great surprise, then, to hear that Quell – founded by four friends, none of whom with any prior experience working in videogames – began with the question of fitness. “Everyone knows they should be doing it, but it’s monotonous and boring and painful and horrible for so many people,” says . Now CEO of Quell, he was one of those four co-founders, who found their way here by asking, back in 2020: “What makes exercise fun? And it was exactly fun: a balance of skill versus chance, a progression of ability over time, collaboration versus competition. And, crucially, immersion.”
