PS5/4 JETT: The Far Shore (+PC)

JETT: The Far Shore invites you on an interstellar trip to carve out a future for a people haunted by oblivion in this cinematic action adventure coming Holiday 2020 on the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.

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Adams did tell me the game has been in active development since the summer of 2013, however, and noted the original ideas that helped inspire the foundation for JETT:

• Monster Hunter + Motorstorm = ?
• Skyrim + SSX3 = ?
• Metroid Prime + Wave Race 64 = ?

“There was this moment of exuberance in the early days of 3D video games in the 1990s where movement through a 3D space was itself novel and compelling,” said Adams, citing old PC games like Magic Carpet and Tie Fighter. “And I think JETT is aspiring to that.”


“So with JETT the spark is to keep the feel and fun of something like Motorstorm,” he added, “with the intricate, interesting, substantial design of Monster Hunter, to say yes to the player’s instinct to go fast and take jumps and offroad, and then to try to interleave some narrative-vibe focused scenes to soak in, so the player has interesting story concepts to contemplate while skimming around.”

JETT has been in development since 2013 in absolute silence, a rarity for modern game development, where things like early access and social media have encouraged games to be announced exceedingly early, and allowing fans to follow along for, quite often, years.

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It was around this point that Adams has been working on JETT for a few years, but the origin story of JETT is earlier—back in 2007, in fact, and well before Sword & Sworcery. Adams met programmer Patrick McAllister and the two bonded, quickly noting they’d like to one day make a game together. The two would later meet by happenstance in Japan in the summer of 2012, share a few drinks, and reaffirm their desire to make that game they’d talked about.

Since the summer of 2013, the days have followed a familiar rhythm: Adams logs on as McAllister logs off, because one of them is working from Quebec and the other from Japan.

“The bulk of JETT_’s creation time it has been just Patrick and I, carving the concept out and building things up, trying things out,” said Adams. “Several quiet, very pleasant years of steady effort passed like this with us getting the _JETT aloft, pinning down the story, experimenting with world designs and gameplay scenarios, slowly finding our way in a too-broad design space.”

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JETT also found itself in need of help in 2016, when Adams and McAllister had finished a prototype that showed off many of the game’s central elements: walking around, traveling in a craft, fighting a boss. The prototype was used to attract some other folks to work on the project, but as time went on and 2016 became 2017 and 2017 became 2018 and 2018 became 2019, Adams realized “it would be a real struggle for us to actually complete it.”

“Our savings were just about depleted,” said Adams, “and some existential dread was building up.”

They started shopping the game around and, as Adams puts it, “formed a partnership with PlayStation and Epic,” which provided money to bring on more people, including longtime Thief designer Randy Smith. (Smith has largely worked on mobile games in recent years.)

The extra eyes, ears, fingers, and brains has finally turned JETT from a concept into a game. The first four years or so of making JETT was Adams and McAllster in contemplative isolation. The last 18 months have, instead, been “a rollercoaster,” as the team has grown.


“I’ve struggled to be equal to what my role has lately become,” said Adams. “I’m now overseeing and directing and contributing on so many threads, while working together with colleagues and fellow producers to respond to obstacles and deadlines.”

The finish line does seem in sight, though. JETT is scheduled to come out this year on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and we should know more about how it plays soon enough. Like many other parts of JETT, Adams is content waiting until the last second to step away.

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