Sir, You Are Being Hunted update talks AI and stealth, shows new hunting grounds

A big update on the current happenings surrounding Sir, You Are Being Hunted has appeared on the Big Robot site . It's a game about escaping a host of cyber-gents as they hunt you across a procedurally generated archipelago of islands. It's being built by former Bohemia and Creative Assembly designer, James Carey, programmer Tom Betts, part time coder Dan Puzey and former PC Gamer and current RPS gent, Jim Rossignol.

The team are currently working towards getting Sir to a state where they can shoot some in-game footage showing the hunting AI in action. As a squidgy human trapped in a world of iron tea-drinkers, you'll have to scavenge tools from your surroundings and stay out of sight to survive. Hunter AI and stealth mechanics are the current development focus.

"Until the last week or so, our robotic gents had only basic senses, reacting with too-inhuman speed and precision to the sights and sounds of our procedural world. We've recently completed another pass on these senses allowing them to be modified by bot-specific variables so that our hunters act with more personality, and behave more interestingly as you sneak and fight."

The density of the foliage you're crouching in will affect the likelihood of being spotted by the AI. A Thief style stealth meter will give you feedback on how hidden you are. "If you are laying still in long grass they will not see you until they get very close, but you might give yourself away by moving. You will be able to sneak quite effectively, but it will also be a skill that players will master as they play."

More and more terrain and AI features will be added as Big Robot work towards release next year. You can keep up with the latest on the Big Robot blog . Here are some new shots, fresh from the hunting grounds:

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.