Here's a new talk given at Digital Dragons by the game's primary developer, Adrian Chmielarz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsYYML1gew4
He mentions his collaboration with Thomas Grip in coming up with the
4-Layer Narrative Design Approach, which both SOMA and TVoEC are using.
The talk also shows about 2 minutes of gameplay at around
43:40.
The graphics are jaw-dropping. The devs are using a technique called photogrammetry, which involves photographing real-world objects and using software to convert the images into 3D models, along with all of the intricate detail the real world provides. You can see this being done in the following blog post:
http://www.theastronauts.com/2014/03/vis...an-carter/