The world is frozen. It is a struggle to survive, and technology has been built to take advantage of it. To help fight back against the oppressing cold, steam-powered technology was developed as a technology that can sustain itself in such weather while serving other purposes. Survival becomes a daily challenge and the question of how far are you willing to go looms constantly.
Welcome to Frostpunk.
The next game from This War of Mine developers 11Bit Studios, Frostpunk appears to be an attempt to further examine the world in somewhat similar ways. Like in This War of Mine there are strategy and management options backed up not by just the series of bars that many such games use, but also a focus on decisions that test player agency and decision-making. Part of what made This War of Mine such an impacting experience for many was the gameplay that emerged when everything was backed into a corner and there were no easy decisions to be made.
Frostpunk, aims to do the same thing, although it's setting isn't a war one. Instead, it's a society that has to somehow survive in a world that is incredibly frozen and difficult to survive in. How would people react in that situation? What sort of organizations and decisions would people make? How would the society that emerges be shaped? What would society do when pushed to the limit? What would you do in such a society?
These are the questions that 11Bit Studios appears to want to place at the heart of Frostpunk. They are combining this with a steam-punk style that was designed to be more than aesthetics, but also a potential and logical technology path that could happen. It also fits with a visual style that wants to use contrasting palettes of cold colors for nature, and warm ones for what remains of civilization.
11Bit studios released a teaser trailer titled 'The Fall' that you can see below, with the promise of more information on the world of Frostpunk to come.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrL-y4LiUO0&mc_cid=8090fabd20&mc_eid=b06834e7e0
Frostpunk has a new website that will have more information in the future, and it will be releasing sometime in 2017.
Disclosure: Games Republic, one of our partners for our upcoming new site, is part of 11Bit Studios.
