In this week’s bulletin, we delve into two upcoming fascinating games, a stunning Goya-inspired metroidvania, and a zombie-infested medieval Birmingham survival game. Additionally, we quickly sum up what is up with the highly anticipated Tomb Raider!
Goya, stealth, and a cursed Jesuit monastery: a metroidvania to look forward to
Numerous games were announced at Gamescom this year, and one of them is a real gem. The Stone of Madness is a real-time tactical stealth game by the studio that developed Blasphemous, The Game Kitchen. The story is set in a 18th century Spanish monastery located in the Pyrenees, which is the home to a madhouse and an inquisitorial prison. The player’s goal is to escape the place having five characters with different unique skill sets at one’s disposition. While each prisoner has specific abilities, they also have phobias and traumas, providing another layer of management and tactical play needed so the characters do not descend into madness, “fundamentally changing how the afflicted character is played.” The cherry on top of this mouth-watering cake is that the artstyle is fully hand-painted, animated frame-by-frame, all inspired by the art of the famous Francisco de Goya. The game is set to come out in 2025 and I already cannot wait.
If there are zombies in medieval Birmingham, God Save Birmingham indeed
2024’s Gamescom provides us with another piece of fascinating news: the anything but expected announcement of the game God Save Birmingham by Ocean Drive Studio. The open-world zombie survival game is a certainly refreshing take on a game genre we have seen a million times over. Other than the interesting choice of a location and time period of the 14th century England (as you can see in the trailer), one of the main features is the physics-based mechanics that allow the player to outwit the hordes of zombies, make them stumble by placing low fences in front of them, or “sever [their] limbs to reduce the undead to angry, wriggling torsos.” This feature does not really come across in the trailer, but it does show an interesting experience that allows for exploring historical Birmingham. Even if the tour guide smells funky and is keen on taking a bite out of you. The game is in development, but be on the lookout for early access.
Update on the otherwise seemingly quiet Tomb Raider development
Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Games announced their collaboration at the end of 2022 with the goal of bringing the players, what they argue to be, the biggest and best Tomb Raider. So far, only little information has been shared with the public, such as the fact that the game is being made in Unreal Engine 5. In a new interview with IGN, the boss of Amazon Games Christoph Hartmann declared Crystal Dynamics’ development of the game is going well, and is not being impacted by the disruption happening to the studio’s parent company. Apparently, there are no changes being made to the resources or management at Crystal Dynamics. With the high expectations for a Tomb Raider game, Hartmann comments that “it’s a huge, huge task” but that “there’s some really great ideas here.” Read more in the interview: IGN.
Barbora Bachanová is doing Media Studies (research MA) in the New Media & Digital Cultures track at the University of Amsterdam. Her bachelor thesis explored how streaming single-player video games transforms the single player into a collective player through Twitch’s affordances. Other than her interest in video games studies, media theory, and digital cultures, she is interested in what the video game format affords in terms of narrative, affect, and community-creation. Barbora loves running around time-managing in Persona games, occasionally playing visual novels, and watching hours long video essays on almost anything gaming related. She has yet to finish playing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but is absolutely determined to do so. Twitter/X: @BarboraBach