Project Resurgence Revealed, Kickstarter Campaign Planned

Nectar Game Studios - a new studio comprised of team members who worked on such role-playing titles as BioShock 2, XCOM 2, and Bound by Flame - has announced development of a new "dark fantasy dieselpunk" cRPG that's "inspired by the classics of the late '˜90s", including such staples as Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, and even Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura. Their official website and its accompanying blog reveals quite a bit more about the game, including details on its dialogue system and plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign, which we'll hopefully be seeing the launch of in the near future. They've also treated us to an early "lore" teaser trailer:



How about this for a summary?

An episodic single-player cRPG inspired by the classics of the late '˜90s (Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Fallout, Arcanum).

Project Resurgence is a narrative-driven roleplaying game set in the land of Lumen, a gritty and volatile world rebuilding after a great disaster. In this mysterious environment, there are no right or wrong answers simply actions and consequences. To discover the secrets of this world, you must first uncover your own veiled past, by any means you see fit. As you fight, sneak, and con your way toward the truth, one question constantly hangs: Will you bring order or let chaos reign? If you can navigate the myriad terrors both monstrous and human, then maybe just maybe history will remember your name.

Includes:

'¢ Dark Fantasy Dieselpunk - Magic and technology coexist as limited grounded forces, affecting characters in realistic ways
'¢ Real-Time AND Turn-Based Combat - Action Point/Animation Time system keep both modes balanced, switch on the fly
'¢ Reactive Dialog and Story - NPCs and the plot react to player choices in short, medium, and long term ways
'¢ Non-Violent Objective Resolution - Use skills and wits to bypass danger or gain an advantage
'¢ Party-based Exploration - Directly control a party of up to 6 characters
'¢ Freeform Character Advancement - No classes allows for myriad playstyle options, no penalty for versatility
'¢ Episodic Delivery - World and story are divided up like seasons of a TV show, keeps scope in check, more ability to react to player feedback


And here's an excerpt on the dialogue system:

One area that we would particularly like to innovate is bringing real gameplay to our dialog system. In our opinion, far too many RPGs don't allow players to improve their social skills, typically relying on a generic (speech) skill or very little player choice at all. Our plan is to instead use a combination of 3 skills that can affect conversations in your favor:

'¢ Deception attempt to lie, misdirect, or conceal information/intention
'¢ Awareness detect Deception in others
'¢ Persuasion attempt to convince someone of your opinion (by one of 3 styles)
'¢ Persuade utilize your Clout to appeal to a target's sensibilities
'¢ Intimidate utilize your Strength to frighten the target
'¢ Charm utilize your Beauty to flirt with the target

The way this all works in-game is that in certain dialog contexts, you will have the option to push your own agenda by using one of these skills. Each of these options will have an associated difficulty, and chance of success based on your aptitude with the selected skill. After the skill option is chosen, the action's success or failure will be displayed and the appropriate repercussions will be carried out. If you have companions that are particularly gifted in any of these skills, they may also interject in these situations (if they like you enough).

Beyond just these social skills, we've also planned for a number of other ways you can enhance your conversation abilities. As you gain experience and level up, you can learn these abilities the same as any others. Some of them reveal additional information about NPCs as you talk to them (such as their mood and likes/dislikes), others further enhance your social skills (letting you see the likelihood of success or retry a failed attempt), and others add even more options to your dialog abilities (for Jedi mindtrick-like abilities). At the end of the day, the dialog system is just as important to our game as combat, and you should be able to advance your character's performance in either or both areas as you see fit.