Just over a year ago, Shinji Mikami - he of directing the original Resident Evil and Resident Evil 4 fame - was confirmed to be leaving Tango Gameworks, the studio that he had co-founded over a decade earlier to create a modern successor to his survival-horror classics, The Evil Within.
Merchants of Rosewall is a cozy shopkeeping sim with a climate crisis twist
05.03.2024 - 22:51 / digitaltrends.com / Giovanni Colantonio
Big Blue Sky Games, a new studio of industry veterans, has revealed its debut game, Merchants of Rosewall. The project, set to launch sometime this year, is described as a story-driven, online shop-management game where the climate of its world impacts the availability and cost of resources.
The game has been in development over at Big Blue Sky Games for the past two years. The small studio is comprised of 25 developers total, with 16 dedicated to the game. That talent comes from major publishers like EA, Bungie, and Blizzard. Despite that big-budget pedigree, Merchants of Rosewall is a modest debut that looks to make titles like Stardew Valley even more approachable.
The concept is that players run their own shop in a fantasy world devoid of combat. Players hire artisans to staff the shop, source raw materials, craft items like pies, and sell them. The emphasis is specifically on streamlined crafting, as opposed to farming or gathering. Products can be bought by NPCs, but they can also be purchased by other players through an asynchronous online system.
Its most intriguing twist comes from its climate resource feature. The unique system, which was built by a former meteorologist on the team, sees the world’s climate impacting resources. For instance, a banana’s cost might go up depending on how difficult it is to grow due to climate patterns and how hard it is to ship. The deep system is meant to highlight the impact climate issues have on the world. That will intersect with a sharp critique of capitalism that explores the harm it causes to the fantasy world.
That critical edge isn’t surprising considering Big Blue Sky’s story. The studio was built to be a more sustainable workplace for developers. In a roundtable presentation with press, Kevin Hovdestad, the game’s director, outlined the studio’s vision, which includes full remote work and no crunch. The studio hopes that culture changes like that will make it a healthier place to work amid the gaming industry’s current layoff crisis.
That’s easier to say than to actually do, but Big Blue Sky is putting its money where its mouth is. When I asked about the business decisions that it hopes will lead to a sustainable company, Hovdestad explained that the studio is in a unique financial situation. For one, it is entirely funded by a family rather than venture capitalists. Hovdestad says that those funders understand that the company isn’t intending to turn over a massive profit. Hovdestad says the company is more focused on achieving a four-day work week than it is pulling in tons of money right now.
While that may sound optimistic, Hovdestad emphasizes the importance of retaining workers over “decades, not days.” He cites both Baldur’s Gate 3 and The
The website gametalkz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Top Authors
Popular Topics
polygon.com
25.03.2024 / 18:33
Cozy life sim Palia arrives on Steam, celebrates with big friendly frog
Palia first launched on PC in 2023, and rolled out onto the Nintendo Switch. Now, the free-to-play life simulator game can be downloaded from Steam. The new platform for Palia coincides with patch 0.178, which is focused around celebrating spring. If you haven’t had a chance to sample this Stardew Valley-style game, now’s a great time to start foraging, farming, and building your own cozy little house in Kilima Valley.
digitaltrends.com
23.03.2024 / 14:37
Wild Bastards combines stylish shooting with outlaw ego management
While 2019 feels like a lifetime ago to me now, thanks to a time-warping pandemic, I still vividly remember playing Void Bastards for the first time. I had learned about the unique shooter a few months after it launched and was instantly drawn in by its graphic novel art style and eye-catching name. I’d buy it on a hot holiday weekend in July. It was the perfect time to go outside and get some air, but I couldn’t unglue myself from my computer. I chewed it up in a few sittings, obsessing over its sci-fi setting, roguelite systems, and slick shooting.
digitaltrends.com
22.03.2024 / 13:59
Another Crab’s Treasure is an approachable Soulslike with a comedic twist
Souslikes come in all shapes and sizes, including colorful seascapes with cute crabs.
gamingbolt.com
22.03.2024 / 09:59
Resident Evil, The Evil Within Creator Establishes New Studio, KAMUY
Legendary game developer Shinji Mikami – best known as the creator of Resident Evil and The Evil Within – has established a new independent game development studio named KAMUY. Interestingly enough, the studio’s existence has emerged not from an official announcement, but through the official website of the upcoming Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered.
gamesindustry.biz
18.03.2024 / 23:47
Representation with intention | GDC 2024
Day one of the 2024 Game Developers Conference opened with a session about fostering inclusivity and diversity in game communities, with panellists giving a welcome reminder about why this matters and the obstacles standing in the way.
comingsoon.net
15.03.2024 / 18:19
Giancarlo Esposito Wants To Play MCU’s Professor X With 1 Change
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul star Giancarlo Esposito has spoken about his interest in playing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
eurogamer.net
08.03.2024 / 19:02
EA classics including SimCity 3000 and Dungeon Keeper launch on Steam
EA has released a number of its older games onto Steam for the first time, and at a discounted price.
polygon.com
07.03.2024 / 18:13
My Adventures With Superman will continue this summer at DC Comics
The story of My Adventures With Superman will continue at DC Comics, with a miniseries bridging the gap between its first and upcoming second season, written by show producer and writer Josie Campbell.
gamerant.com
06.03.2024 / 20:49
Upcoming Xbox Game Pass Game is Like Pokemon, But With a Big Twist
The newly announced Creatures of Ava has strong Pokemon vibes, but it puts gamers in the shoes of monster saviors instead of monster trainers. By mixing a non-violent approach with aesthetics that resemble Pokemon, Creatures of Ava is an exciting new game.
gamingbolt.com
06.03.2024 / 19:21
Sleight of Hand is a New Hardboiled Third-Person Stealth Sim
Microsoft’s recent third-party focused Xbox Partner Preview showcase brought plenty of upcoming Xbox titles to the limelight, with a handful of them being new announcements. One in particular that caught the eye was Riffraff Games’ Sleight of Hand, described in its announcement trailer as a “hardboiled third-person stealth sim”.
rockpapershotgun.com
05.03.2024 / 23:33
Game Pass's most exciting new addition in March is a farming sim with mechs
It's a new month, which means a new set of games arriving on Microsoft's Game Pass subscription service. The arrivals begin today with stompy, old school shooter Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, and will continue before the advent of spring with the mechs-and-plants craft 'em up Lightyear Frontier and telekinetic adventure Control Ultimate Edition, among others.