Also Brandon Sanderson is involved
Imagine I have a weird alien squid pointed right at you.
I need you to tell me what the developers of open-world watery survival gameSubnauticaare making next.
Just, your best guess, or the squid’ll getcha with its weird alien ink.
Okay, well congratulations to anyone who said “a turn-based strategy game inspired by tabletop miniatures”.
Unlikely as it may seem you were right, and everyone else was wrong.
It’s calledMoonbreakerand it’s hitting early access on September 29.
And Brandon Sanderson is at this party, too.
I’m absolutely sure that Unknown Worlds will make a very good version of a digital tabletopstrategy game.
In an hour long, hands-off preview presentation, I got to see just how tabletoppy Moonbreaker is.
It’s a sort of labour of love for Unknown Worlds, a digital exploration of a favourite hobby.
It feels more reactive than having a battlefield already stacked with your different units.
She’s a strong ranged attacker, but is liable to get rushed.
The miniatures are sort of semi-animated.
They’re not articulated, but they might have a bit of flavour animation.
This is what, potentially, allows for a more interesting map design.
These moves take a certain number of turns to power up, and includ big offensive canon blasts.
Which is probably the point.
And, oh yes, Brandon Sanderson is here too, somehow?
Since cinder is so useful people want to drill down into them moons.
And, obviously, it’s possible for you to paint them all.
I saved this to last ‘cos I thought it looked really cool.
you might do washes, you might airbrush, you might stipple or dry brush for different effects.
At any point in the game you could pick up a miniature and admire the paintwork of your opponent.
A game as a service, basically.
Every season is accompanied by a fully voiced audio dramas, too.
It’s a universe they clearly want people to invest in, spiritually if not fiscally.
And I have to say, I was impressed.
The dry brushing thing in particular really blew my mind.
But I still can’t shake that doubt about who this is for.
Answers on a postcard.
