Indie developer, inbetweengames, has launched a Kickstarter campaign for its tech-noir tactics game – All Walls Must Fall.
Recently here at Thumbsticks we were intrigued and puzzled by the announcement of a crowd funded Apocalypse Now game. Given the existence of the excellent, albeit overlooked, Spec Ops: The Line, we questioned the need for it.
Unfortunately, given the state of the studio behind the game, Yager, after the abrupt cancellation of Dead Island 2 (since passed on to Sumo Digital) it is unlikely that a similar experience will be coming from the studio anytime soon.
However, three devs who left after Yager’s downscaling have come together to form inbetweengames. Their first commercial game is All Walls Must Fall and is inspired by the studio’s home base of Berlin. Whilst the new game seems to share little with Spec Ops, it does somehow seem to be a more appropriate follow-up than Dead Island 2 would have been. This could be because there is something more to the actions of the player taking place, an aspect that made the announcement of Dead Island 2 jarring.
But what is All Walls Must Fall? Berlin takes centre stage, except the year is 2089 and the Cold War never ended, meaning the city is still divided between East and West by the Berlin Wall. Navigating this alternative future is via a time-travelling secret agent; this is a Cold War piece set in Berlin after all. The devs describe the game as an isometric tactics game, albeit with time travel. Perhaps unsurprisingly they consider it to be XCOM meets Braid, and having played the pre-alpha prototype this combination is certainly evident and is notably unique.
Although the game is still early in development, the visual style is already striking, matching the aesthetic of what we associate with East Berlin. It will be interesting to see how this might change when the game moves to West Berlin during the Second Act. The devs are keeping the location of the final act under wraps.
Another standout is the game’s aesthetic design, particularly its music and sound effects. The story takes place over a single night – with some added back and forth thanks to time travel logic – and sees you visit various Berlin nightclubs. Therefore, it’s essential that the music in the game should sound authentic. Additionally, the music doesn’t just serve as a narrative tool, it also reacts to the gameplay, helping it to be varied enough, given that the player might spend quite some time in a given club. The beats of the music even dictate the blinking of lights and the execution of actions with their corresponding sounds.
In a press statement to announce the Kickstarter campaign, Jan David Hassel, designer at inbetweengames, said:
“Drawing on our combined love of cyber-punk and film noir, as well as classic tactics and music games, All Walls Must Fall is a unique reinterpretation of those influences tied together by a healthy dose of style. We can’t wait to embark on this journey with backers to make All Walls Must Fall the best game it possibly can be.”
All Walls Must Fall is currently at a closed pre-alpha stage, which can be obtained as one of the Kickstarter rewards via itch.io. inbetweengames are aiming for a public Early Access release towards the end of 2017. As for version 1.0, the current aim is some point in 2018.
The All Walls Must Fall Kickstarter launched today and can be found here.