In a world saturated by technology, The Long Dark wants to simulate "what-if?" moments of isolation, struggle, and survival, when our digital lives get stripped away. Hinterland Games , a brand new indie studio full of veteran developers is pitching the first-person game as a Kickstarter project, according to its official website .
The game aims to put you, as bush pilot William Mackenzie, behind the controls of a small plane delivering mail to a remote corner of the Pacific Northwest. After seeing some a strange aurora, the plane loses altitude and crashes. Mackenzie must now plot the possibilities for his own survival away from the trappings of civilization.
"Ultimately, we want to draw players into an experience that is thought-provoking, but is also beautiful," said creative director Raphael van Lierop in a video introducing the project. "And we want them to be connected and engaged with the world we are creating. Which means, there has to be something there that is magical. And I think that's one of the reasons that for us the aurora is such an important symbol. It's a visual metaphor for how the world has changed. It's a visual metaphor for the power of nature."
The team at Hinterland Games brings some heavyweight experiences in game development to the indie project. Team members have worked previously on games like Far Cry 3, the Saints Row series, and League of Legends, among many others. Although the concept of post-disaster survival has seen prominent expression across a range of media, including games , it's the proposed setting of The Long Dark that looks especially intriguing. The vast forests of the Canadian and American Pacific Northwest are their own kind of alien landscape. They can be just as remote and brutal an environment as any imagined dimension or fantasy world. I look forward to seeing how the years of development experience behind Hinterland brings it to life.
The Kickstarter for The Long Dark runs through Oct. 16.
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