(Image credit: Improbable, Inflexion Games) Audio-Player loading For the first time in 2019 before the announcement, Nightingale billed itself as a gaming platform, the first game by a new studio built under Improbable, creators of a cloud-based multiplayer platform. That company lauded the focus of a player agency and pointed out that it was a source of inspiration for Neverwinter Nights’ player-produced content. Inflexion Games, a new name of the studio, is now discussing something which has become a shared-world crafting-survival game set in a magical Victorian era. While this genre has changed, it seems that Nightingale still has some roots planted in old BioWare RPGs. After announcing Nightingale last week and the announcement of the trailer, Flynn talked with Eurogamer about its plans and the choice-based way players can solve problems in the world. “When we started the studio, we had been thinking about an alternate history game for a long time and just liked the Victorian era,” says Flynn. “This alternative history idea is something we didn’t explore at BioWare. You know Mass Effect is a future with an alternate history, but we haven’t really said it yet. Nightingale’s formerly weird old-school scene is a magic Victorian era where magical portals can travel to other realms. The real world-religious characters that become Realmwalkers are stuck in these alternate worlds to survive and find a way home to the magical city. That’s how you could find yourself like a lady in the pink petticoat ensemble chopping trees in the woods to build a house. “We thought of what we would build in this game and what players would do in this game,” Flynn said, and mentioning the passion of Inflexion, the passion for world-building, and the desire to create a world that is highly interactive and that really empowers players to do what they want. Despite the trailer and Inflexion’s initial descriptions, that magical Victorian era seemed like a pretty old fashioned era, but it would have been its usual survival romp of the day if he was drenched with fancier hats. In the trailer, we show first-person combat, chopping trees, building structures and other usual crafting activities. There are also giant creatures living in alternate realms, which can fight for some extra flair. Flynn’s latest comments about Nightingale’s sandbox-y qualities sound more like an emphasis on choice-based RPGs I associate with BioWare. She described in the trailer, two parts of the show-show; she said that “there’s a really nice moment here that shows the dichotomy the world will presentwhere a giant is bending to receive an offer from the players”. It’s one way you can solve the problem. The other way, as shown in the trailer later, is several players in battle with an eminent soldier who’s stomping through their community. Each challenge is different and each decision has different consequences. Flynn also mentions that Nightingale’s NPCs are quest givers, which is a bit more character interaction than often used to create survival games in populated wildernesses. The simple addition of these new details, as in other studios in the past year, makes it sound like Inflexion has compiled some interesting tips for the craft handwriting-survival recipe. Nightingale doesn’t have a release date yet, as far as Inflexion says playtesting will begin in 2022.
