Chase: Broken Roads
Steam header art
Developer(s)Drop Bear Bytes
Publisher(s)Versus Evil
Platform(s)Windows, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
Release2024[1]
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Broken Roads is an upcoming 2024 video game by independent developer Drop Bear Bytes to be published by Versus Evil for Windows, Xbox Series X/S, and the Nintendo Switch. Described as a post-apocalyptic computer role-playing game,[2] Broken Roads is set in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The game has been compared to non-traditional dialogue-based role-playing games, such as Disco Elysium, in featuring a mechanic described the 'Moral Compass', that responds to moral choices made by the player.

Gameplay

Broken Roads is a role-playing game in which players will accompany a party of up to five characters and participate in a "blend of turn-based tactical combat (and) traditional and original" role-playing mechanics.[2] The game will feature a 'Moral Compass' system in which player actions, including choices made in dialogue and quests, are represented on a map between four quadrants, 'utilitarian', 'humanist', 'machiavellian' and 'nihilist' positions. The player's position on the Moral Compass will provide the player with traits affecting gameplay mechanics.[3] The player's companions and key characters feature their own compass, which will affect their reaction to the player's statements and choices.[4]

Development

Broken Roads is being developed by Drop Bear Bytes, an independent Australian developer based in Torquay founded by director Craig Ritchie in 2019.[5] Development began in January 2019,[5] with a reveal trailer released to the public in October of that year.[6] Broken Roads received support from several Australian state government arts programs, including funding from the Victorian Government's Assigned Production Investment Games program in 2020 and 2021,[7] and from the Queensland Government's Digital Games Incentive in August 2022.[8] A demo of the game was released on Steam in June 2023.[4] In December 2023, Versus Evil, the project's publisher, became defunct.[9][10][11]

The Australian setting and identity became a major component of the design of Broken Roads over time. Originally conceived to take place within a generic setting, Ritchie found Australia's "conflicted culture", including its legacies of colonialism and genocide, provided an effective balance between "humor, fun and levity" with "serious, adult themes (and) tough questions".[12] During development, the scope of the game was narrowed from across the Australian continent to a setting in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia.[12] The developers visited the region several times during pre-production to capture reference images to depict several of the area's landmarks and landscapes in-game.[13]

The development team engaged the input of Indigenous elders to capture the "respectful and authentic" representation of Indigenous Australians in the setting of the game.[13] In 2019, Drop Bear Bytes hired Yorta Yorta and Ngarrindjeri writer Cienan Muir as a 'narrative consultant' for the game. Cienan stated that his role was to provide a "critical eye" in and provide a chance to "get creative and let (his) own stories have some influence" in the game's narrative.[14] Australian stage and screen actor Uncle Jack Charles was originally cast as a narrator in the game, featuring in a release trailer,[15] but passed away in September 2022 before his participation in the game could be finalised.[13]

The game was strongly influenced by earlier non-traditional role-playing games with an emphasis on dialogue. Narrative lead Leanne Taylor-Giles stated that, like in Fallout, the game was designed to provide players with "all kinds of different ways to approach each problem", including pacifistic approaches with dialogue.[16] Drop Bear Bytes enlisted several industry veterans, including creative lead Colin McComb, who had worked on Fallout 2 and Planescape: Torment, cited by Ritchie as "big influences" on Broken Roads,[17] and Leanne Taylor-Giles, who had worked with McComb on Torment: Tides of Numenera.[18] In 2022, Dean Baron, a well known Tasmanian game developer joined the team making this the third Australian state currently to have a hand in development.[19] Pre-release reception of Broken Roads identified similar comparisons, with IGN writing that the game "has the potential to be the next game in the Planescape: Torment lineage of deeply introspective, talky RPGs",[20] and PC Gamer describing the game as having the "potential to become the next Disco Elysium", citing its "philosophical" approach.[18]

References

  1. ↑ Spindler, Emily. "Aussie-Made Post-Apocalyptic RPG Broken Roads Delayed To 2024". Kotaku. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  2. 1 2 Wales, Matt (24 August 2021). "Post-apocalyptic cRPG Broken Roads looks like an Australian Fallout". Eurogamer.
  3. ↑ Sharp, Jamie (17 November 2019). "Broken Roads's moral compass will make you panic about every decision". Rock Paper Shotgun.
  4. 1 2 Macgregor, Jody (11 June 2023). "You can play a demo of the 'Aussie Fallout' CRPG Broken Roads on Steam". PC Gamer.
  5. 1 2 "Developer Interview: Broken Roads". Press Play News. 27 January 2023.
  6. ↑ Craddock, Ryan (1 October 2019). "Broken Roads Is A Narrative-Driven RPG That'll Test Your Morals, And It's Coming To Switch". Nintendo Life.
  7. ↑ "Making Career-Changing Leaps in Digital Games". Vic Screen. 25 February 2021.
  8. ↑ "Screen Queensland Announces $1 Million Funding For The Digital Games Industry". Screen Queensland. 22 August 2022.
  9. ↑ Carter, Justin (December 22, 2023). "Indie publisher Versus Evil has shut down". Game Developer. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
  10. ↑ Stedman, Alex (December 22, 2023). "Indie Publisher Versus Evil Is Shutting Down, Entire Staff Laid Off". IGN. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Versus Evil to shut down [Update]". Gematsu. 2023-12-22. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  12. 1 2 Lawardorn, Damien (9 September 2021). "Broken Roads Challenges Your Philosophy in Innovative Ways in a Doomed Australia – Interview". Escapist Magazine.
  13. 1 2 3 McManus, Sam (27 June 2023). "Red dirt and heritage pubs of WA's Wheatbelt play host to new dystopian video game Broken Roads". ABC News.
  14. ↑ Maxwell, Jini (9 July 2021). "Bringing Indigenous cultural expertise to videogame development". Screen Hub.
  15. ↑ Maxwell, Jini (25 August 2021). "New Broken Roads trailer stars Uncle Jack Charles, as game signs with Team17". Screen Hub.
  16. ↑ MacGregor, Jody (19 May 2023). "You'll be able to finish post-apocalyptic CRPG Broken Roads as a pacifist". PC Gamer.
  17. ↑ Walker, Alex (25 August 2021). "What's Happening With Broken Roads, The Philosophical, Post-Apocalyptic Australian RPG". Kotaku.
  18. 1 2 Savage, Phil (28 September 2022). "Broken Roads has the potential to become the next Disco Elysium". PC Gamer.
  19. ↑ "DROP BEAR BYTES AT GCAP AND PAX 2022". Drop Bear Bytes Dev Log. 14 October 2022.
  20. ↑ Purslow, Matt (10 October 2022). "Broken Roads Will Torment You With Character-Altering Moral Choices (and That's Brilliant)". IGN.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.