One of the indie scene’s most popular genres is the roguelike, which means developers are constantly being challenged to come up with creative new ideas. Now, one such indie studio has done just that.
Announced via press release, newly established studio Team Instant Defeat has teamed up with 11 bit studios (creators of This War of Mine, Frostpunk and publishers of Children of Morta and Moonlighter) to bring gamers Volatiles—an action roguelike where players have to build their battlefield one tile at a time. The announcement came alongside a dark and creepy trailer to highlight the game’s vibe and style.
In Volatiles, the fight for survival takes place in the mind of the player character, and each run sends you deeper into an analog sci-fi nightmare. Players take on the role of a character locked in a covert lab with no memory of how they got there, only told that this is “treatment.” But something buried in the recesses of their mind is feeding them visions of battlefields and battles that shouldn’t exist. Players aren’t alone in this nightmare, and somewhere outside it, strangers are watching closely, while whatever is growing in your mind is learning how to take control.
Every run starts with a single tile, and quickly evolves as players expand the battlefield by fighting through nightmarish hordes, gathering experience, and levelling up. How they build their battlefield becomes a large part of the strategy—as each tile brings new weapons, upgrades and risky synergies. However, as each new tile changes the shape of the battlefield, players are just as likely to get trapped in narrow spaces and overrun by the approaching hoard, so how they build is tantamount to their success.
No release date has been set for Volatiles; however, players can currently wishlist the game on Steam.
