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Hitbox Team, the independent studio behind Dustforce, has announced it’s hard at work on new game, Spire.
The game is described as an FPS about ascending a monolithic tower of unknown origin. The internals of the tower are ever changing, meaning that the game will be different each time you play.
Although randomly generated, levels will flow naturally, says Hitbox.
“If the generator has created a dangerous, frantic sequence with lots of combat, it might think to then generate a scene with lower intensity to better control the emotional arc of the experience,” explains the dev’s blog. “In this way, Spire will generate intentional level flow instead of randomized environments. The resolution of the generation is very high: there are no premade rooms or scripted events. Everything from the placement of the books on a shelf to the shape of the walls and floors will be generated with intention.”
Exploring the tower isn’t without risks, with players encountering a host of dangers, and must use their wits and limited resources to climb as high as possible.
“Although Spire is a fantasy game, we don’t want people to think of goblins and elves,” says Hitbox. “One thing we’ve talked about a lot as a team is the opportunity to come up with non-standard creatures and items. When players encounter a new enemy, it should feel like a frightening and unfamiliar thing. Likewise, by making the items strange and unexpected, the experience of finding a new treasure is heightened – it becomes one of mystery as well as reward.”
The team is also focussing on ensuring that the best way to play will also be the most stylish, which in turn will make Spire exciting to watch. The game will incorporate walljumps, wall sliding and other advanced techniques.
“We want to make Spire a game where it’s fun to watch extremely skilled players as they sprint around dashing off walls while switching items and combining their effects in clever ways,” says the developer.
In addition to generating random spires to complete, players will also be able to compete on leaderboards for a weekly spire. This will naturally see the offline mode serve as practice for the online competition.
Look out for more on Spire in the near future.
Source: hitboxteam.com
