Hey, I’m Stephan Logier, Inventive Director right here at Thunder Lotus Video games. It’s an honor to fulfill you all to current our new recreation, 33 Immortals, a co-op action-roguelike for 33 gamers!
I joined Thunder Lotus a number of years in the past to go up a brand-new group constructing the studio’s very first on-line multiplayer title. Our purpose: to create an modern multiplayer co-op expertise set in our signature immersive, hand-drawn artwork and animation model.
It’s been an extended journey to succeed in that purpose, and I can actually say that we’re very pleased with what we’re revealing as we speak. However let’s take it from the highest!
At first… the one factor we knew was that we wished Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” to be the muse for our recreation world. To the uninitiated, “The Divine Comedy” is a 14th century Italian poem, a bonafide literary traditional, and a private favourite of our studio founder and plenty of members of our group. We had settled on our inspirational supply, however nearly every little thing else concerning the recreation was a clean slate.
The group and I started by deeply exploring the historic context, spiritual symbolism, and mythology of “The Divine Comedy”, to tease out what we might deliver into the universe of our recreation. As epic as the story of Dante’s journey by way of the afterlife could also be, in an actual sense the important thing story in a multiplayer recreation is the one gamers are creating in-game, on the fly. We wanted to take the literary setting as a basis, upon which we’d create a world filled with unbelievable creatures and epic surroundings wherein it could make sense to have many gamers combating collectively.
Finally, we settled on our key concepts: what if gamers have been souls within the afterlife, condemned to everlasting punishment in Inferno? What in the event that they have been to insurgent towards their destiny, risking the Wrath of God within the course of? What if all the good characters of “The Divine Comedy” have been serving to them on their journey?
With the essential setting squared away, we bought all the way down to the specifics of gameplay. I’ve at all times been fascinated by the big scale of raids and epic multiplayer missions present in MMOs. However the barrier to entry into raids – the mandatory time funding, the preparation and follow – as a participant, I discovered these items to be a flip off. This raised the query: what if we made a recreation that permit gamers soar into epic, social, and cooperative raid experiences immediately? We concentrated our efforts on making the soar into every run as fast and seamless as potential – to make this a “decide up and raid” expertise for… what number of gamers?
Admittedly, we didn’t resolve on 33 immediately. We started to prototype our recreation with the concept of many gamers getting into a world, grouping organically to face the difficulties, and progressively becoming a member of collectively to combat a huge boss. And as we have been beginning to contemplate constructing the sport round 32 gamers, I wished to pick out a singular quantity to hold our fantasy and world. “The Divine Comedy” has 100 chapters and is split into three main sections: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, every with 33 chapters! It was settled: 33 Immortals was born!
So, we tie all of it collectively: in 33 Immortals, you’re a renegade within the revolt of souls, a soldier in a combat in your everlasting life. Runs are fast, punchy, and really difficult – loss of life can and can occur typically (as can occur once you defy the Almighty). However gamers can optimize their builds to match their playstyle, mixing and matching weapons, perks, and chronic upgrades to steadily enhance their revolt’s odds of success.
Every recreation session ends with an enormous raid-like Boss encounter, difficult the rebels to cooperate to counter lethal assaults and defeat their gigantic opponent. Above all, 33 Immortals actively encourages gamers to collaborate all through the runs, to make sure that the biggest and strongest group potential survives by way of to the boss fights.
There’s a lot extra to inform – however we now have a highway forward of us too! 33 Immortals will launch on Xbox Sequence X|S, Home windows PC, and with Xbox Sport Cross and PC Sport Cross in 2024. Till then, we’re inviting you to come back assist us make the sport as epic as potential, by taking part within the 33 Immortals Beta later this yr.
Head to www.33immortals.com to be taught extra. We hope to see you there!