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Tags: Consortium: The Tower; Interdimensional Games
Back in January 2016, we reported about a game called Consortium: The Tower that was seeking funding on Kickstarter. It's an RPGish/immersive sim sci-fi shooter where you play an agent tasked with resolving a hostage situation in a futuristic tower, and sequel to 2014's underrated Consortium. It made a decent impression, but that wasn't enough for it to reach its considerable funding goal of 450k Canadian dollars, and the campaign failed. But in April the developers tried again on Fig, and this time they succeeded, thanks to $250k of investment money. Since then the game has been in development, and following a private backer alpha two months ago, it's now been released to the public on Steam Early Access. Here's the release trailer and an excerpt from the Early Access FAQ:
Back in January 2016, we reported about a game called Consortium: The Tower that was seeking funding on Kickstarter. It's an RPGish/immersive sim sci-fi shooter where you play an agent tasked with resolving a hostage situation in a futuristic tower, and sequel to 2014's underrated Consortium. It made a decent impression, but that wasn't enough for it to reach its considerable funding goal of 450k Canadian dollars, and the campaign failed. But in April the developers tried again on Fig, and this time they succeeded, thanks to $250k of investment money. Since then the game has been in development, and following a private backer alpha two months ago, it's now been released to the public on Steam Early Access. Here's the release trailer and an excerpt from the Early Access FAQ:
Why Early Access?
“Early access gives you the chance to support the development of Consortium: The Tower. You will get access to roughly the first third of the game, representing enough content for 6-7 hours of gameplay, and will receive the full game upon release. What you see so far has been built over the course of the last year, and with a core team of only five highly dedicated people, each wearing a multitude of hats.
The Tower supports a wide variety of play styles. It is extremely non-linear and largely driven by gamer exploration and gameplay choices. This means there is a very large variety of custom paths through all of the content, and an unprecedented amount of replayability. You will encounter bugs and unfinished bits, and with your help over the course of our time on Early Access all bugs will be squashed, performance will be improved and new content will be made available.
In addition - the remainder of the game's narrative is highly scalable, so too are some of the simulation features. We have a core story we want to tell, and a host of characters to tell it with, but many of the details can and will be tweaked based on player feedback and support. This process has already been tested via our Fig backer community, and we’re very excited to open things up to a wider audience less familiar with our gameworld.”
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“8-15 months, depending on many factors, upon which the entire story will be released and the game will be brought out of Early Access.”
Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“Yes.
The current price will be raised over the course of the project as additional content and features are brought online.”
How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“We are extremely keen to involve the community and plan to prioritize any new content and features based directly on player feedback.
With each update, estimated to be once every two weeks, we will openly give credit for any features, fixes or changes that result from community feedback to us.”
Right now Consortium: The Tower costs $25. Immersive sims have not done so well recently, so I wonder how the game will fare. Anybody care to give it a try?“Early access gives you the chance to support the development of Consortium: The Tower. You will get access to roughly the first third of the game, representing enough content for 6-7 hours of gameplay, and will receive the full game upon release. What you see so far has been built over the course of the last year, and with a core team of only five highly dedicated people, each wearing a multitude of hats.
The Tower supports a wide variety of play styles. It is extremely non-linear and largely driven by gamer exploration and gameplay choices. This means there is a very large variety of custom paths through all of the content, and an unprecedented amount of replayability. You will encounter bugs and unfinished bits, and with your help over the course of our time on Early Access all bugs will be squashed, performance will be improved and new content will be made available.
In addition - the remainder of the game's narrative is highly scalable, so too are some of the simulation features. We have a core story we want to tell, and a host of characters to tell it with, but many of the details can and will be tweaked based on player feedback and support. This process has already been tested via our Fig backer community, and we’re very excited to open things up to a wider audience less familiar with our gameworld.”
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“8-15 months, depending on many factors, upon which the entire story will be released and the game will be brought out of Early Access.”
Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“Yes.
The current price will be raised over the course of the project as additional content and features are brought online.”
How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“We are extremely keen to involve the community and plan to prioritize any new content and features based directly on player feedback.
With each update, estimated to be once every two weeks, we will openly give credit for any features, fixes or changes that result from community feedback to us.”
