Anyone know anything about Cyanide's Renaissance?

[Perfect Fool]

I was browsing the Cyanide Studios front page (as I had nothing better to do on a Friday afternoon...) and stumbled across this screenshot.

In my opinion, the art direction looks rather interesting and I was wondering if anyone knew anything at all about what this is? I also know that they recently acquired the rights to develop an "A Song of Ice and Fire" game, but the character doesn't look like anything that I could reognize from the books so I don't hink that this screenshot is related to that game. Any ideas?

 

[Zed]

Screenshot doesn't work.

 

[A user named cat]

NEXT GEN BROWN

 

[Perfect Fool]

All the best games use a predominatly brown pallette, they're just carring the feel of old school excellence across to modern gaming. Besides, brown is the colour of the gods and all the best things things are mainly brown (for example Beyonce's tits or a really impressive pile of shit) so this game is bound to be pure awesome in a box, whatever the hell it's about and whatever genre it ends up being (I expect that you play a role in it, so it's probably going to be an RPG).

 

[Nickless]

Cyanide's such a shitty developer, it's a crime that the makers of Pro Cycler got the rights to A Song of Ice and Fire

 

[MetalCraze]

Didn't they make the codex-beloved Blood Bowl? That gains them some respect.

But yeah next-gen piss-gamma is annoying, I dig the visual design though.

 

[kingcomrade]

Blood Bowl was a buggy mess with dodgy AI though

 

[Zed]

There's some XTREME NEW-SHIT bloodsplatter going on there. Definitely a 9X/100 game.

 

[Perfect Fool]

So I decided to email Cyanide and ask for a bit of info, surprisinaly I got a reply...

Renaissance is a dual-character RPG viewed from the side of the orc and goblin. They play the "good guys". It's only at the prototype stage and we're looking for a publisher. So release is a long way off.

Sounds rather interesting in my opinion.

 

[Felix]

yay, Orcs and Golblins as heroes.

 

[Perfect Fool]

Well, I don't read French sufficiently proficiently to completely and distinctly understand this article, but here's the link...

http://www.gamekult.com/articles/A00000 ... tor=RSS-10

According to the google translation they're attempting to challenge RPG cliches and explore the themes of racism, acceptance and charactaristics of a culture. The biggest influence is apparently some crappy old game that nobody's heard of called Planescape: Torment.

Apparently, the reason it's not being pushed more is that the big publishers aren't interested in a game where you play an Orc, as they think that most casuals wouldn't want to pick it up.

 

[zool]

It also says that Mass Effect is a source of inspiration for the developers, particularly regarding characters, dialogue and "is relatively linear narration".

 

[laclongquan]

Orcs, Goblins, Giants oh my!

Now the game lack only pillage, rape, then burn to become a proper evil RPG.

 

[obediah]

There's some XTREME NEW-SHIT bloodsplatter going on there. Definitely a 9X/100 game.

9X? that gives me a strategy game boner!

 

[Perfect Fool]

It also says that Mass Effect is a source of inspiration for the developers, particularly regarding characters, dialogue and "is relatively linear narration".

Completely unlike Torment which had a vast, sandbox style world and non-linear plot, then?

They're aiming for the game to be published at some point, of course they're going to be making comparisons in the press between it and large selling ARPGS like ME. At least they're not suggesting that it's going to have NPC design and gameplay similar to Oblivion or Fallout 3.

Which other modern RPGs from the last few years could they compare it to? Dragon Age I suppose, but other than that there's not much else. (edit: they do also compare it to DA in the article, as the gameplay is RTwP)

I'm probably looking at Cyanide with sepia tinted glasses, but for a developer to actually suggest that their "greatest influence" is Torment is pretty heartening, even if they fail to carry it off.