What is the Genre of The Barren Kingdoms?
The Barren Kingdoms is a third-person sandbox adventure in which the player can toy with physics and different interacting gameplay systems. We tried to take inspiration from a variety of different genres and media to create a fresh approach to non-linear adventure games!
What kind of setting does The Barren Kingdoms take place in?
We see the backstory and lore of The Barren Kingdoms as a huge motivation for the players to discover and immerse into the world. We’re planning on expanding the story in the future, so players can explore, find secrets, lost places and bits of lore. What we can tell, without spoilers, is that The Barren Kingdoms takes place in a twisted mixture of fantasy and sci-fi, where ancient kingdoms seem to be long forgotten. The players’ task is to find out what happened, and maybe even reverse the incidents that led to The Kingdoms becoming Barren.
When will The Barren Kingdoms be released?
We are very early in the development and do not have a set release date. Current versions will be uploaded on itch to show our game to interested players - like you - and get feedback to further improve it. Once we get closer to a release date, we will inform our players via social media and our Discord.
On which Platforms will I be able to play The Barren Kingdoms?
Currently we are focussing to release on Windows PC. Our current Milestone does not include other platforms like MacOS, Linux or even Consoles, though we might expand on some of those platforms in the future.
What are your plans in the near future?
We’re currently focusing on improving and polishing the present gameplay features and art assets. This polishing phase will continue until our next milestone in late August. After that we will take a step back and evaluate the state of the game, to refocus and decide where to go from there. We will keep you updated on that process, and where the game is headed.
Can we customize our Controls?
In our current development process we focus on improving the present system. We know that custom controls are a feature a lot of people would love to see, so we totally have that in our minds. It is currently not in development, but it is on our list.
Will The Barren Kingdoms be translated/localized?
As of now the game has english texts. We know that some of you would love to see a localized version and we are talking about this internally. Since this game does not have a lot of text and most of the gameplay is about experimenting and testing things out anyway, we do not feel the strong need to focus on localization for now. We will revisit this topic once we go further into development.
What is your origin story?
The main Ghost Assembly team met through Master’s Studies in Game Design at the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg in early 2019. From day one, we knew that we were going to be good friends, which turned out to be true.We’ve started this project as part of our classes and put a lot of our study and free time into it. Luckily we came equipped with complementary skill sets and were joined by two super talented sound & music producers later on!
Currently we’re evaluating different approaches on how to take this project further, and you - the players - play a huge role in keeping us focused and motivated.
What Engine do you use?
Unity
What is the current and planned content?
We are currently focussing on creating a small non-linear world with different areas and gameplay systems. We have ideas on expanding both the world and the gameplay, but right now we want to create a finished vertical slice (a game that is not complete, but gives a good idea of gameplay, art and vision) with a play time of about 10-40 minutes, depending on the playstyle and the level of exploration.
Can you add feature XY?
If you want to pitch a feature or ask if anything is in development you can use our Feedback channel on Discord, itch.io or our Social Media to keep in touch with us. We appreciate all your ideas and requests, but keep in mind, that we have to evaluate every step we take carefully and cannot implement every request. Right now we are focussing on polishing the current state of the game, and all our ideas to expand the gameplay are laid off until later.
Do you have a Publisher?
We do not have a publishing deal with any company, yet, though we have been in talks with some. We shall continue to do so after our next milestone this summer. (And when it’s possible to meet people again. ;)