Steamroller Studio’s is a band of developers who previously worked on movie and game titles such as: Avatar, The Hobbit, The Avengers, Left 4 Dead, Bioshock and Super Shock Football. They are producing a new game titled Deadwood: The Forgotten Curse and is now getting publishing help from Team 17; the makers of the Worms franchise. Deadwood: The Forgotten Curse has so far had a successful Kickstarter and at the time of writing is on $84,363 USD; surpassing it’s $65,000 goal.
Deadwood: The Forgotten Curse is described as ‘an action/adventure game with a unique survival twist’; likened to ‘Zelda meets Don’t Starve’.
You, the player, controls a teenage ‘woodling’ named Lathe who is quite handy and fancies himself an inventor. He is accompanied on this adventure with his stone giant friend named Roguard. Lathe and Roguard spend the day traversing the landscape trying to discover what exactly is happening in the lands of Knottington. Meanwhile, when the sun sets and night sets in, you have to help Lathe and Roguard set up a defensive perimeter to defend yourself against the ‘deadwood’ which are undead wooden zombies coming into to take you down.
More information regarding the character’s personalities can be found on their Kickstarter page provided earlier.
So the story has you traversing the landscape and fighting in an adventurous Legend of Zelda way. Deadwood draws from Don’t Starve by utilizing Lathe’s inventive nature where he can craft defenses and weaponry in order to protect himself and Roguard at night utilizing materials found in the world whilst travelling. The four main core defensive types provided are: Landmines, barricades, turrets and decoys. Lathe must utilize them all in order to cover each strength and weakness that they all have as he fights his way through the onslaught of enemies. To further bolster defenses, Lathe also gets a gun (possibly more weapons?) he can use to help fight off the Deadwood.
The world is promised to also be quite large with a plethora of landmarks and points of interest. Furthermore, the land will be populated with quests you would get from citizens of Knottington as you progress through the world. Filling in a vibrant world like this adds much needed substance for games with a huge world to explore.
The art style is incredibly well polished and is very vibrant for such a somewhat dark story. It’s unique and quite refreshing in both day and night sequences of the game. His weapons and defenses can also be buffed using certain ‘amber’ types that gives a unique modifier. Assumedly, these will be elemental as each amber types are color coded.
The score is also demonstrated on the Kickstarter page; with sounds and sound effects being created by Andy Lackey who has had a hand from Left 4 Dad 2, Team Fortress 2 and Ori and the Blind Forest. Furthermore, the score for the game is being headed by Luke Thomas who has worked on indie games like Land-a Panda, SmashBox and Forge Quest. A sample of his work on Deadwood can be found here.
Oh did I mention there’s a playable demo available from the Kickstarter page? Give it a go! If you like the concept, if you fall in love with the art, can’t get the music out of your head, consider kicking in! It’s already hit its goal so it’s well on its way to being made! This is definitely worth looking at! The game is set to come out for PC, Linux, Mac and through Stretch Goals, PS4 and Xbox One. You have 7 days left to kick in before it’s over!