Frostpunk trailer hints at how a city builder can continue themes from This War of Mine
This War of Mine is a stark survival management sim set in a warzone. Frostpunk is a science fiction city builder. And yet: we can see lines of continuity here.
This War of Mine developer 11 bit Studios has released a new trailer for its next project, a city builder called Frostpunk first announced in August 2016. (You might remember The Fall, its first trailer.)
Set in an extreme climate, Frostpunk has players carving out living space from solid ice, converting it to steam to power their endeavours.
If that seems a far cry from 11 bit's early work, we're with you - but the indie team says Frostpunk will be all about making hard decisions and living with the consequence. You can probably see how that echoes themes of This War of Mine.
It's interesting to see how 11 bit chose to present this in a cinematic trailer. Rather than show a player making choices in a menu and then scanning forward to show the impact, which rarely works well, we get the same scenario playing out on a smaller scale. The climber thinks about dropping his friend to save himself, but doesn't do it fast enough, and they both die. That's a neat illustration.
Speaking to Eurogamer, 11 bit staff hinted that Frostpunk will include cannibalism and even worse threats than the terrible weather (which is terrifying enough).
So pretty grim stuff again there, but this time on a societal level rather than a personal one, as players craft a city rather than manage a small group. In line with this change, 11 bit has 60 people on board Frostpunk as opposed to the 12 who made This War of Mine.
Look for Frostpunk on PC in the second half of the year.