Aaryn Flynn Talks About Nightingale’s Magical 19th Century Victorian Era World
Inflexion Games CEO and former BioWare General Manager Aaryn Flynn shares more information about Nightingale and the concept behind the recently-announced shared world survival crafting game.
As we note last week, Nightingale is set in a fantastical Victorian Gaslamp universe where humans have learned to use magical portals to travel from one realm to another using magic from the Fae, mysterious beings that were thought to be long gone but have suddenly reappeared. Whether directly or indirectly, the Fae’s return caused the portal network to collapse and stranding players in far-off realms.
The players, known as Realmwakers, must make their way back to the titular city of Nightingale. In order to do that, they must travel from one realm to the next while gathering the necessary tools and equipment they need to overcome the dangers and challenges within each realm.
“Nightingale sets players on the journey of the Realmwalker where they must survive across the myriad of increasingly-dangerous realms. Explore alone or band together with other survivors, obtaining valuable materials to construct settlements, and craft vital tools and weaponry as you fight against deadly monstrosities and the Fae, humanity’s magical rivals.”
“When you decide to go exploring in these realms, you get to make choices about how you want to tackle the adventures, how you want to participate in them,” said Flynn in an interview with Eurogamer.
“In our trailer, there's a really nice moment in there that's meant to show the dichotomy the world will present - where a giant is bending down to receive an offering from players. That's one way you can solve that encounter. A bit later in the trailer, there's a bunch of Realmwalkers in combat with the giant - and the giant is rampaging through the community they built. That's another way to try to solve it. Each challenge has different outcomes and each decision has different consequences.”
Players will be able to grow and improve their characters and even build bases, farms, and estates as they travel from realm to realm. Flynn also confirmed that there will be no PvP in the game. While most players will probably be disappointed, not having to worry about ambushes or griefing will allow players to relax and enjoy the scenery as they explore an alternate version of the 19th century Victorian era.
“This alternate history idea is something we didn't explore at BioWare,” continued Flynn. “You know, Mass Effect is ostensibly a future with an alternate history, but we didn't really touch on that. When we began the studio, we had been thinking for a long time about an alternate history game and just loved the Victorian era, which is great in that it offers something of the contemporary even at a point that's 100-plus years old.”
“There's a lot of familiarity in the contemporary that exists in the Victorian - people dress approximately like they do [now] although it's different enough that you go ‘that's interesting,’” he added. “Weapons, guns and things like that are familiar enough to be recognisable, even if a little more primitive. And then you layer on this idea of magic and what you can do with a really cool magic system. It's a really interesting setting with lots of opportunities for storytelling.”
Inflexion is still keeping information on Nightingale tightly under wraps but we’ll probably be hearing more about the game next year as the developers prepare for playtesting. The studio has yet to announce a release window.
