The Chinese Room is primarily known for highly atmospheric first-person exploration games like Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. If you’re a jerk, you might call them walking simulator specialists. Even their take on horror, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs was focused more on atmosphere than traditional game mechanics. So it’s with some surprise that we’ve learned they’re now working on an RPG heavily inspired by pen-and-paper gaming.
The developers didn’t so much announce Total Dark as they did casually mention they were building a prototype, but thanks to an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, we now know a bit about what the upcoming title will entail.
”“Total Dark actually started off as an RPG boardgame. A lot of the inspiration came from pen and paper and gamebook systems,” said studio director Dan Pinchbeck. ”Traveller, Paranoia, Twilight 2000. I’ve been looking at loads of paper-based RPGs and wargame systems.” In fact, they may still end up releasing Total Dark as a tabletop game, though for now focus is squarely on the digital version.
But for now, their focus is squarely on the PC version. ”It’s a much more traditional game, an isometric adventure with a free-floating camera and lots of mechanics,” said Pinchbeck, adding that the team is quite excited to now be working independently of major publishers on PC and engaging in a more open development process.
Total Dark is still in the very early phases, and the team hopes to have a playable prototype by the end of April.
