Former BioShock art director Scott Sinclair has assembled a team from other people who were laid off from Irrational Games to work on a new survival game called The Flame in the Flood, which is currently on Kickstarter.
Described as a “rogue-lite”, The Flame in the Flood challenges you to survive a journey by foot and raft down a procedurally generated river. Its set amid the post-societal backwaters of America and has a soundtrack composed by alt-country rock musician Chuck Ragan.
Your journey does have an end but reaching it seems unlikely, as you’ll need to scrounge for resources, evade ferocious wildlife, as well as stay warm, dry, and healthy at all times otherwise you risk being consumed by the pursuing rains and the flood they bring.
The river isn’t the only thing procedurally generated in The Flame in the Flood; practically everything is. The creatures and beasts that you encounter will react to you according to their hunger, fear, aggression, and what territory they’re in. You’ll need stealth, traps, and distractions to avoid them.
The plants and items that you come across are similarly unpredictable, which adds panic to the situation if you’re out of resources and have been inflicted with a snake bite, fatigue, hypothermia, open wounds, or an infection. Finding the wound dressings of herbal cures you need won’t be easy.
No matter how far you travel, if you let yourself get injured or infected, you will die and when you do permadeath resets you to the start of the journey. Yes, it’s cruel, but at least your faithful hound Aesop still carries whatever you left on him.
You can support The Flame in the Flood on Kickstarter right now. For $15 you can get a Windows and Mac version of the game. No other platforms for the game have been announced yet.
