Size Five Games has resurrected its “Spelunky-meets-Deus Ex” 2D steampunk thieving game The Swindle, and hopes to release it on PC in 2015.
You play as yourself in charge of a thieving racket operated from an airship in the sky. From there, you hire thieves to break into buildings, hack into their security systems, and steal as much cash as possible.
All of the properties are procedurally generated so you’re always venturing into unknown territory. The thieves you hire are expendable but do come with their own unique skillsets.
Currently, you can spend your money to upgrade the thieves and buy them new tools in order to break into bigger buildings. But Size Five is currently toying with the idea of upgrades being attached to thieves, so that if they die, you lose your investments—having the sting of death that XCOM does.
The Swindle was cancelled last year due to it not being very fun, apparently. But, enough people were disappointed about the cancellation that Size Five decided to change a few things and add procedurally generated levels, discovering that the game became very fun in the process. Or so the story goes.
“I suck at stealth games, I have neither the patience nor the disposition to creep slowly behind someone hoping they don’t turn around on an AI’s whim. The Swindle is my answer to that,” Dan Marshall of Size Five said.
“[I]t’s in your interest to remain undetected as long as possible on a heist, but being discovered and setting all the alarm bells ringing feels more like an inevitability than a fail state. At that point, the game switches from being a sneaky-sneaky stealth game to an all-out-action race against the clock,” Marshall added.
There’s more information about The Swindle on its website.
