From the iconic days of Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam from Midway Games in the early '90s to recent favorites like Octodad: Dadliest Catch, Organ Trail: Director's Cut, and Mortal Kombat X, Chicago has remained an essential part of the wider games industry. Right now is an especially exciting time for Chicago-spawned gaming, with many console, PC, mobile, and virtual reality (VR) projects in development across the city and surrounding suburbs.
Many promising, locally-made games are on the horizon today, and some enjoy a big national spotlight at this month's 22nd annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. Looking for some Chicago flavor in your games? Here are five big titles gaining attention that should be delighting players sometime in the next year.
Injustice 2
Developer: NetherRealm StudiosPlatforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release Date: 2017
Revealed earlier this month before an extensive E3 showing, Injustice 2 is the sequel to 2013's Injustice: Gods Among Us—a head-to-head fighting game that pit DC Comics legends against each other in brutal, yet beautifully rendered battles. Both titles hail from NetherRealm Studios, the team formed in 2010 from the wake of Midway Games' closure, and are helmed by Mortal Kombat co-creator and studio creative director, Ed Boon.
Injustice 2 doubles down on the superhero skirmishes of its predecessor, promising an even larger cast headlined by Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, of course. It also uses the added power of current console systems to deliver more extravagant arenas, which feature cinematic special attack sequences and let players utilize the terrain in combat.
Furthermore, next year's sequel brings innovation to the fighting genre in the form of a new gear system. Players will earn in-game equipment after each match, which allows them to customize their fighters' skills and appearance in meaningful ways. That helps build a personal attachment to the heroes over time, and should make this comic battler an even more enticing entry than its sharp predecessor.
The Brookhaven Experiment
Developer: Phosphor Games StudioPlatform: PC (HTC Vive)
Release Date: July 5
VR is quickly gaining steam with this spring's release of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets, and we are starting to see some truly thrilling games built around the tech. Chicago has some early VR supporters, and Phosphor Games Studio is among the first with the upcoming release of The Brookhaven Experiment. Designed for the Vive headset, it's an intense shooter that challenges players to stay alive with a mix of quick wits and very steady aim.
Phosphor is best known for epic mobile games like Horn and The Dark Meadow, and The Brookhaven Experiment started as a tech prototype that quickly became a full-blown project after winning over the team. "VR brings a presence and immersion that you can't experience in any other type of game," asserts Justin Corcoran, studio CEO. "It's hard to even describe properly—you really need to be in it and see for yourself."
Even before the release, there is a strong surge of excitement about the game: reaction videos of people playing the demo and freaking out over the massive, monstrous beasts have racked up more than 20 million views. Embracing a new market like this is challenging, between the design shifts and the limited current install base, but Corcoran remains optimistic about the opportunities. "With so few studios and games out this early, it's easier for us to demonstrate how skilled our team is at making great games, even in such a new medium," he affirms.
Manifold Garden
Developer: William ChyrPlatforms: PlayStation 4, PC/Mac/Linux
Release Date: Early 2017Within Chicago or beyond, you won't find a more mesmerizing game on the horizon than Manifold Garden. Developed independently since 2012 by visual artist William Chyr, along with help from programming contractors, Manifold Garden is an alluring puzzle experience that tosses players into an abstract world filled with surreal architecture. Players must rotate the environments, manipulate gravity, and overcome other obstacles to progress ahead.
In Chyr's original vision, the game first known as Relativity would have been done years ago. Inspired by M.C. Escher and the film Inception, the initial three-month project expanded in scale and complexity the more he worked on it. "[Manifold Garden] has grown to be much more than the original idea," he admits, noting an added gardening component as an example. "The game is now more about inhabiting interesting architectural spaces as opposed to mere puzzle solving."
Chyr credits the Chicago indie games scene—which he says "has been really wonderful"—for helping him playtest, expand upon his original concept, and lear how to market his game to prospective players. He even founded a "Design Club" to help other creators improve their games. "Chicago has been a really great community for me to be a part of as an indie developer," he says.
TumbleSeed
Developers: Benedict Fritz, Greg Wohlwend, morePlatforms: PC/Mac
Release Date: Early 2017
"How do we build this toy into a full game?" they wondered, says Fritz. Through intense design experimentation, they built something even more compelling than the original inspiration. After trying concepts like an endless runner or an arcade-style high-score game, they finally settled on the core concept earlier this year. As the game's "rolly roguelike" tag suggests, it's sure to be a challenging, survival-centric affair.
Since the initial prototypes, the pair have looped in additional team members Joel Corelitz, David Laskey, and Jenna Blazevich—but TumbleSeed remains a fully Chicago-made game. "Everyone met in the local Chicago indie scene. You just bump into people and can sense when they have similar interests and tastes to yours, and often you end up making something," affirms Fritz. "Everyone on the team has worked on other projects with people in the city. TumbleSeed is very much a game made in Chicago by people living here."
Dragon Front
Developer: High Voltage SoftwarePlatform: PC (Oculus Rift)
Release Date: 2016
Collectible card games are thriving in the digital space, driven by the immense popularity of Blizzard's free-to-play smash Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and its 40+ million players. High Voltage Software, based in Hoffman Estates, promises real innovation for the genre with this year's release of Dragon Front—a VR take on card combat.
Designed exclusively for the Oculus Rift headset and published by Oculus Studios, Dragon Front lets players experience the showdowns from an immersive, first-person view, with the fantasy-meets-dieselpunk world surrounding them. "VR in Dragon Front brings two players together in a way never before experienced in any card-battler," explains Eric Nofsinger, High Voltage's chief creative officer. "VR allows you to sit across the detailed battlefield from your opponent where fireballs, lightning, and catapults rain down around you."
High Voltage is also working on Damaged Core, a first-person shooter that will release on the Oculus Rift later this year, and between the two, the studio is making a big push into the VR market. "We get to do [VR] first, at the cost of a lot of trial and error. We are leading the way and marking the path for future VR titles," adds Nofsinger. "We couldn't be more excited to be at the leading edge of this new medium."
By Andrew Hayward - http://chicagoinno.streetwise.co
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