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This War of Mine dev unveils "deeply serious" new game Frostpunk

"We're putting human nature under a microscope."

11 bit Studios, creator of This War of Mine, has finally unveiled the game it has been whispering about for a year: Frostpunk. This is the studio's big new game, its biggest ever - the 11 bit game I wrote about recently using its codename Industrial.

Still the details are thin but we know Frostpunk will be about humans surviving on a frozen world using steam-powered technology (AKA steampunk, hence Frostpunk). What lengths will they go to? What lengths will you go to? Sounds a bit like This War of Mine.

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Frostpunk is based in strategy and management but uses empathy and decision making as the core mechanics rather than resource management and optimisation. It isn't clear how this works.

The press release mentions a "distinctive visual style" but there's no screenshot evidence of it. The first trailer is a CGI teaser.

11 bit's creative director Michal Drozdowski said: "This is a deeply serious game created for a mature gamer.

"Looking back at This War of Mine, we're pushing boundaries even further, but we're not pointing at reality in the same fashion. We're putting human nature under a microscope to ask about what happens when people need to stay alive."

Frostpunk is a PC-only game for the time being, with a release date of Q2 2017.

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