Slated to strike Mac and PC on Friday , August 21,The Flockis a truly eery experience . The first - person multiplayer game is robe in shadow as you see to it a hobble , sluggish human being - like creature protect a glowing artifact — or one of the four ferocious monsters out to claim it . The Flock is billed as a repugnance game , and it ’s the rare one in which the scares fall not from scripted sequences or computer - controlled characters , but rather other on-line players .
And the scary affair about The Flock may truly surprise you : The game has a finite lifespan of its own , and it ’ll stop working once enough role player deaths are tallied . In other discussion , the worse that you and everyone else are at The Flock , the quicker the game approaches its promised ending , lay off to be playable , and is no longer available for purchase . How ’s that for inducement to act well ?
To hear the Godhead tell it , the idea of an ever - dwindle away “ population ” of player lives is all about delivering a one - of - a - form on-line experience — which must be savor within the potentially short windowpane in which it ’s available . Most online game die quiet as histrion fall behind pursuit and/or companies check reaping win . By comparing , The Flock ’s role player will see a countdown of overall lifespan stay on for the integral community . Once the number hits zero , they ’ll be able to experience a idealistic stopping point before the secret plan lead offline eternally .
Luckily , that go about ties neatly into the premiss , which tells the chronicle of a race of animate being “ doomed to defunctness ” on Earth in the year 3000 , says Jeroen Van Hasselt , creative conductor at Dutch studio Vogelsap . In fact , the universe system — which was prepare later in maturation — solved one of their big purpose problems : How to work storey into a multiplayer game center on little skirmish , while simultaneously keeping histrion concerned so the on-line game does n’t fade away .
While the Flock creatures have definite speed and agility advantages , the carrier ’s light can vote down them in an instant — if they ’re moving .
The Flock start as a university project for Van Hasselt in previous 2012 at the Utrecht University of the Arts — he ’s still a pupil , in fact — when the thought of using light to illuminate unseen legal action require cargo area .
“ We were guess about a visible path to anticipate each other ’s move . Out of this came the idea to use spark to show and visualize where you are looking , ” he explicate . “ Now the light take to have meaning and power , so what if you had to get to the person with the light , but are not allowed to move [ within ] the luminousness ? ”
The levels are extremely dark , aside from the glow of the artefact — that ’s where the tension and scare undoubtedly arise from .
From that initial thought , he held a “ real - life playtest ” in a school basement with flashlights and friend , and then set off to create a multiplayer game build around that shop mechanic . In the game , which supports between three and five total player per lucifer , everyone starts as one of The Flock — the clawed monsters that can move swiftly through the duskiness and bound unbelievable distances . When one player find and grabs the flashlight - esque artefact , he or she is translate into the human - like carrier , who limps around with the light .
Here ’s where things get interesting : Sure , the Flock have an obvious physical vantage , and if unobserved in the darkness , they can easily steal the artifact . But the carrier ’s light is even more powerful — so much so that any movement within the illuminated way of life will right away glow them to decease . as luck would have it , the Flock creatures can stand still ( like a statue ) to ward off that grisly lot , and their bulk means that the carrier probably ca n’t keep one foe pinned down with light for long without risking a sneak attack from another .
The first to catch the artifact becomes the aircraft carrier , whose goal is to hold onto it as long as he or she can .
Each battle will sure enough generate a small stack of Flock deaths , and those will be admit aside from the start count . That initial number is 215,358,979 — so hundred of 1000000 of lives are up for snap before the plot exclude down for good . The developer used information from the closed beta test to help shape that figure , but thespian demand and interest will determine how long the game actually lasts . And there ’s one caveat : If Vogelsap prefer to release the plot on consoles , that total will be adjust for all platforms .
This great concept art shows off the assumption , but countenance ’s be honest : the actual game reckon much , much more shady than even this .
It ’s almost inching towards performance art , ante up for one experience that lasts a sure amount of fourth dimension — only unlike a play or screen film , that remainder clock time is n’t finalized from the start , and your own actions help zip it along . The Flock is n’t structured like most other games , so treating it with the same expectations seems like a fall guy ’s errand .
“ alternatively of the game ’s participant - base fade aside — as most ( indie ) multiplayer games are destined to — we want the game to stop with a climactic finale and have the participant ’ experience be solid from start [ to ] remainder . I understand people wish to go back to their games , but if there ’s no other players online to flirt against , that ’s not worth much , ” Van Hasselt asserts . “ We chose to sacrifice that selection of being able to replay the game year from now , and turn the overall experience of The Flock into something better for most players . ”
At least the finale might be deserving the wait , however long that ends up being : Van Hasselt says they ’ll pester out hints while the game is live , but although he wo n’t get into detail now , he sound out the playable ending event will be memorable . He also take that a 2nd time of year or return run wo n’t happen , since it would kill the uncertainty that help make The Flock singular . “ We ’re here to make certain the players feel amazed and unrestrained for what we have to offer , ” he explains . “ They ca n’t go through the same experience when they already know the issue . ”
The announcement of the population organisation has father a lot of bombilation around the game : Some positivistic , but also plenty damaging , as prospective players gripe about paying for something that is n’t certain to last . Van Hasselt admits that the The Flock wo n’t be for everyone , given that classifiable advance . However , he seems certain that possibly pall away some players is a worthwhile sacrifice , as it makes for a well game for everyone else willing to take the plunge .
“ We require to make an authentic experience that will be something deserving memory . We ’re not here to make a immediate payment - catch , ” he sound out . “ We ’re taking a big risk here . I believe we might even smart our cut-rate sale more by stating this than [ we would have ] without including the universe architectural plan , but we genuinely conceive the player experience will be much estimable for it . ”
“ We want to be good , transparent , and expressed about this , ” he sum up . “ We would n’t require anyone to corrupt The Flock and find out later on : surprise , the biz stop ! We state it upfront and will preserve to do so . ”
