At GDC 2024, New Zealand-based developer A44 (known for 2018’s Ashen) provided an updated look at Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, its upcoming action RPG that sits between God of War and a lite, more accessible version of the Soulslike genre.
A44 is now composed of around 65 employees, and they’ve been working on this game for quite a while. Flintlock fantasy novels inspire the game’s original setting with a striking central theme: Gods wielding magic versus armies made of regular people wielding guns from a Napoleonic era.
At the beginning of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, main character Nor Vanek is attempting to close the door of the ‘Great Below’ death realm to prevent the dead from rising. Unfortunately, the mission heavily backfires and not only is the portal still open, the Gods have been unleashed in the world, too.
Gameplay-wise, A44 is attempting to blend melee and ranged gameplay in a completely seamless fashion. For instance, the flintlock pistols are very important because they provide Nor Vanek with the ability to interrupt otherwise unblockable and unparryable break attacks coming from foes. Deadly secondary weapons like rifles and grenades are available, too.
The main character will also encounter heavily armored enemies that sometimes are equipped with shields, but their armor can be shredded thanks to Nor Vanek’s true ace in the sleeve, the fox-like God Enki. With Enki, Nor Vanek can ‘prime’ foes by filling a bar that can rip their armor and/or perform glory kills with the melee weapon or the pistol. Eventually, the companion can help distract or stun foes, teleport the player around, and even acquire the special skills of a boss character after defeating them. Moreover, Enki can be equipped to inflict other debuffs like poisons and weakness, and a Withering gauge will build to a devastating Ultimate attack from the duo.
Mobility is very important to A44’s quest to provide an easier Soulslike game by ‘freeing the user from the environments’. As such, the black powder double jump and double dodge are completely free at any time, without cooldowns or resource costs associated with them. Players will build a multiplier for the main currency of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, reputation, by defeating enemies, discovering new zones, and chaining unique combat and traversal moves.
However, the multiplier and the additional reputation gained will be lost upon receiving a hit. You can, however, choose to ‘bank’ the reputation at any time and reset the multiplier to zero. Reputation can be spent to unlock new skills in the three main talent trees (Powder, Magic, and Steel), but it’s also needed alongside regular resources to craft upgrades for your equipment.
Unsurprisingly, there will be plenty of boss fights in the game, which the developer described as unique and challenging. The armor and weapon systems are designed to give players more ways to play, and the armor sets provide synergy bonuses. Visually, the developers were inspired by New Zealand’s own Southern Island to craft certain regions of the world of Kian. The game is expected to last between 12 and 15 hours for the main story, while it’ll require 20 hours to do everything.
After the presentation, we interviewed Creative Director Simon Dasan for more info on Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn ahead of its planned Summer release window on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X. It will also be released on the Game Pass subscription service.
You mentioned that the flintlock setting was employed by multiple authors across many books. Is there a specific one you’ve drawn inspiration from?
No, there isn’t a specific one. We actually consulted with a few of the authors really early on in development. Just like we wanted to stamp our brand in the Soulslike genre, we want to do the same when it comes to the flintlock fantasy genre setting as well.
You use the term wide linear to describe the level layout. But as we saw a moment ago for this biome, there is like a larger open world map. Do you have free rein once you’re in that specific biome to go where you wish, or is the game still kind of guiding you toward key points of interest?
You will be guided through the main path. Off of that, you’ll have side content that you can go and explore. We do describe ourselves as a wide linear game for that reason, it’s not really an open world per se. There’s distinct zones that you can travel into.
Can you travel to a previous zone?
You can, yeah.
Do the encounters scale up to what your current power level is, or will there be optional content in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn that you may not be able to complete the first time you’re there that you might have to come back a second time for?
Yep, there’s definitely some mini-boss encounters in the game that I’d be very surprised if players can beat them the first time. You’ll almost certainly have to come back.
How does upgrading your equipment, whether it’s your weapons or your armor, work?
Throughout the world, you’ll find resources. With them and your reputation, you can upgrade your armor as well as your weapons. What will happen is, throughout the course of the game, you’ll be seeking to reunite your band of Coalition settlers. Each one of them will allow you to upgrade a different piece of your arsenal.
When you upgrade your arsenal, does it add new abilities, or is it just a stat increase?
It can be a little bit of both. But primarily what you’re doing is you’re increasing the type of damage that it will deal. We had an axe earlier on in there, which is the burning axed and deals additional fire damage to enemies. When you upgrade that, it will upgrade the fire damage of it.
For your standard axed, it would just be a straight damage upgrade.
What different types of weapons do you have in the game?
You’ll be able to find axes, swords, and hammers. The sword that we were using has a faster attack speed, while your hammers will have a slightly slower attack speed, but they’ll go through armor.
It means that if you aren’t the type of player to want to fully utilize Enki, you can then use a hammer and kind of lighten that a little bit.
Then, you’ll find a vast array of flintlock weaponry. You can grab different pistols, different grenades, different, rifles as well as mortals and things like that.
Are there any options for two-handed weapons or dual-wielding?
In Flintlock: The Siege Dawn, we are focused on being able to switch back and forth between your pistol and your melee weapon.
Would players be able to specialize in using the pistol? What kind of consumables or currencies would they have to worry about as far as ammo generation goes?
As you can see down the bottom left, there’s those three gold dots. Now, that’s your pistol ammo. You actually regain pistol ammo either by resting at a lodestone or by melee attacking your enemies. Four melee hits on an enemy will regain one powder charge, so you can keep the flow of combat going that way. For things like grenades and your secondary weapons, you will have to rest at a lodestone to regain your ammo.
Are there any passive healing abilities or health siphon?
There are ways that you can regain your HP through combat. That’s on some of our armor.
Is there a respec option for these skills?
Yes.
Do you foresee having a New Game Plus mode where you go through the world of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn a second time at a higher difficulty?
Yeah. We’re really hoping to be able to support a New Game. Plus at at some point in the future. What we do support right now actually is the opposite. We have a story mode in the game, so if you feel like the game’s slightly too challenging for you, you can switch to story mode. You can also switch back and forth whenever you like as well.
Does going into the story mode disable achievements or trophies?
It does, yes.
If you do an encounter in story mode and want to get that trophy later on, can you replay a chapter or combat encounter in that playthrough?
I believe the way that it would have to work is you would have to apply for a son.
Are any of the side content quests time-limited where if you proceed to a particular chapter, it’ll kind of have a cut-off point?
No. At any point, you can pick up any of the rumors or head back to a previous zone and pick up any rumors there. Some of the side content may delve Enki or Nor Vanek’s backstory, or it could just be helping out some members of the public.
As far as performance goes, do you have a resolution or frame rate that you’re targeting on consoles?
I think that’s something we can probably get back to you on with our targeted frame rate and everything. This is a pre-release build, obviously. We’re definitely releasing this year, but we’re sort of in the final home stretch at the moment.
How far away are you from being content complete with Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn?
We are content complete. We’re just in the final stages of prepping everything. Balancing and polishing as much as possible.
Have you looked into considering separate performance and graphical quality modes for consoles?
Yes, we do support that.
Is that the only difficulty modifier that’s available at the prison?
Yes.
What sort of accessibility options do you have available?
You can change all of the colors of everything in the game, so we can support colorblinds and things like that. We are a small studio in New Zealand, so we try and support as much as humanly possible.
Are there multiple SKUs available for launch, whether it’s a deluxe edition or a collector’s edition?
Yes.
Do you have a price point yet for Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, or is that still to be determined as well?
That’s TBD for now. We’re hoping to announce more details in the coming months.
As far as cosmetics go, is there a transmogrification system or a layered armor system to this?
So, the way the system works is that you’ve got your armor system. But then, at the same time, you can see that she’s got this under set of clothing that is purely cosmetic, which you can purchase for reputation.
But there wouldn’t be a dye system or a transmog system for the actual the armour itself?
Not for the armor itself, but you can purchase various colors for the clothing.
Are there other styles, or is it just going to be the colors?
There are other styles. Throughout the game, you’ll gain access to various different ones.
Are any of these quest rewards?
No. These are all tied to the hosts in the coffee shops.
Is there anything that you’d want fans to know that we haven’t touched on as much?
I guess the interesting thing is, heading from Ashen to Flintlock, these two games obviously look quite different, just visually speaking.
But I think it’s quite interesting how many things we’ve evolved from Ashen to this new game. Obviously, we’ve evolved our combat and our mobility, but something that we haven’t had a chance to show in this demo is our caravan, which is an evolution of our town system from Ashen.
We have the idea of being able to take your town with you and have that grow over time as well. As you rebuild your army of sappers, they’ll each bring something to it.
Thank you for your time.
