PAX East Spotlight - The Forgotten City
The Forgotten City is a first person narrative exploration game. The player is trapped with 26 other explorers in an ancient roman city. You know that all of the other explorers will die at the end of the day, but you don't know why. Solving the mystery involves a little time manipulations: the player can restart the day at any point, bringing new items and information with them.
The folks in the city live by "the golden rule", which states that "The many shall suffer for the sins of the one", implying that any "sins" in the city will cause the death of all in the city. This restriction keeps the explorers in an uneasy state, as the definition of a sin can be somewhat ambiguous based on context, so they live in a manner to avoid anything that could potentially break the rule.
The setting providesan interesting playground, as each character has their own needs and interests.Since the player can rewind time, there is ample opportunity to explore andexperiment.
Without going into too much, there was a point in The Forgotten City demo where I had to commit a sin to progress. Of course, this caused the downfall of the city. However, I was able to restart the day, with a new item, allowing me to move further into the story.
I had the chance to talk to Nick Pearce, Managing Director at Modern Storyteller, about the game. Check out the interview below, then head over to The Forgotten City's website for more information.