Newly established AAA studio Gunzilla Games made headlines earlier this year when District 9 director Neill Blomkamp joined its ranks, but the ambitious studio is also home to bestselling author Richard K. Morgan, who wrote the original Altered Carbon novel. In a recent panel at Comic Con Ukraine, Morgan shared his philosophy on gaming narratives, which will be worked into Gunzilla’s first big project.
Gunzilla is currently working on a “AAA multiplayer shooter for new-gen platforms,” according to a press release, which has been in development for about a year. Morgan’s role on the game is to build out its universe, and Blomkamp is on board as its “Chief Visionary Officer.” While the studio hasn’t released any information about the game’s setting or story, Morgan was still keen to elaborate on his approach to the game’s narrative.
“Usually in multiplayer shooters all the detailed world and elements, which tell a story of their own, remain largely unexploited due to focus on the main action,” Morgan said at Comic Con Ukraine. “At Gunzilla we want players to be able to explore and progressively understand the world in which they operate. We want to offer options to do, see and experience more. Our robust reward system will allow players to benefit from completing narrative driven challenges that will populate the game world, without having to focus on the usual multiplayer shooter performance indicators, precision, and action-focused elements.”
“In addition our game will offer a strong reputation system, which are intrinsically tied to the game’s narration,” he continued. “We want the players to feel recognized and acknowledged in this world. If players with a focus on RPGs want to play our game similar to their favorite genre, or rather just explore the world, they can do that! Of course, for those looking for a more straightforward shooter experience, our game will also offer that. The narration should never be in the way of the gameplay, especially in a multiplayer game. This is in line with our focus on players’ freedom: they should be able to choose their level of involvement in the narrative and not feel forced to experience it.”
While it’s unclear what stage of development the game is currently in, Morgan’s vision for it sounds exceptionally ambitious–a multiplayer shooter that will also appeal to fans of narrative RPGs or exploratory sandbox games. Whether this goal gets achieved or not, it will be interesting to see what Gunzilla’s unusual mix of creative talent will come up with.
