Nightingale has a lot going on aside from its shared world survival crafting gameplay, as it seeks to create a Victorian Gaslamp fiction story where the Fae and magic altered the history of mankind. In this new history, people like Ada Lovelace lived and Shakespeare's poetry and plays were, perhaps unknowingly, reflective of real, possible events. That's why A Midsummer Night's Dream's Puck exists in Nightingale after all.
At the core of this new Victorian era-set game are beings known as Fae, who have influenced and changed the course of human history. Before the events of the game, the Fae traveled to the human world and taught them magic, with their powers leading humanity to worship them. When humanity learned magic though and began to see themselves as equals to the Fae, they left humanity behind, returned to their realms, and took most of their magic with them. Humanity, especially in the city of Nightingale, used technology, research, and exploration to gain some of this back, with folks taking on the role of Realmwalkers to travel beyond.
However, when an event called The Pale scatters humanity throughout the realms, they must begin a journey to get back to Nightingale, and they'll encounter many Fae along the way. Game ZXC recently attended a presentation held by developer Inflexion Games and interviewed CEO Aaryn Flynn, Director of Production Leah Summers, and Art Director & Head of Audio Neil Thompson.
The Fae and their magic are the core reasoning behind the Victorian Gaslamp genre, which Thompson explained in contrast to Steampunk which focuses more on technology. "Gaslamp fantasy is more infused with magic. Technology in our game is obviously a thing, but the ability for humans to interact with the Fae is through magic, through learning, and their use of technology to tap into those powers," he said.
Not much is known to humanity about the Fae, but the Fae are not gods. They are magical beings created by the Elders and afterward organized themselves into one of two courts based on certain traits: the Summer Court and the Winter Court. Fitting to the genre, the devs showed us concept art of these Courts where the Fae are painted akin to a Victorian-era painting. These courts are led by Fae Princess, Princesses, Lords, and Ladies, and anyone outside a court is considered "Ronin." The Fae has been involved with humanity, prior to their departure, for centuries if not longer, and that's something players will discover throughout Nightingale. Why, though, has yet to be explained.
This means players will face the Fae in combat, though Fae are not inherently evil creatures. They are sometimes very mysterious, elusive, and hard to read, with the same capacity for good and evil capable of any human. That said, players will face various archetypes of Fae through Nightingale's Early Access period and beyond, including Fae Assassins and Commanders, all of whom stand around 8-to-9 feet tall.
At the command of the Fae are the Bound, creatures created by these magical beings who serve them blindly. They are described as mimicries of humanity (and other magical species like Giants) and compared to the Uruk-hai of Lord of the Rings. Some of these creatures are more fantastical than others, while others borderline on horror (there is a magic-using creature that has a human face stretched out at the top of its staff), but all are unique to the type of Gaslamp Fantasy the devs are trying to create.
And while there is a narrative throughline players will explore regarding the city, the Fae, the Pale, and so on, it's interactions with NPCs, the Fae, and other players that will ultimately define the story within the game. While this certainly means Inflexion Games has a lot to juggle between the various realms, the fae, the alternate history, their own creations, and more, they all come together nicely. The Victorian era helps bring out all of this even more, as CEO Flynn said,
The world still had mystery in it too, right? Not everything was discovered, not everything was knowable with a few clicks on a device that you carry around with you. So we created that, and I think we crave that kind of mystery in our lives. We can empathize with the characters who get to discover things and stumble upon things in ways that we don't get to do much anymore.
Because of this setting, the expectations of the genre, and the various elements, it would seem difficult to balance it all out, but it seems to be working well thanks to how hand-in-hand everything goes. According to Thompson,
I think we make sure players feel that they're immersed in the world of Nightingale. They understand that there's a fantastical world, that magic is there, and that they can really role-play within that, but still have an understanding of the core basics of what survival crafting means and what their expectations are from moment to moment.
Nightingale releases in early access in the first half of 2023 for PC.