Video Games
New Dev Update Video for ‘God Save Birmingham’ Released Ahead of Closed Beta Test [Watch]
Kakao Games and Ocean Drive Studio have released a new Developer Update video for God Save Birmingham, which highlights several of the new features players will be able to experience during the upcoming Closed Beta Test that kicks off on Monday, June 22. Prospective players can still sign up for the beta, which will run until June 29.
Meanwhile, the new video shows the many additions and improvements made to God Save Birmingham since its Closed Alpha Test back in February. Attack animations are quicker, controls are more responsive, and enemies are a little more durable, which the devteam touts as “a more dynamic and challenging combat experience.” Additionally, you’ll have access to more weapons this time around in the form of spears, one-handed swords and halberds, with more medieval melee tools planned for the future.
Survival-related content has also been given a boost, with chickens now available as livestock, providing players with eggs at regular intervals, while fruits and vegetables can now be picked from garden plots or the nearby forest. Drinking water can be collected from the river flowing through town, though be aware, as drinking it can lead to an upset stomach. Various historically accurate medieval beverages have also been added, including ale. And yes, while drinking alcohol in the game can reduce your thirst and reduce stress, drinking too much can cause you to become drunk, which can affect your combat.
Other changes include the weather system, which can impact your chance of survival. For example, fog impairs the vision of zombies, aiding players looking to remain hidden, while colder temperatures that come with rain can negatively affect a player’s health. To warm up, players can light an indoor fire, but the flames can now spread to wooden objects, and players can get burned if they get too close.
“While the team would love to include and showcase more features in the game, we believe that making things well is more important than making a lot,” explains production director Soonook Shin. “Therefore we intend to focus on creating a great game by continuously developing, testing and refining content.”
Set in 14th-century Birmingham, England, God Save Birmingham sees you as the lone survivor of an undead plague that has besieged the medieval market town. As a result, you must forage for supplies, craft tools and weapons, as well as hunt for food, water, and shelter, with only your wits to protect you. All the while, the undead horde creeps closer.
God Save Birmingham is currently in development for release on Steam.
If you were expecting something like The Typing of the Dead with Sunscorched Studios’ KEYKRUNCHER, guess again. Announced for release on Steam later this year, KEYKRUNCHER sees players enrolled in an experimental treatment programme for their insatiable desire to consume keyboards. Seriously.
“We made RATSHAKER a game about shaking a rat to find your wife,” says Calvin Parsons found of Sunscorched Studios. “Now we’re making KEYKRUNCHER, a game about eating a keyboard, one keycap at a time.”
Set within the RATSHAKER universe, KEYKRUNCHER blends tactile keyboard gameplay, escalating roguelite progression, physical gambling mechanics, desk charms, and Sunscorched’s grimy, high-contrast, PSX-inspired nightmare advert aesthetic into the world’s first keyboard consumption treatment programme.
You have been “fused” to a desk in an assessment room with a scrambled keyboard, a gumball machine, and IT waiting at the end of the hallway. Almost everything on the desk is interactive. Tokens can be taken, machines fed, levers pulled, gumballs handled, and rewards eaten, banked, placed, or survived.
Press the correct keys on your real keyboard, or use the mouse to interact with them, and KRUNCH matching keycaps in-game. Obey the monitor, clear escalating treatment lessons, earn tokens, gamble them away in a sinister gumball machine, and decorate your desk with cursed rewards that might just keep you alive.
Every lesson pushes the treatment further. More keys. Stranger demands. Less time. Riskier rewards. Worse things in the hall. Each run reshuffles the keyboard, demands, rewards, and treatment conditions. Survive the Final Assessment or continue into Endless Treatment until the programme inevitably consumes you.
Players will be able to experience the game with a free demo planned for later this year, ahead of the game’s full release.