Video Games
THQ Nordic Releases Playable Teaser For Potential Remake of ‘Gothic’
For fans of the Gothic series of roleplaying games interested in a revival of the series, THQ Nordic have put together Gothic Playable Teaser — a free playable prototype of what a remake of Gothic could look and feel like if there’s enough interest to warrant the company pursuing a full remake. The playable teaser will appear in the Steam library of everyone who owns a game developed by Piranha Bytes (despite the developer not being involved in this potential remake).
Developed by THQ Nordic Barcelona, Gothic Playable Teaser offers two hours of gameplay, allowing players to roam around the mining colony of Khorinis. After playing, players can take a survey to help THQ Nordic learn whether and how it should proceed with the production of a full Gothic remake, or to leave the legacy of the game untouched.
The idea would be that by using a completely new tech (Unreal Engine 4), all of the graphics, the sound, and different systems will be recreated according to modern high quality standards. The game’s story, setting, the atmosphere, the music and the world of Gothic would remain untouched. If there’s enough interest, then production would begin in earnest.
You can find out more about the potential remake by visiting the new official site.
In Gothic, players take on the role of a young nameless hero who must turn the tide of war in the fight against the Orc menace.
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.