Skip to main content

A Bittersweet Glimpse Of Defiant Development's Unfinished Game

Earlier this week, Defiant Development shared the unfortunate news that the studio would be shuttering, citing the company’s supposed inability to adapt to “changes both big and small” in the larger gaming industry as the main impetus behind the closure. As a parting gift, Defiant has also provided a brief glimpse at what would have been the studio’s next game, a project that was tentatively titled The World In My Attic.

The World In My Attic would supposedly follow a family as they started “a new life in a new home,” only to discover “a strange board game” there known as Hexes & Heroes. This board game would act as “a bridge to a fantastic world,” complete with the requisite fantasy tropes one might expect from a riff on the iconic Dungeons & Dragons alliteration.

Much like Defiant’s previous work on the Hand of Fate series, The World In My Attic appears to blend both tabletop strategy with action-adventure set pieces. Where the former focused on deck-building, however, the latter would presumably have featured a world created with the distinct hex pieces seen in tabletop games like Settlers of Catan. In the short preview above, a warrior-type character can be seen traversing a landscape made up of these six-sided segments and, at one point, a large orc or troll is shown being placed on the “real world” game board before it appears in the fantasy setting.

“A world filled with strange characters and ancient darkness,” the narrator explains. “A world searching for a hero. A world that needs to be made whole again. A world that is vast and treacherous. A world balanced on the edge of destruction. This is The World In My Attic.”

Although this is just a glimpse of what could have been had Defiant not been forced to close, I’ve been enthralled by the short video since I first watched it. The distinct landscapes that evidently would have served as the backdrop for the on-foot segments of The World In My Attic provide a very striking aesthetic when combined with the more mundane fantasy elements, and the Jumanji-esque way in which the board game would have affected the world around the family playing it could have opened up all kinds of gameplay possibilities. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Advertisement

“You folks should crowdfund this,” reads one YouTube comment. “I would fund the hell out of it!”

“This had me really excited, then I checked Twitter,” wrote another commenter, referring to the unfortunate announcement of Defiant’s shutdown.

Advertisement

Like dusty boxes in a loft, The World In My Attic may never see the light of day, but the tantalizing glimpse provided by Defiant as they write this final chapter will always be a testament to the studio’s creativity and a bittersweet reminder of what could have been.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scythe Board Game Review

Designed by: Jamey Stegmaier Published by: Stonemaier Games Players: 1-5 Playtime: 90-120 Minutes Review copy supplied free of charge by Esdevium Games. You don’t gently put Scythe down on a table like a baby that must be coddled. Oh no, instead you thump it down with authority, the sizable box dominating the space and demanding that all present pay attention to its beautiful artwork! And then you open the lid revealing decks of cards, wooden pieces, plastic miniatures and a variety of tokens, as well as a substantial board and a bunch of other stuff. It’s a veritable feast of components. Despite its size and somewhat daunting visage, however, Scythe is actually quite easy to learn; every turn you choose one of four quadrants on your player board and perform one, two or none of the actions there. Simple. Well, kind of. Scythe is a 4X game – which means it wants you to explore, expand, extort and exterminate – set within a unique world that mixes agricultural farming with towerin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Defective, Or Effective?

The first mission of Defector is like a glorious homage to every over-the-top spy movie to have ever appeared on a screen. There’s a handler feeding you information, a bad guy to converse with and then the possibility of driving a car out of a plane before leaping out and landing in a different plane. Oh, and then gunning down a bunch of fighter jets using nothing but an assault rifle because that’s how the real world works. It’s a bombastic introduction to Defector , but then the game never does manage to reach the same highs again. It’s perhaps no wonder that it was this first level which was shown off in the demos and previews. But that doesn’t mean Defector doesn’t give it a shot and does so by mixing in a bunch of different ideas. In another of the five missions you get to pose as a masseuse, gently massaging away the suspect’s worries. There’s even an interrogation sequence involving questioning, punching and dangling the target out of a window. Hell, Defector even manages to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lisboa Board Game Review

Designed by: Vital Lacerda Published by: Eagle Gryphon Games Players: 1-4 Playtime: 60-120 Minutes Review copy supplied free of charge by Asmodee UK Jesus Christ, I have absolutely no idea where to even start with Lisboa, the latest table-hogging, mind-destroying eurogame from the highly respected Vital Lacerda. I’ve reviewed one game from Vital previously and utterly adored its lavish production values and stellar gameplay, but damn was it hard to review simply due to the way every mechanic tied to everything else. To explain one thing meant having to digress into about a billion other things before stumbling back to the original topic like a drunk emerging from a pub lock-in. It was confusing. Lisboa is just as complex and tricky to discuss, so please forgive me as I muddle through talking about Lacerda’s latest attempt to turn my already worryingly overheating brain into a melting pot of pink goo. The entire game is based around Lisbon, which is actually Lacerda’s hometown an...
Post a Comment
Read more