We have all heard the expression…”I know a guy who knows a guy”.  In this case it is more like, we know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy who has sworn us to secrecy under pain of a slow and very hideous death that will “take a thousand years to kills us and have us screaming for mercy in the first five seconds” (one no-prize to the first person who can tell us where that quote is from). After all the “N” in non-disclosure agreement is there for a reason eh?

So what are we going to do about the information?

Well, share it with you of course – but only what we allowed to divuluge and only because we were told we could.  The only provision is we can’t tell you who the guy is that knows a guy that knows a guy…well you know where that is going.

Normally when a project is not yet even in the alpha stage we might not pay much attention to it. This time, however, is different for two simple reasons. First, the project is coming from a very small independent developer and second, because we find it so incredibly intriguing.

The working title of the game is called “Karmic Justice” and it has quite a unique concept.  Back in 2000 a movie came out staring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt called “Pay it forward.”  Here is a quick summary of that movie (which you should see if you have not):

“ Young Trevor McKinney, troubled by his mother’s alcoholism and fears of his abusive but absent father, is caught up by an intriguing assignment from his new social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet. The assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward–repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people. Trevor’s efforts to make good on his idea bring a revolution not only in the lives of himself, his mother and his physically and emotionally scarred teacher, but in those of an ever-widening circle of people completely unknown to him.” – John Sacksteder, Imdb.com

The concept of the game is much the same. 

In each and every last game I have ever played the center of the players efforts have been themselves. It has always been a case of  “What’s in it for me?”  Most games concentrate on how Richard Garriott once described World of Warcraft (and aptly so) as ”a system of inventory management.” This is the first time that I have even heard of a game where the object is helping others. The idea is simple: if you want to get ahead in the game, if you want to level up the only way to do so is by helping the other players. If you manage to die in the process (and so much the better I guess although we can’t be sure) there is more than a “corpse run” involved to get back to the world.  The only way to make your way back to the land of the living is by buffing other players.

Thats all we know for now, with the exception of the company name and logo which we are allowed to share with you (seen above).

As our regular readers and listeners know, we consider ourselves the champions of the indie developer (in fact the community manager and director of design for Quest Online Studio were kind enough to record a 2 hour show with us just yesterday).  As a result, it occured to us that the smaller the studio the more it deserves our support.  When we know more we will share it with you.

See you online,

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team