By John Walker on August 17th, 2011 at 4:21 pm.
There’s some game called Fallen City. It looks SHIT/AMAZING. It’s by some idiot/genius called Jim Rossignol and so on and so on. Indeed, what is a Rock, Paper, Shotgun to do when one of its own accidentally plops out a game? Should we not cover it out of modesty and propriety? Should we aim to be “objective”, as if that’s a thing? Should we overly promote it at a cost to informing our readers about other games we haven’t made? Yes. We should do all three. But today instead I’m going to show off some of the screenshots from Big Robot’s lovely urban-renewal-em-up, a Channel 4 game that’s inspired by the Broken Windows theory.
Click on the images to see them full size. I’ve tried to get hold of project lead, Jim Rossignol, to find out more, and will let you know if he ever gets back to me.
17/08/2011 at 16:25 Joe Duck says:
You should shamelessly promote it before release with hundreds of complimentary reviews and exclusive interviews and a week after launch, publish a review tearing it apart. That way, journalistic integrity will be saved and so will financial prosperity.
Seriously, it looks good but I have no idea what it actually IS.
17/08/2011 at 16:26 mod the world says:
Hopefully a game about riots in the streets? So we can finally blame the real world for inducing violence in games.
17/08/2011 at 16:40 Jams O'Donnell says:
Ha! Hats off, my good man.
17/08/2011 at 17:05 Mike says:
Jim wrote on exactly that topic (kind of) on the blog! I found it pretty interesting. http://www.big-robot.com/?p=94
17/08/2011 at 16:28 nootron says:
What, no pre-order DLC? What kind of crap is this?
17/08/2011 at 16:29 Joshua says:
As long as you do not include giant front page adds, and do not report on sequels people dislike because they changed it and now it sucks, you will be spared from bias claims.
17/08/2011 at 16:32 westyfield says:
That little purple guy at the top is how I imagine every Angry Internet Man looks like.
17/08/2011 at 16:32 AndrewC says:
It’s just endless rows of identical houses! I don’t think that’s good level design.
17/08/2011 at 16:48 heretic says:
Déja vu.
17/08/2011 at 16:34 Tei says:
Accidents like this are a “once in a life”. A game about London rioters. Who know?
Also It looks pretty, and looks fun. Since will be free, I will download and play it :D
Congrats! GG!, GZ!
17/08/2011 at 16:36 Cerzi says:
Nice, looks like all that playing of Street Cleaning Simulator was inspirational.
17/08/2011 at 16:38 Jim Rossignol says:
Had to research the competition, at least.
17/08/2011 at 16:39 Theory says:
I take it there are two writers on this project? The one who did “oh dear, this place really is in a sorry state” and the one who did “wow, this dude really needs to chill out”.
Does look intriguing though!
17/08/2011 at 16:39 markcocjin says:
What a beautiful game. Congratulations Jim!
17/08/2011 at 16:41 Flimgoblin says:
Looking good.
17/08/2011 at 16:45 PearlChoco says:
Make sure you don’t forget the always-online DRM.
17/08/2011 at 16:47 Surgeon says:
Eh? But there’s no robots!
17/08/2011 at 16:52 Berzee says:
What is this! A computer software?
17/08/2011 at 16:56 Jinkeez says:
I love games where you get to fix stuff. Tuning cars in Street Rod 2. Running around with that repair pack in Starsiege: Tribes fixing generators and turrets. Extinguishing fires, tending to wounded, and clearing accident scenes in the Emergency series of games. I even love that NASA Moonbase Alpha game that no one in the world plays anymore.
Restoring a whole CITY?? Sign me up!!
17/08/2011 at 17:02 Bodminzer says:
Don’t forget the best repair key in games: Carmageddon 2s ‘Make it all better’ button. Watching the bent metal unfold and little glass bits snap home is transcendentally satisfying.
17/08/2011 at 17:27 Magnetude says:
Destruction Derby’s mechanic… mechanic was pretty neat. You got given about 5 seconds to aim the camera at different bits of the car while mashing the FIX button as fast as your stubby digits would go, the panels flattening themselves out quite pleasingly.
18/08/2011 at 10:19 Zanchito says:
Yeah, Moonbase Alpha was just a test for Moon, Mars & Beyond, but I dearly enjoyed it! I need some hope and good will in these fucked up times we’re living in.
17/08/2011 at 16:57 rustybroomhandle says:
Looks dandy, but what platforms will it be available for? ( And “PC” would be a rather vague answer )
17/08/2011 at 16:58 Fumarole says:
Marginal nepotism? Nice.
17/08/2011 at 17:14 Keep says:
From what I can piece together, awesome. Fingers crossed for Sim City/Theme Blankedy/Dungeon Keeper alike.
(Jesus it’s been like, a decade? Since we had a good one of those?)
17/08/2011 at 17:23 Jim Rossignol says:
It’s pretty simplistic, to be honest. Certainly no Dungeon Keeper. It’s basically a puzzle game.
17/08/2011 at 17:19 something says:
Looks like the eBay mascots or a reinvention of the Tellytubbies, set in a city designed by a committee of Daily Mail readers.
But I’m sure it’s great.
17/08/2011 at 18:24 Sheng-ji says:
This is a city designed b a committee of daily mail readers
17/08/2011 at 19:29 dontnormally says:
@Sheng-ji: “deputydog was finally laid to rest on June 20th, 2011″
17/08/2011 at 19:40 Sheng-ji says:
That’s really sad, those photos are stunning
17/08/2011 at 18:02 shoptroll says:
I demand trailers every week until I no longer have to play the game to experience it.
17/08/2011 at 18:28 Radiant says:
Why, when re-imagining London do designers never leave East London?
Granted leafy Maida Vale isn’t going to portray much dystopia but…. wait a god damn minute.
17/08/2011 at 18:44 Funso Banjo says:
I think it’s great that Channel 4 has started making games. Their webite makes no mention of the game, though, so I suspect it is a long way from being completed.
I have always thought their programming was second to none, with the best comedies almost always being made by them. My wife and I are both really big fans of The Inbetweeners, and The Peep Show was excellent too.
Here’s to hoping this is just as good.
17/08/2011 at 18:52 Lambchops says:
Channel 4 have been pretty good in their support of projects like this recently. I heard that Karen Gillan (or some similarly initialed person) was involved in writing one of them. Then you’ve got the likes of Privates and so on.
Though I’d have loved to find out more about the project Introversion were working on for them which got cancelled.
17/08/2011 at 19:20 dontnormally says:
I’MA LET YOU FINISH BUT
I like the looks of this one better (;
http://www.big-robot.com/?p=31
17/08/2011 at 19:32 dontnormally says:
Moar:
http://www.nullpointer.co.uk/content/?p=446
http://www.nullpointer.co.uk/content/?p=417
Secret project, they say!
Infinite terrain, they say!
17/08/2011 at 19:52 Jim Rossignol says:
http://www.big-robot.com/images/11/dudes.jpg
17/08/2011 at 20:01 dontnormally says:
http://rlv.zcache.com/thank_you_sir_may_i_have_another_postcard-p239039916577420491trdg_400.jpg
(;
(GISpeak for the win)
17/08/2011 at 21:00 yhancik says:
I love the look of this <3
17/08/2011 at 21:47 DarkFarmer says:
Wait, what?
17/08/2011 at 21:34 BathroomCitizen says:
Lovely.
17/08/2011 at 22:09 Mr_Day says:
Any truth to the rumour that if you pre order through savygamer it comes with a cloth map?
EDIT – Eurgh, that was genuinely awful, I apologise.
17/08/2011 at 22:37 TheGameSquid says:
BUT IS IT AN IMMERSIVE SIM?
17/08/2011 at 23:07 Daiv says:
DOUBLE JUMP OR GTFO
17/08/2011 at 23:59 James says:
You hear that?! You better!
17/08/2011 at 23:38 rufenstein says:
From the screenshots it kind of looks like a tactical version of American McGee’s Grimm with reverse goals…
17/08/2011 at 23:56 Rii says:
Lush; Lush!
18/08/2011 at 01:04 Burning Man says:
The art style reminds me of Deathspank/Fable 3′s real estate mini-game.
18/08/2011 at 06:23 Bart Stewart says:
Very nice!
Speaking of broken windows, now we just need a game based on Bastiat’s “That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen“….
18/08/2011 at 06:36 Ryn Taylor says:
I have never seen something look so angry and so cute at the same time. Cheer up grumpy guy.