Survival games seem to be the new craze, with an ever-increasing array of games that focus on dystopian or post-apocalyptic settings. Some of these survival games show huge potential and prospect, and have reached incredible success, while some have faded into oblivion by failing to engage players. Among the successful games centering are survival are DayZ, the recently released Rust, Don’t Starve or the upcoming massive open-world The Division.
Trying to take advantage of the growing popularity of this type of games is Pixyul, a relatively unknown studio. If you’ve never heard of them, it’s because they haven’t release anything major yet. However, the studio was founded by some old Ubisoft veterans, and thus, might have the experience to pull of ambitious projects. Their ambition seems to have no bounds though, as their current project, ReRoll, aims to realistically recreate our entire planet. By using drones to map the entire Earth, Pixyul wants to create a survival game set on Earth, where players can explore each and every corner of our quite vast planet.
Ok, so the idea is great, but how realistic is their goal? Well, frankly, not very. First of all, the studio has no solid funding at the moment. Hell, they haven’t even started a kickstarter project. Their entire funding is coming from direct purchases on their websites, purchases that will give players access to predetermined skills for instance, or access to alpha versions of the game. That doesn’t sound too bad in theory, but it’s nowhere near being a viable marketing and funding plan. First of all, there’s no guarantee that your money will ever get you anything solid. The game isn’t in a playable state, and the entire rendering of the globe is far from being completed. The developers promise to keep bringing in new regions, but promises is all you’re getting. Purchasing game packs on their website will fund the developers to some extend, but if other gamers don’t do the same, you’re spending money on thin air and promises.
I could look passed the limited availability of areas initially (though that’s the main marketing focus for ReRoll, it seems), but the game itself looks far from being finished, or from looking good. Buying characters from the ReRoll website directly also has a sort of pay-to-win taste to it. Why is one character 4 times the price of another? How will players spending $19.99 be disadvantaged compared to players spending $99.99 for the Lone Wolf character? It seems an exceedingly high price to ask for nothing solid, considering you can pick up completed games for half that amount. Also, kickstarter provides players with some sort of oversight on how viable a project is and what exactly they are getting for their money, something that the website-shop for ReRoll seems to lack.
Overall, the concept seems intriguing and promising, but it’s no small feat to pull off. If it were easy, other major publishers or developers would have given the idea a shot. Coming from an unknown studio with no apparent financial backing makes the entire project highly questionable. Would you pay for characters and game packs in ReRoll?