Shortly before Christmas, Philippines-based game development studio Zeenoh Games put its upcoming horror game, Nightfall, up on Steam Greenlight. There was an animated trailer and a single screenshot, and no more.
While the game’s Steam Greenlight page is now heavily populated with concept art, event photos, and an additional gameplay trailer, we still don’t know much about Nightfall apart from the fact that it features a female journalist as its main character and that it’ll be a first-person game.
Nightfall’s protagonist, the journalist Ara.
When contacted by Games in Asia, Zeenoh founder and CEO Jhondie Abenaza says that Nightfall will be a first-person survival horror game based in Philippine folklore. He also adds that the initial poor showing of the Greenlight campaign was both his over-excitement about the studio’s first ever Steam Greenlight campaign as well as the team’s inexperience, since it has been a mobile-only studio until now.
There are some obvious parallels between Nightfall and Indonesia’s much hyped DreadOut from Digital Happiness. Abenaza says that the games may seem similar since the Philippines and Indonesia have mythological creatures in common, but that the Nightfall experience will be “entirely different.”
“[It’s] because of the mystery of the haunted house, kind [of] like ‘Resident Evil mansion’ but of course dealing with Philippine folklore like the well-known ‘Aswang’ in Hollywood,” he explains. Abenaza adds that there will also be a “tragic love story” that will allow players to discover connections to mythological creatures, as well as some links to historical Filipino events.
While Nightfall looks extremely rough at present, it is in pre-alpha stage. Abenaza says to expect a more polished trailer come next month, and that Zeenoh will be improving on the current game screenshots as well. He adds that the game’s visuals will, in future, be presented as 3D assets.
There may also be an Indiegogo campaign for Nightfall come February, where Zeenoh Games will ask for support – both financially and in terms of user-awareness. It hopes to use the crowdfunded backing to enlarge the team working on Nightfall as well as to fuel future marketing efforts.
Right now, Abenaza says that Zeenoh is targeting a September 2015 release for PC, and that a mobile version will follow if the studio is “good to go” with its research and development.
Editing by Steven Millward
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