This Singapore game studio is working on a fantastic looking RPG

Singapore’s Witching Hour Studios has finally revealed a little more of what its PC and console RPG, Masquerada: Songs and Shadows will be like. It previously teased the logo, character art, and background art, but is now showing off a gameplay GIF in today’s update.

Players will be able to control up to three characters in their party, or they can choose to stick with a single character which will then make the game play out more like a MOBA. The single player Masquerada is based off a previous tabletop gaming campaign setting that Witching Hour Studios creative director and co-founder Ian Gregory Tan developed a while back, which predates Ravenmark.

It is centred around a single city and its politics – and as the game’s name suggests, masks. Magic in Masquerada is controlled by different masks, but that isn’t as straightforward as you might assume it to be. Masks in the game will work more as batteries than spells encased in items, and will allow characters to summon and control more.

In a previous announcement, Witching Hour Studio said that it has a 500-page script for Masquerada, and adds today that it expects gameplay to range from 12 to 15 hours. The team hints there could be more.

With Masquerada: Songs and Shadows due out in 2016, Witching Hour Studios has an arduous task ahead to keep the game relevant to the rapidly-shifting video game market. Tan says the team is banking on both the campaign setting and core combat, adding that these two elements, if done well, should remain timeless.

“The thing about following trends is that you also tend to be governed by it. And let’s be honest… [Witching Hour Studios has] never been good at playing ball with what everyone else is doing,” he adds.

Edited February 4, 2015 to add screenshots:

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