The story of The Forgotten City – from modification on Skyrim to an independent game
A couple of years ago, a small Australian studio Modern StoryTeller released its debut game – The Forgotten City detective adventure, which received more than seven thousand reviews in Steam, 96% of which turned out to be extremely positive.
Although the game is only two years old, in fact, its life cycle has more than ten years, because it is based on the same quest modification for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. So what is the full story of The Forgotten City? Let’s figure it out!
The authorship of the fashion belongs to the enthusiast Nick Pierce, who had to spend about ten free hours a week for three years (2012 – 2015) to create it. Nick’s interest in programming appeared much earlier than the start of the development of The Forgotten City. He was familiar with early childhood, and even managed “Stick a couple of practically non -grave crafts” On the old computer IBM 8086. In 2011, he began to work as a lawyer in a large technological company Melbourne, but this work seemed to him rather boring. Around the same time, Nick had a clear desire to create his own global modification when he first played in Fallout: New Vegas.
I stumbled upon the New Vegas Bounties modification from Modder under the nickname SOMEGUY2000. This was a real revelation for me, for I saw how the work of a small team of enthusiasts may not give way to the quality of the official DLC, and sometimes even surpass them. With the help of mods, everyone has the opportunity to tell their own story, and I decided to try myself in this matter with the release of the next game with extensive capabilities for modding.
Nick Pier
And this game turned out to be The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In 2012, Pierce began to independently master the Creation Kit. Then he created only a small corridor of Dwemer ruins, which became the foundation for the future The Forgotten City.
I looked at this corridor and thought – this is just another destroyed dungeon, of which there are hundreds in Skyrim … And suddenly the idea of a time travel came to me. I wanted to give players the opportunity to go into the past and see this settlement before its destruction. So the main idea for my plot appeared.
Nick Pier
After three years of work, the “forgotten city” turned from a small corridor into a huge underground settlement with a non -linear story, telling about ancient people connected by a certain “golden rule”, in the violation of which the victims turn into golden statues. The purpose of the protagonist is to investigate this mysterious phenomenon and save the innocent from such a terrible fate.
The modification scenario totaled more https://nongamstopsites.uk/ than 35,000 words, and all this emphasized full -fledged voice acting and musical accompaniment. The Nexus The Forgotten City downloaded more than three million times, and the Pierce even awarded the National Writers Guild Award 2016 Prize – the Australian Guild Ceremony of Writers.
I really love my mod, but it always seemed to me a draft for larger work … In 2016, Kotaku had an article that said that The Forgotten City is a fairly ambitious project to develop into a separate game. Then the guys from League of Geeks offered me the same idea. In general, I sent a survey of 200 fashion fans to find out their opinion. 93% of them were delighted with the idea of creating a full -fledged game, so it made sense.
Nick Pier
Inspired by the reviews of the fans, Pierce began to assemble a team. So the Modern StoryTeller studio was formed, which included the programmer Alex Goss and artist John Air. In addition, Pierce also actively collaborated with novice voice actors, composers and even with professional animators from BioWare and Obsidian. At this moment, he decided to quit his job as a lawyer and concentrate on his game.
Apart from temporary employees, then by and large the studio consisted of only three developers, including the pier itself. In order not to hit face in the mud when creating their first game, the whole team worked in the sweat of the face for 80 hours a week for four and a half years.
The transition to a full -fledged working mode allowed the pier and his friends to remake The Forgotten City from scratch on the Unreal Engine 4 engine, as well as simultaneously adjusting almost every game aspect.
Frankly, I’m glad that I came across such selfless friends who are ready to spend almost all day on development. I never approved such decisions and forbade a lot to process a lot, because this is at least dangerous to health. I was even surprised that people are physically able to withstand this regime.
Nick Pier
Of course, such an intensive production cycle was quite intense, and large bets were made on the success of this game, which only increased stress.
I felt like one of the underground levels of Super Mario Bros when you run forward, and the road begins to collapse behind you, and you cannot accurately foresee what awaits you ahead. Therefore, you just continue to run forward and jump into the unknown all the time, knowing that you have exactly zero lives left, so if you fall, everything will be over.
Nick Pier
During the development, the team set itself the goal of improving in The Forgotten City everything that is possible. The transition from the Creation Kit to Unreal Engine 4 and hiring a full -time artist led to a significant update of the visual series, while cooperation with composers and voice actors provided a similar increase in the overall sound quality. The plot of the pier also underwent serious changes in the process of transition from mod to the game.
The Sinopsis remained unchanged – you discover the ancient Roman underground city, in which several dozen people died after one of them violated the mysterious law. Then you go into the past in order to change their fate, but at the same time you find yourself in a temporary loop that you will need to deftly use to find out what actually happened.
I left the main plot and gameplay details that the players liked most, but the characters beat completely, or partially rethought. There are more endings than the original, and many game elements are completely new. It is especially worth noting locations – now the city really looks like an authentic Roman settlement, and not like Dwemer ruins. In a “forgotten city” if one person commits a crime, then everyone is dying. This is a form of collective punishment that was well known to the Romans. They had military customs related to the extermination of people in groups, as well as myths in which the whole city was destroyed by the gods simply because its inhabitants did not go through a strange verification of morality.
Nick Pier
The Pierce claims that his experience in jurisprudence made it possible to adjust the history and more precisely to show the role of the law in the formation of society.
People are incorrigible violators of laws, although this statement is true for some to a greater extent than for others. Even the most reasonable people are difficult to follow the rules established by others. Often they even violate their own rules ..
Nick Pier
In the “Forgotten City” players will be trapped in the eternal cycle if they thoughtlessly follow the rules of the game. Therefore, the Pierce wants the players to think for themselves and carefully assessed the situation before making decisions.
The main goal of my story is to remind people of what they often forget about, trying to always live and work within the established rules, without putting their own strength or free will ..
Nick Pier
The Forgotten City is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch. Thanks to the success of their debut game, the developers were able to recoup production and begin to create a new project. There are no particular details for now, so we are waiting for the announcements!