If you, like me, rather enjoyed The Rise of the Golden Idol – a game we called “a compelling modern mystery thriller that’s bigger, better and more ambitious than its already brilliant predecessor” – then this news may be right up your alley.
Will Ackermann, one of The Rise of the Golden Idol’s game designers, has today unveiled his next game: City of Voices. He’s working on it in collaboration with pixel artist Matt Frith through his own studio Kini Games.
Described as a “Golden Idol-like” release, City of Voices takes place in suburban England, and focuses on a young girl who on her first day at secondary school gets bullied. If that wasn’t enough to deal with, she is soon “thrust into a fantastical adventure”, putting even more on her plate.
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Like the Golden Idol games, City of Voices will similarly challenge players to “investigate a series of moments frozen in time, examining clues and solving deduction puzzles to uncover a rich story”. However, in a change from the Golden Idol games, players will instead need to answer questions by choosing from a selection of images (see below), rather than dragging and dropping words into place.
If this sounds like City of Voices is still treading a little too closely to the Golden Idol games, don’t worry. Ackermann made sure he got the blessing from their creators before cracking on with his own game.
“I was quite nervous about asking Andrejs and Ernests, who co-created those games, for permission to essentially steal their mechanics,” Ackermann admitted, “but luckily, they were flattered!”
Frith added: “Since then, they’ve both been really supportive, and have even said they ‘loved every minute of the demo’ we’ve made, which means so much to us. We hope other players will feel the same way.”
There isn’t currently a release date for City of Voices, but it is available to wishlist now on Steam. You can check out a trailer for it above.
As for The Rise of the Golden Idol, we awarded it four out of five stars on its release.
“This is a brilliantly plotted thriller story stuffed with an enormous cast of memorable scoundrels, buffoons and quietly tragic onlookers, and it’s all backed up by wonderfully devised puzzles that really give your brain a good runaround before you’re able to prise open its hard-won secrets,” our Katharine wrote in Eurogamer’s Rise of the Golden Idol review.
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