Indie games are often fascinating, magical little gems, full of innovation, creativity and fun. While the scene has been building steam as of late, many of these projects are still swept under the rug in the gaming business. Enter Kickstart MTL, GirlsOnGames’ way of sending some love towards indie developers who are trying to make it in Montreal’s rich gaming culture.
Today’s Kickstart MTL puts the spotlight Last Year, a 5 vs 1 multiplayer horror-survival game, developed by James Matthew Wearing.
(Fun little fact about Mr. Wearing: he’s worked on many AAA titles, including Assassin’s Creed 2, Crysis and Far Cry 3.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPhDWWGbaNU
In Last Year you’ll experience the nightmare together as you and 5 friends struggle to survive against one player that’s playing as the Killer. Explore familiar territory based on classic horror movie locations including Camp Silver Lake and East Side High. You’ll play the roles of 5 stereotypical high school characters while co-operating to complete objectives and survive
Last Year emulates everything you’d ever want out of an 80’s cheesy horror flick. You have a bunch of mismatched teenagers, such as the Jock or the Nerd, that find themselves alone, in the dark, in a creepy-ass location (like an abandoned camp ground, or a high school), and are being hunted by a psychotic, blood thirsty murderer. The goal? It depends: If you’re a teenager, you win if you survive; if you’re the Killer, you need to hack every last teen to bits.
There are 6 players total for each game, and everyone gets a turn at being the Killer. If you play as a teenager, you’ll need to work as a team if you hope to escape your own grizzly death (no using Nick as a body shield). Each teen has a class, such as ‘medic’ or ‘assault’, and all are crucial for each teammates survival. The game supports open voice chat (as well as a channel for survivors only), so you’ll be able to communicate freely with each other.
As the Killer, the element of surprise is key to your success. If you’re out of the line of sight of the survivors, you get to enter “predator mode” and move across the map quickly and silently to hunt your prey and kill them. There are also different weapons at your disposal, depending on what you like. I personally find the “spiked bat” appealing.
Here’s some early game footage running on Unreal Engine 4.5, armed with nice graphics and good ole’ chilling music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEDK8AHZfkM&feature=youtu.be
If playing the most intense game of hide and go seek ever sounds fun, then head over to Last Year’s Kickstarter page to check out the details, updates and to lend your support! Last Year is scheduled to launch Fall 2016 for PC.