John Romero and fellow id Software co-founder Adrian Carmack proudly announce BLACKROOM™, a visceral, varied and violent shooter that harkens back to classic FPS play with a mixture of exploration, speed, and intense, weaponized combat. Use fast, skillful movement to dodge enemy attacks, circle-strafe your foes, and rule the air as you rocket jump in the single- and multiplayer modes. Powered by Unreal Engine 4 and fully moddable on PC, the game is being developed with community at its core, starting with today’s launch of a Kickstarter campaign to fund development.
Features of BLACKROOM™:
•Reign supreme in a variety of multiplayer modes, including co-op, 1-on-1 deathmatch and free-for-all arena in a wide variety of locations including hardcore military sims, hellish infernos and interstellar space.
•Delve into a captivating 10+ hour single-player campaign, spanning wildly varied environments, from ruined Victorian mansions to wild west ghost towns to swashbuckling pirate galleons and beyond.
•Master fast, skillful movement with rocket jumping, strafe jumping and circle strafing.
•Challenge yourself with expert abstract level design, invented and perfected by John Romero and made material by Adrian Carmack. Romero’s latest map, Tech Gone Bad, has received universal praise and over 1M unique impressions.
•Master six built-in multiplayer maps, as well as countless maps created by the community.
•Extend your experience with full mod support and dedicated servers.
•Put your skills to the test in Challenge Modes (speedrunning and more) that present unique and demanding goals.
•Affect the holographic worlds in the BLACKROOM™ with a device called the Boxel, and influence the environment, your weapons and your enemies.
•Features new soundtrack compositions by acclaimed metal guitarist George Lynch.
In the single-player campaign, step into the shoes of Santiago Sonora, Chief hNode Engineer at HOXAR™, Inc., the world’s foremost creator of holographic simulations. The company’s exciting BLACKROOM™ technology allows users to be anywhere at any time, creating fully-realized holographic worlds that are indistinguishable from reality, all inside of a giant black room. When testing of their new leading-edge Predictive Memory technology reveals troubling anomalies that blend the real world with the virtual, you’re sent in to investigate and are swept across a staggering and dangerous array of simulations developed for BLACKROOM™ users, from medieval castles to horror sets. Peering into your mind and tapping into your deepest memories and fears, however, it’s clear that the BLACKROOM™ is not all fun and games.
BLACKROOM™ reunites game lead John Romero and art director Adrian Carmack, who co-founded id Software and co-created some of the industry’s seminal video game franchises, including Wolfenstein, DOOM and Quake. The Night Work Games team carries on that history of innovation with BLACKROOM™, with a focus on fast-paced action, pushing technical boundaries and developing community-focused, mod-friendly games.
“It is incredible to work with Adrian again,” said John Romero, game lead. “We’re developing exactly the type of game we think a lot of shooter fans want. It’s the type of shooter we’re known for, and the type of game we love to play ourselves. It’s a skillful shooter, from movement to weapon and map mastery.”
Adrian, who got his start with John in 1990 at Softdisk before going on to co-found id Software, echoed Romero’s comments. “It’s been great working with John again, and we’re really setting out to produce a visceral FPS,” said Adrian Carmack, art director at Night Work Games. “Because of the BLACKROOM™’s setting, we have a lot of freedom to create environments that players might not expect in an FPS. BLACKROOM™ technology lets its users enter just about any universe imaginable, and gives them the power to alter the world. That gives me lots of artistic freedom.”
BLACKROOM™ is targeted for release in winter 2018 on PC and Mac, DRM-free and on Steam. The team today launched its Kickstarter campaign, which will help the team fulfill and expand upon its ambitious plans and gives the community a unique opportunity to get directly involved in the game’s development. Visit the Kickstarter page