Manufacture 43 will present Pawarumi, its first game, at Gamescom 2016. This PC game mixes “shoot’em up” gameplay with stylish graphics and fine-tuned controls to give the aging genre a breath of fresh air.
Niche Gameplay is Getting Traction
With the help of crowdfunding campaigns the indie game industry has proven that classic genres the big studios left behind still have a strong following. Indie game developers are revisiting classic game mechanics more and more, giving them an upgraded, modern take in themes, style and controls to create engaging, original experiences.
For example, Broken Age for point & clicks, Orion Trail for text-based adventures and Puzzle & Dragons for tile matching games have investigated how to give a new life to video game genres ignored by big AAA studios.
Challenging Shoot’em up Games are Due for a Revamp
The shoot’em up genre, born in the arcades of the 70’s, is defined as follows : “In a shoot ’em up, the player character engages in a lone assault, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks” (source: Wikipedia).
The shoot’em-up genre today, with the traditional scratch-your-eyes-out-in-frustration difficulty is mostly comprised of the same old games adapted for new platforms, selling nostalgia rather than adapting to increasingly game-literate gamers. To give new life to the genre, a studio cannot stand on nostalgia alone; they need to craft a visually engaging game with very challenging yet intuitive gameplay.
Pawarumi, a Challenging New Take on Arcade-Style Shoot’em Ups
The challenge of creating an engaging new take on shoot-them-ups appealed to Manufacture 43. Pawarumi, their first game as independant developers, features full 3D landscapes, massive bosses, refined sound design and original game mechanics to challenge the most dedicated player.
Pawarumi is coming 2017.