Liege

Liege is a dark fantasy in JRPG form, with a modern, tactical twist.

The game is being planned as a trilogy with a continuous story arc for desktop, console, and mobile platforms, with the first release scheduled for 2015.

Here’s what I think will make this game special:

The Story - Mature narrative & story driven gameplay
The Tactics - Elegant, seamlessly integrated tactical combat
The Art - High-definition, lovingly hand-drawn art and a lush, orchestral soundtrack

One late autumn eve in the Kingdom of Liege, a King, his queen, and their royal heirs fall into a deep slumber from which they never wake.

An interactive war epic

…and so our story begins. Following their mysterious deaths, a power struggle in the royal court ensues, and as the conflict quickly escalates, the Kingdom plunges into a bloody civil war. As war erupts across the land, we track the converging paths of characters aligned across various factions, from the noble houses vying for the throne, to the orphaned Royal Army, to an underground movement of outlaws with plans to incite revolution amidst the chaos.

Liege is a story that is written for an adult audience. It’s a drama about conflicted, intertwined, and human characters, forced to wage war for their lives and their homeland.

Battles in Liege are tactical and turn-based, and they emerge seamlessly as you wander through the realm. There are no jarring transitions that pull you out of the story and into some random battle arena floating in oblivion. Your heroes simply draw their weapons where they’re standing, and the fight begins.

Seamless transitions; elegant, turn-based tactics

The gameplay focuses on strategic placement of units and movement, and is inspired by games like FF Tactics, Fire Emblem, and chess. Like chess, combat in Liege is designed to be easy to learn, difficult to master.

The game emphasizes spatial elements over leveling and equipment, so you won’t be able to grind until your party is effectively invincible. Your units will always be vulnerable; in fact, a single direct strike to an undefended unit will often prove fatal.

Customizable characters, specialized classes

Combat in Liege is meant to deliver elegant, accessible, and deterministic mechanics that reward skill over blind chance. It aims to avoid the arbitrary complexity common to games in the genre, while retaining the depth and challenge that draws us to it in the first place.

One of the earliest goals with Liege was to create a game with an instantly recognizable, signature visual identity. Although the game was inspired by RPG classics from a bygone era, the game doesn’t settle with a retro style that attempts to imitate their look and feel. Instead, it leverages the latest available technology to create something that feels like a natural extension of the style pioneered during that period.

Unique, hand drawn visuals

In addition to the visuals, the audio is a key part of the game’s art direction. Again, instead of attempting to emulate 16-bit classics, Liege will take full advantage of modern hardware to deliver an epic, orchestral soundtrack with a lush, organic sound.