Liquid Swords—the studio behind the upcoming Samson: A Tyndalston Story—has released a brand new developer diary video for the game. While a previous video had focused on the design of the city and its vehicles, this one revolves around its various missions and jobs. The video is almost 6 minutes in length and features designer Tommy Rydling and mission designer Donald Young.
Much of the core gameplay in Samson: A Tyndalston Story will revolve around the eponymous protagonist Samson dealing with the city’s seedy underbelly. Young described it as a “city on the brink” thanks to an overwhelming level of crime and corruption.
“So Tyndalston is an old US city, and Tyndalston is a city full of corruption and crime,” explains Young. “It’s like a city on the brink, in a lot of ways. There’s a new drug called White Whisper that’s been sweeping through the city. You’ll meet people affected by it. You’ll get into fights with dealers who are pushing it, and then that also ties into the main narrative.”
Rydling notes that Tyndalston, as a city, can be quite harsh and unfair, and Samson’s role to play in the city’s dark ecosystem is that of an enforcer. The game will feature three main modes of play: missions that tie into the larger narrative, jobs, and open exploration, like collectibles or hunting down optional story content.
The main missions comprise chapters that will focus on telling a linear story. The main narrative kicks off shortly after Samson returns to Tyndalston’s South End, with an inciting incident that “kicks off the adventure”. Jobs, on the other hand, are how Samson can make cash. These can range from picking up criminals at the scene of a crime as a getaway driver, finding new items, or breaking up burgeoning gang activity in Samson’s area. Many of these jobs are noted as being repeatable for extra cash.
The developers have also noted that they want players to experience chapters and jobs together. “One is not more important than the other,” says Young, noting that “they kind of run in parallel. And the player has to decide which is more important at any given time.”
“Once I described the game as a violent lesson in risk management, and I think that’s pretty accurate,” says Rydling. “We don’t want to be too punishing to players for failing a mission or a job here and there. But having said that, you wake up everyday and hopefully, you feel this healthy dose of stress of like, ‘oh s***, I had to make a lot of cash today so I can chip away at this debt,’ and at the same time the better you do on any given day, the more money you’re walking around with, like actual cash in South End, that’s dangerous.”
Samson: A Tyndalston Story is coming to PC through Steam and Epic Games Store on April 8th. However, the studio has also noted that it will “get cracking” on console ports after the PC version is out. For more details, take a look at a gameplay trailer showcasing plenty of violence, both on foot as well as vehicular.
