Digixart just revealed that its upcoming game Road 96 will not only be available on Steam but will also be released for Nintendo Switch. The announcement dropped today in Nintendo's Indie World event where the French developer showed the game's trailer which debuted at The Game Awards last year. One of the main features of Road 96 is the fact that it is a procedural game, meaning there will be a lot of content to explore.
The use of procedural generation has been used in video games for a while now. Games like Borderlands have used it to create the many different weapons in the game and, most notoriously, Minecraft uses procedural generation to create its many infinite worlds. Another famous game that relied on this system is No Man's Sky which used procedural generation to create the many planets and galaxies the player gets to discover in the game.
Road 96 was already announced for PC but it will now also be available on the Switch eShop. Although Digixart has not disclosed the release date, it has confirmed that the game will drop at some point this year. In the meantime, players who are interested in acquiring the game can wishlist it on Steam to receive notifications once the game is out.
Aside from the potentially huge amount of content Road 96 can offer, one of its most interesting features is the narrative. The game is heavily inspired by the road movies of the 90s, meaning it draws elements from the work of Quentin Tarantino, the Coen Brothers, and Bong Joon-ho. Another key nostalgic element will be the score of the game which is also based on the 90s music scene.
The main goal of Road 96 is to escape from the authoritative government of Petria by hitchhiking to freedom. Furthermore, the game will allow the player to make their own path to the border, which means there are many different ways to achieve that goal. As the game evolves, the player will have to make harder and harder decisions, which will affect heavily how the story evolves.
Another thing that makes Road 96 promising is the fact that Yoan Fanise, its creative director and co-founder of Digixart, is a former employee of Ubisoft. Most notably, Fanise was also the creative director behind the award-winning game Valiant Hearts which was praised both for its gameplay and narrative. Hopefully, Road 96 will live up to the hype and become one of the next classic indie titles.
Road 96 is slated to launch later this year for PC and Switch.
Source: Nintendo