An RPG game that will take us into the real world of pirates

Who exactly were the pirates? Common villains, treasure hunters or freedom fighters? The French studio Savage Level wants to show them in their new game Flint: Treasure of Oblivion mainly in the role of fighters for everyone's freedom. The tactical RPG will focus on Captain Flint, a fictional pirate who is said to have left behind a huge treasure. Flint is also the main character in Robert Louis Stevenson's book Treasure Island. If you're old enough, you may have seen Disney's rendition of Treasure Island, which takes place in space, but the principle remains the same.

"This game allows us to introduce the general public to what piracy really was, as it is often portrayed as caricatured and false," says the studio, which according to co-founder Maxime Josse, who founded the company with his brother Aurélien, was inspired by just pirates.

"Real pirates" -- not pirates or Hollywood's vision of them -- were "freedom seekers" who cared for their crew members, Studio Maxime co-founder recently opined. He wants Savage Level to be a studio where everyone feels responsible for the work they do, and where newcomers to game development can gain experience under experienced guidance. Thinking of the studio as a group of pirates who seek financial freedom together while doing what makes them happy "works pretty well," Maxime said, given that a pirate story is always full of traitors and bloody battles.

Betrayal and battles can be expected at every turn in their game, which has a somewhat unique way of telling the story. As you explore Flint's environments from top to bottom, comic book panels will occasionally appear to inject dialogue and action into the setting. The whole story will be presented in this illustrated way, it's just a shame that there will be no voice acting.

The combat is turn-based and inspired by tabletop RPGs – simulating dice rolling, similar to Baldur's Gate 3 – and the most interesting thing revealed so far is that we'll also be able to fight 20 other opponents.

The characters will be grouped so that "you won't just have 15 little boys on the playground," explained production director Saïda Mirzoeva. The idea of being able to gather a real pirate army seems very tempting.

Weapons and abilities will be based on pirate reality, so no magic, and leveling will also use pirate logic. Experience is not gained by killing, but by collecting gold coins. You can distribute gold coins to your crew to improve, but you may want to keep them to buy items or save for future crew members.

The studio started working on Flint in 2022, and the release on PC and consoles is planned for 2024, sometime towards the end of the year.