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The Tomorrow Children

The Tomorrow Children

Even after its Gamescom reveal, we're still left wondering who, and what, are The Tomorrow Children? We dig deeper into the mystery.

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The PixelJunk creators are working on a new project totally different from their previous games. The Tomorrow Children relies on interaction with other players, and a lot of social components, while the backstory is an unusual one.

The Japanese developer have crafted a story that centres on the Cold War, as Russia experiments in melding people together into one unified consciousness. The experiment goes wrong, and most of mankind disappears. Years later, we as players, enter. We look like a cross between Contrast's Didi and Hookwinked's Red Riding Hood. We're one of multiple projection clones working together to try and save the human race and rebuild them to their former glory.

A new society has prospered, built upon Marxist ideals, and new technologies have been developed. We belong to the proletariat and must rebuild the city. We work in the mine on so-called islands, mining for precious resources, or recover lost DNA essences found in statues that look like Russian dolls. Between, the virtual city that we share with up to 100 others must be grown and defended against monsters.

For all our actions, we collect tribute points, which can be redeemed at the day's end for coupons from the labour office. So, work on reconstruction, for the community, and we're rewarded. It's a somewhat abstract take on socialism.

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The Tomorrow Children

With the coupons we can improve our skills, get new weapons and learn talents. Talents such as sharp elbows, which allows us to jump queues, or the ability to use a small rocket launcher.

The Tomorrow Children is using a very advanced 3D technology with volumetric light. None of the other titles from Q-Games has been so complex in design, and that's why the project is one of the largest the studio have worked on. We, and other residents, can manipulate everything within the persistent online world. We can build bridges, for example, to try and make the city look more attractive. It's an idea
partly reminiscent of the work we do in Minecraft.

But the social interaction is not superficial. We can greet each other and fight side by side against monsters. In the mines we can help a comrade and share the light from our flashlight, so they don't get lost or spooked. We're also building our city in competition with other cities to try and get the best score - though we can also use our earned coupons to move to one of those other cities.

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The Tomorrow Children resembles an online anthill from a distance, and it's an apt comparison. We all work together on a superordinate goal, and although each person is crafting for themselves, but everything serves the community. When a monster is defeated, everybody must try and mine the leftover materials as they disappear in a few seconds. Using those and other materials, buildings and objects can be assembled. This also includes massive turrets, tanks and vehicles that can be used not only by one person, but by everyone. Sharing is caring.

The humans we find and bring back to the city begin to work there. They fix things or carry things around. It's just a bit strange that only the projection clones are playable by actual human players, while the humans are controlled by Artificial Intelligence. Every couple days a new mayor is elected who can hand out specific bonuses to the city. These include more resources or higher weapons efficiency.

The Tomorrow Children

What the journey leads to, what the ultimate goal is, is yet unknown. Q-Games themselves still don't know what the final goal will be and whether there should be something like that at all.

One consideration is to connect the victory to the number of people rescued, and the studio is also considering integrating a freemium model. So maybe there will be an optional offer for certain improvements with real money. And possibly you could fight against other cities directly.

It's a game whose release doesn't mean the end, only the beginning. The world will be extended and enlarged. It is therefore difficult to assess exactly what to expect with The Tomorrow Children. But for now, everything sounds pretty exciting.

HQ

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