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Bonaparte: A Mechanized Revolution
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Redefining History in the Coolest Way Possible - Bonaparte: A Mechanized Revolution Interview
If you're looking to see the French Revolution in a different light, and define your own version of events, Studio Imugi's debut game looks like a wild ride.
Audio transcription
"Hello everyone, I'm Alex here with Gamereactor. We are live at Gamescom.
I've just been checking out Bonaparte, A Mechanized Revolution. I'm here with Chong Wu. What can you tell me about Bonaparte? It's got this historical element, it's tactical, it's strategical, but it's also got some liberties with history as well."
"Right, so Bonaparte, A Mechanized Revolution is a strategy-tactics hybrid game in which you replace Napoleon in an alternate timeline. As a fictional Céline or César Bonaparte, you choose, and you are a political and military leader in the early days of the French Revolution. But because this is an alternate timeline, you are not only free to ideologically align yourself with any of the political factions that existed at the time, but also the battlefield is dominated by heat-powered mechs known as the Colossi."
"You also have in these battles, as we just saw, there's a big focus on the historical accuracy around gunpowder battles as well. So even though you have these mechs and you have this ability to rewrite history in your own way, you also have a very detailed acknowledgement of what history was like. You've gone into the politics, as we've been over in the presentation. You guys have paid attention to your stuff."
"That's correct. So we like to call our approach Alternate History with Authenticity. The idea being that we're not trying to recreate the historical events exactly, but we want to be inspired by it and depict the dynamics and the viewpoints and some of the aesthetics of the era in an authentic way as possible, and allow the player to make the choices that they want within the setting and the field of consequences for themselves."
"And so you guys at Studio Amoogie, you are focused on storytelling as well.
How do you weave a narrative into this sort of genre and this allowing people to create their own stories as well as get this really nice tactical combat?
That's an interesting question. So I think strategy games, just by their nature, engage in alternate history or the counterfactual just because of what the player does in the game. But the problem with a lot of strategy games is that their scope is too broad, and a lot of the context, the characters, and the ideology is lost in the moment-to-moment gameplay of a strategy game experience."
"So what we've done is focus on the revolutionary period in France, and focus primarily on the territory of France and the major factions that existed at the time, and ask the player, hey, what do you think about these people and what they're doing, and do you agree with that, or do you oppose it, and allow them to choose what they want. And as a result of that, the narrative emerges from the player's actions. On top of that, we also depict major historical events in a way that the player can change the outcomes as well. So that's how we're engaging with alternate history and narrative."
"Thank you so much. And as you can see in the banner here, there's a very nice visual style that once again seems to pay homage to the history. Is that your intent with the visual style? Did you think about going with maybe another visual style considering the mechs, or did you want to recreate that environment?
So absolutely, we were inspired by historical paintings of the era. The vision for the project is to really place the player in this alternate timeline in 1789, and everything about the visuals are intended to support that."
"Jiang Wu, I think that's all I've got for you apart from when can we expect to maybe see Burnapart, a mechanized revolution, and where could we see it?
So in the Steam Next Fest in October, we'll be releasing a limited demo, so please check us out in October 2024. Also, we're targeting an early access release for Q1 2025 as well, so that's when the most playable version of the game will come out. So look out for that, and thank you so much."
"Actually, just one more question. Where did you get your hat?
This is an actual historical replica by Korn from the Musée de l'Armée in Paris.
So I love this hat, and I can feel the spirit of the revolution flowing through me.
It's a brilliant hat. I'm going to have to try and find it online."
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