Former Dragon Age writer reveals first game with new studio - and it's a musical
Featuring the voice talents of Troy Baker and Laura Bailey.
Chorus: An Adventure Musical is the very first game being made by Summerfall Studios - a new narrative-driven Australian game development studio led by David Gaider, former Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age writer, and Liam Esler, who started out as a designer at Obsidian.
Inspired by games like Dream Daddy and Life is Strange, as well as musicals like Wicked and Hadestown, Chorus will see the player assume the role of Grace - a singer trying to prove her innocence after a magical Muse dies on her doorstep, giving her powers and thrusting her into a world of mythological beings.
"We wanted to make a musical, a game with a focus on character and story, where the big moments happen in song, and the player decides where that song goes," said Gaider, now co-founder and creative director at Summerfall Studios.
Chorus: An Adventure Musical will feature the beautiful voice of Laura Bailey, who can be heard in the trailer above, with voice direction by Troy Baker. Summerfall has even managed to rope in the talents of Austin Wintory, known for his work on the soundtracks for Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Journey, and recent FMV thriller Erica.
"Chorus will take you on a lyrical journey through a branching story that focuses on characters, adventure, and romance," Gaider continued. The end of that sentence I'm sure is exciting Bioware fans across the globe.
As far as the game play goes, at the moment we know it's a choice-based dialogue game, and player options are restricted by the player's traits (you can be Kickass, Clever or Charming), which change as they progress through the story. Dialogue looks a lot like you'd see in visual novels, or indeed choice-based games like Dragon Age.
In big important parts of the game, Grace has the power to draw people into song, in which you can make choices to build up "flow" - this can be used at the end of the song to alter the world in some way.
Summerfall Studios is currently crowdfunding the game via fig.co, and has already raised over $70k of its $600k goal in under a day. Here's hoping it'll keep up that momentum, so Chorus gets its time in the limelight.