Action RPG Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn blends guns, gods, and magic in a world threatened by the opening of the Door once keeping the overworld and underworld separate. Kian is a semi-open world populated by Mesopotamian-inspired gods, where an army of Sappers fight back the Dead constantly streaming through the Door and a plethora of other enemies. In creating the world of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, developer A44 Games drew from existing mythology, literature in the "Flintlock Fantasy" genre, and other Soulslike games to create a compelling new setting with many things for players to do and explore.
The Best War Games spoke with Daniel Baider, the lead narrative designer on Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, about the process of creating the world of Kian and many of the elements players can encounter. Baider talked about the team's decision to create gods inspired by Mesopotamian mythology, how coffee shops are used to access side content, the backstory of player character Nor Vanek, and more. This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The Gods of Flintlock: Mesopotamian Inspiration
Q: The land of Kian appears like a pseudo-historical fantasy setting. What were some reference points or inspirations regarding the worldbuilding and the characters/lore?
Baider: Flintlock is set in a fantasy world inspired by varied mythologies, cultures, and time periods, drawing inspiration from these for various aspects of the game. Notable inspirations we considered when we started thinking up new ideas that would eventually become Flintlock included:
- Napoleonic Era (Uniforms, battlefields, firearm technology level)
- Mesopotamian Mythology (Gods, underworld, ancient environments)
- Flintlock Fantasy Literary Genre (“Gods vs Guns” thematic inspiration)
Additionally, as a small development team from New Zealand, we also looked at the scenery around us to help inspire some of the beautiful locations players will discover in Flintlock. We took these real-world influences and put them together with fantastical inspiration, to create something wholly unique.
Q: The Door to the Great Below was opened 10 years before the events of the game. What was the world like beforehand, and how did this opening change the world?
Baider: Before the Door opened, Kian was on its way to a new age fueled by the recent discovery of black powder. As technology and trade pushed nations closer together, old superstitions faded. Gods became nothing more than exotic creatures from old legends, in whom few still believed.
The opening of the Door forced the people of Kian to rethink everything. There was no logical explanation for why the Dead themselves would suddenly walk back into the world of the living; and events only took a darker turn once the Sapper’s mission revealed that the Gods themselves had also walked through the Door.
Q: What can you tell us about how Uru factors in those changes?
Baider: Uru the Ravager (also known as the Guardian of the Door) is the most powerful of the Gods, burdened with controlling the Door between life and death itself. It seems impossible that the Dead could have passed back into the living world without his involvement, but the rest of that story needs the context of later events in Flintlock to be told properly, so I won’t spoil any of those surprises here.
Q: Mythology is nothing new to the realm of video games, but Mesopotamian deities kind of are. Why did you decide on this mythology, over others, to base Flintlock’s Gods on?
Baider: We similarly felt that Mesopotamian mythology is underrepresented in a medium that freely borrows from many others, and that it would be an untapped source of inspiration for the game to draw from. The Mesopotamian understanding of the underworld as a dark and foreboding place where souls face similar challenges as they did in life felt like a unique setting to ground many of Flintlock’s characters—the Gods especially.
Q: How did you approach the design of each god? How many should players expect to face?
Baider: Players will encounter four main Gods during their journey through the game: Rammuha, Dukmar, Inaya, and Uru. Additionally, Enki is a major character within the story, but his role and relationship with Nor is unique and different from the other Gods players will encounter.
Rammuha is a Goddess of Order who takes control of the Knights of Three Peaks by preying on their piety. Rather than brute force, Rammuha accomplishes her goals using finesse and manipulation. To reflect this, she was given a regal appearance meant to reinforce awe in her followers.
Dukmar is a self-proclaimed God of Knowledge, whose understanding of the world is skewed by larger-than-life stories passed onto him by the souls of the Great Below. He wears a full set of armor to reflect the appearance of the characters from these stories. His design is very angular, with strong, straight lines that reflect power, discipline, and order.
Inaya is the Goddess of Life, who works tirelessly in her role to keep the natural order of the world intact. Unlike the other Gods, she is devoted to her duties and has no interest in the invasion of the Above. As the Goddess of Life, Inaya has a more organic design, pulling from body horror references.
All the other Gods, even Enki, fear Uru’s power. The only force capable of restraining him is the Door itself, which he cannot venture far from. Uru is the only God whose physical appearance was inspired directly by Mesopotamian mythology and sculptures. Sculptures such as the lamassu (winged bull) succeed at creating a sense of compelling brute force for him.
The Gods and Humanity Are At War
Q: Can you discuss the lore association between the Gods and undead in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn?
Baider: All of Flintlock’s Gods reside in the Great Below, the same realm which souls pass on to after they die. Within the Great Below, each God has their own domain and holds influence over the souls within its boundaries. In this way, the Door to the Great Below can also be thought of as a barrier between the natural and supernatural worlds.
Q: What can you say about the war between gods and humanity? What is each side’s motivation?
Baider: Humanity's motivation is a matter of survival. The undead threaten to destroy their entire world. The Coalition is striving to push the undead army back through the Door and then find a way to seal it behind them.
Each God has their own agenda, but having been isolated in the Great Below, they all share a warped understanding of the living world based on stories from the souls that entered their domain. Effectively, the Gods are trying to twist the world into their own idea of perfection, regardless of the destruction this entails.
Q: What are hosts and how do they factor into lore and gameplay?
Baider: Hosts are ancient Dead that escaped the Great Below in isolated incidents long before the events of the game, finding their place among the living as community elders thanks to their long memory of the world.
They perform a similar function in gameplay, dispensing valuable rumors (which point the player in the direction of side quests and challenges) and offering rewards to the player in exchange for looking after the communities they are responsible for. We thought it would be interesting to show this difference; not all Dead are set on the path of destruction, and the motivations of the denizens from the Great Below can be nuanced also.
Through our own explorations around the world, we quickly came across Turkish hot sand coffee and used coffee shops in general as places of congregation around this great drink (which Wellington does extremely well too!) To be the centerpiece of our Hamlets. Areas where war and petty bickering are put to the side—unless, of course, it’s over a game of Sebo.
Q: There is an ability said to resurrect players if they die. How does this fit into the lore and worldbuilding of Flintlock?
Baider: The ability in question is called ‘Shadow Self’ and is one of the later possible unlockables on the skill tree. It gives the player a second chance in combat if they fall, as Enki will rush in and restore Nor back to full health upon defeat.
Throughout the game, Nor can gain access to other powerful God magics through her connection with Enki, and some of them have really unique gameplay properties that the player can look forward to discovering. We have a number of late-game unlockables in the skill tree that can really shake up how the game feels, but they need a high amount of Reputation to unlock, so players will need to defeat a lot of enemies, master the Reputation multiplier system, and finish a number of side quests to unlock each one.
Protagonist Nor Vanek, Fashion, and The Coalition Army
Q: “Fashion Souls” is an important aspect of the community. Coffee Shops provide this element in Flintlock, but how important was this element of fashion during development?
Baider: It’s a feature that resonates with us as developers too and we’re looking forward to seeing the combinations Flintlock’s community comes up with! While many of the purchasable fashion elements players can buy in coffee shops let players show off their fashion sense, the gear and weapons you discover also have a lot of personality to them and should add to showing off the player’s style.
Players can even use the in-game photo mode to show their looks and share it with the world. We hope the community will embrace this element of the game and share some awesome creations!
Q: What can you tell us about the history of the Coalition army?
Baider: The Coalition was thrown together as an emergency answer to the war with the Dead as volunteers from many nations gathered themselves into a makeshift army. At tremendous cost, they pushed their enemy back but ultimately failed to progress further than containing the Dead within Dawn’s walls. After ten years of fighting, the Coalition is running out of resources, now reliant on conscripts rather than volunteers. The supreme commander, Field Marshall Sama, is getting increasingly desperate to find a way to seal the Door for good, and that’s where the game’s story begins.
Q: Can you discuss the design and backstory of Nor Vanek and what brings her to her contemporary position in Flintlock?
Baider: Nor is from the city of Dawn itself, and she’s never forgotten the day the Dead broke through the Door and tore her life apart. Forced to flee the only home she’d ever known, Nor soon lost her parents to disease and chaos caused by the war. Baz, a soldier from the newly founded Coalition army, stumbled on the young orphan lost and alone near the front lines, and felt sorry enough for Nor to take her into his own care.
Baz knew more about gunpowder than he did about fatherhood, and for the next ten years Nor’s life became trenches, tunnels, and the never-ending war with the dead; not that she minded. Her unlikely situation had unearthed a fiercely talented soldier, and it wasn’t long before Baz found his charge joining him on missions. A young Nor proved her bravery repeatedly, earning many friends and favors along the way, until eventually being promoted to the Coalition’s elite Sapper unit, where she became acquainted with Luca, Johara, and Haalin (the featured characters at the beginning of the game).
As a character, Nor is strong-willed and focused, which is something we wanted to get right, so the player could really feel her personal agency within the game’s story. There are a lot of key moments in Nor’s story that have her develop as a character and come to terms with the world changing around her, and we felt it was important to make that side of her relatable too. We hope players will enjoy getting to learn more about Nor and her past as they explore the game world—her conversations with Enki in particular really add some extra layers to her story that we think fans will enjoy discovering.
Q: Why was it important the team have a named and voiced protagonist over a more customizable character?
Baider: A named and voiced character was a necessity for the story focused on Nor and Enki’s relationship that Flintlock strives to tell. We wanted to push ourselves as developers, and to keep with our goal of making an accessible Souls-lite experience, having a named character with a story to tell was crucial to us. We’re looking forward to seeing players’ reactions to Nor and Enki’s relationship, especially all of the quieter moments where they talk to each other and really develop as characters.
[END]
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn
- Released
- July 18, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
From games studio A44, makers of Ashen, comes an explosive Souls-lite, where Gods and guns collide in a battle for the future of humanity.
The Door to the Great Below has been opened unleashing the Gods and their armies of the Dead. The lands of Kian are besieged, the city of Dawn is on the brink of destruction. It’s time for the Coalition army to fight back. Embrace vengeance, gunpowder and magic as you embark on an epic journey to defeat the Gods, close the door and retake the world.
Kill all gods.
Your battle begins now.
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood, Violence
- Developer(s)
- A44 Games
- Publisher(s)
- Kepler Interactive
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
