Dark Rift, Lenovo Partner To Develop Indie Game Based On Player Recommendations

A new game blending tower defense action gameplay with heroes in a science fiction setting is coming out from an independent development team named Dark Rift Entertainment, in collaboration with Lenovo. The building process begins this month, but the team is taking a different approach to its creation by incorporating recommendations from the public.

The project is called "Gamestate," and over the course of four months, Dark Rift will keep interested players in the loop on the game's development, and by partnering with Lenovo and other groups such as Machinima, Rooster Teeth, and Geek and Sundry, the team is also asking the public to provide input on various elements such as story ideas, missions, and even the game's title.

Gamestate will have four phases, one for each month of development. The first phase in November is mostly an introductory phase, where the developers lay out their base foundation for the game and then asks for ideas from the public. The second phase in December is more of a discussion of certain elements and what can be done in the game with the assets available.

January brings with it another round of recommendations, this time with details such as lighting, sound, special effects and the development of a demo. The last step is in February, when the developers will take the somewhat-finished product and test a preview and demo for the players. After that, the game is set for release sometime in June 2016.

Obviously, the entire process is highly risky, even with the partnership with multiple sources for a potential fanbase. Lenovo and Dark Rift will provide updates over the next few weeks, but right now the focus is to get enough players interested in the idea.

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Rexly Peñaflorida II is a Contributor at Tom’s Hardware. He writes news on tech and hardware, but mostly focuses on gaming news. As a Chicagoan, he believes that deep dish pizza is real pizza and ketchup should never be on hot dogs. Ever. Also, Portillo’s is amazing.

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