Ignorance is bliss, as they say, and the forthcoming Quote, by Vindit studio, takes what ‘they’ say literally. You are Novella, priestess of Bliss (the god of ignorance) and your job is to cleanse the world of knowledge. Burn books, kill authors, and even beat the thoughts from heretical minds on your quest to save the unbelievers from themselves.
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Quote promises “seven beautifully hand-drawn worlds based around the fragments of a past culture”, stocked with “playful” quotations – presumably for you to destroy. Expect these to draw on the authors Vindit cite as their inspiration: Vonnegut, Bradbury, Eco and Huxley. Cheerful chaps all, who wrote dark science fiction, dystopia and satire.
In gameplay terms, Vindit claim to be inspired by Little Big Adventure, and promise “a mix of brawling action and exploration”. There will be puzzle solving, secrets and lore to uncover, and “over 20 unlockable powers” with which to punish the unbelievers.
Vindit was founded in 2014 by Robin Lacey and Evan Lovejoy. Lacey co-founded Beatnik Games, who published Plain Sight – a multiplayer arcade game about suicidal ninja robots who compete to kill themselves. Evan Lovejoy is a fine art illustrator specialising in “weird beasties and warped environments.” You can see some of his work over on Quote’s website– weird and warped looks about right.
Helping them out on narrative design are Dan Griliopoulos, a freelance game writer and launch editor of this very site, and Alec Meer of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, who also wrote for No Man’s Sky. Quote will be Vindit’s first game, and comes out on early access in winter 2016, with final release due sometime in 2017.
For some hints about what Quote will be like, consider this: ‘Vindit’ is a concept in Bokonism, which is a fictional religion invented by the aforementioned writer Kurt Vonnegut. Bokonism is based on the concept of foma, which are defined as harmless untruths; the religion acknowledges that it is formed entirely of lies, but claims that one who adheres to these lies will have peace of mind. A ‘vindit’ is a (supposedly) harmless shove in the direction of Bokonism.