Floor 13: Deep State

And like that, he was back

This week I'm taking a break from the 5-part series (expect part 3 next week) to bring you some news.

For several years, my friend David Eastman has been working behind the scenes on a reimagining of his cult DOS hit from the early 1990s, Floor 13. He hadn't released a game since then, and the games industry was poorer without him. Of course, David wasn’t poorer, but his exceptional software engineering leadership skills were used outside of games and I just felt he wasn’t done with games yet. Maybe I was projecting. Maybe he took the bait. In any case, he’s back, and we are all better off for the reunion.

You see, I convinced him that I could get a reimagined version commissioned and he rather naïvely took me at my word. Thankfully, and to cut a long story short, we did get it commissioned, by Humble Games, and their backing has allowed us to create something really special.

As producer on this game, in the traditional sense and less so the games industry sense, and as David's friend, there will inevitably be some bias on my part, but we need people like David in the industry. He is one of the most interesting and original people it has ever been my pleasure to know. He brings all his intelligence, thoughtfulness and wit to Floor 13: Deep State. It's hard to believe this, but it's coming to Steam at the end of this month.

The team we built to make this game is exceptional. I've never seen such a concentration of talent work at such high bandwidth with such grace and humour, and the result is unlike anything out there. If you expect a game to spoon feed you, this isn't it. If you expect a game to conform to your expectations, this certainly isn't it, but if you want something that makes you think, and plan, and keep you on your toes and make you feel like the weight of a society rests on your shoulders, and you want to wrestle with how the banality of evil makes you feel, then you're going to love Floor 13: Deep State.

Well done David, Erlend, Sarah, Rudi, Luke, Len, hackbunny and everyone else involved, thank you Geoff for your constant encouragement and thank you to everyone at Humble Games who believed in us. The idea was David's, but this amazing team breathed energy, atmosphere and depth into the game that I would scarcely have thought possible when we started on this endeavour.

As I told David before this whole thing got really serious, "The industry needs people like you and the games only you can offer". Once again I'm reminded that even already brilliant people are lifted by other brilliant people.

Please Wishlist us on Steam, it makes a difference.