Campfire Cabal - New Narrative RPG Studio

[Silver]

@THQNordic Campfire Cabal is a new narrative RPG studio formed from the ashes of Logic Artists, who developed the Expeditions series of games.

Copenhagen, Denmark / Vienna, Austria, September 13, 2022 -THQ Nordic has set sail on a new expedition to Denmark with the formation of a new development studio called Campfire Cabal! The studio was formed by industry veterans who worked on titles such as the highly acclaimed Expeditions: Rome, the Hitman-series, and Hunt: Showdown. Campfire Cabal will focus on high-quality, narrative-driven RPGs and is currently working on a project that has yet to be publicly disclosed.

Check out the intro teaser for Campfire Cabal:

View: https://youtu.be/heTIhlF0mFc


Campfire Cabal will be an independent development studio under THQ Nordic and will be led by its management team and Creative Director, Jonas Wæver.

More information.

 

[Couchpotato]

Read about this a few days ago I'm excited about the new games. Hopefully the ex-Logic Artists employees continue to make games like the Expedition series.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I wonder, what this term "narrative RPG" actually means ...

 

[bjon045]

I think it is just RPG's that have a strong focus on the story and less on other systems like combat and detailed character systems etc. I think they can still have combat but it should form part of the story and progress it.

I would classify games like Torment ToN and Disco Elysium as being good examples, but the best examples would be VN style games like The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante and Obsidians upcoming Pentiment. I'd also put most gamebooks in the genre as well i.e. Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf etc.

I feel like the original Planescape: Torment has a very strong narrative but the amount of combat that is not linked to the story makes it more of a traditional cRPG. It's still got the best story I've ever experienced in a game though

 

[Stingray]

Nowhere in the actual announcement does it say that Campfire Cabal is making "narrative RPGs", it's just slightly misleading wording on this RPGWatch news post

What the announcement says is that they're making "high-quality, narrative-driven RPGs", which I would say is entirely different, and a statement that's nothing out of the ordinary. Could very well mean that they're going to be doing the exact same stuff Logic Artists was doing.

edit: also, Campfire Cabal's Twitter bio says they're making "turn-based" games: https://twitter.com/CampfireCabal

 

[bjon045]

Narrative-driven RPG = Narrative RPG in my book. I've never been prescriptive about the label. I wouldn't of classifed any of Logic Artists games as being narrative RPGs though but I wouldn't be suprised if they go down that path. They can be significantly cheaper to make if they go down the VN style and the market for these games is quite hot at the moment.

 

[Redglyph]

Nowhere in the actual announcement does it say that Campfire Cabal is making "narrative RPGs"

THQ Nordic's announcement states that "Campfire Cabal will focus on high-quality, narrative-driven RPGs" (as you mention yourself?), so it's clear that they'll keep making narrative RPGs. I don't see how else you could interpret that, unless you're implying that they were lying.

If you see the discussions on their Discord it's quite obvious too.

 

[Stingray]

THQ Nordic's announcement states that "Campfire Cabal will focus on high-quality, narrative-driven RPGs" (as you mention yourself?), so it's clear that they'll keep making narrative RPGs. I don't see how else you could interpret that, unless you're implying that they were lying.

If you see the discussions on their Discord it's quite obvious too.

Personally, I don't think "narrative RPG" means the same thing as "narrative-driven RPG" at all. The former implies that it's an RPG that is entirely, or almost entirely, a story game - basically, something like Disco Elysium. While the latter implies that it's a more "regular" RPG, but driven by a (presumably strong) story. It could be a subtlety that wouldn't matter to people whose native language isn't English - not sure if that applies to you. It could also be that others have very different opinions on what these two made-up phrases might mean, but I'd be surprised if I'm alone in thinking they sound very different. You're free to have your own opinion, of course.

 

[bjon045]

I don't think it is a subtlety that matters. These days there are just far too many variations of gameplay and combinations of systems that makes it very hard for many games to fit into a single classification. For example, if someone asked me how I would classify Disco Elysium I would called it an Isometric RPG. I'd also call it a Narrative RPG/Story-driven RPG. Wheras with something like The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante I would call it a Virtual Novel RPG but also a Narrative RPG.

As someone who enjoys a good story I am happy as long as the story is good.

 

[Redglyph]

Yes, take 2 people and they'll have different opinions on RPG definitions. Seeing how terms are used by marketing, I doubt they're into subtlety.

There's a chance the next title with begin with "Expeditions", that'll give us a good idea of what to expect.

If not... then we'll know on release. They seem more fond of history than ever, so it will at least have a reasonable amount of narrative in it (unlike a pure tactical RPG), and they've always been fond of combat so it's never going to be like Disco: Elysium.

I don't think it'll get the same amount of story and dialogues as Pathfinder either. Jonas and Fasih gave their thoughts about that a few months ago, they believe that dialogue is important to convey useful information, like details or hints about a mission or a future event. They insist the player must pay attention to them otherwise they may get stuck or take the wrong decision. And because of that they prefer to avoid too much dialogue in general.

 

[screeg]

I'm sorry, did I miss the debate about the difference between Narrative-driven RPGs and Narrative RPGs? I feel there is still a deep deep vein to be mined on this topic, if anyone is willing to engage.

 

[Stingray]

I'm sorry, did I miss the debate about the difference between Narrative-driven RPGs and Narrative RPGs? I feel there is still a deep deep vein to be mined on this topic, if anyone is willing to engage.

As I see it, it's more of a language debate than anything else The adjective form of "narrative", and the phrase "narrative-driven", simply mean quite different things. They are not interchangeable.

 

[Silver]

lol I think I walked into a landmine here. It may well be a Disco Elysium style game or an Expeditions style game. Wait and see I guess.

 

[Farflame]

Narrative-driven RPG = Narrative RPG in my book.

it's an RPG that is entirely, or almost entirely, a story game - basically, something like Disco Elysium.

lol I think I walked into a landmine here. It may well be a Disco Elysium style game or an Expeditions style game. Wait and see I guess.

Im probably going to kick your pile of philosophic arguments about narrative so please, dont bash me ... but it will be story-driven RPG like Expeditions Rome. I doubt that THQN would fund RPG without combat.
According to their tweet it should have TB combat.

Question is:
- should we expect Expeditions = another historical RPG?
- or did THQN push for different genre like fantasy, post-apo... ?

 

[Silver]

Im probably going to kick your pile of philosophic arguments about narrative so please, dont bash me ... but it will be story-driven RPG like Expeditions Rome. I doubt that THQN would fund RPG without combat.
According to their tweet it should have TB combat.

Question is:
- should we expect Expeditions = another historical RPG?
- or did THQN push for different genre like fantasy, post-apo... ?

I expect another Roman romp with turn based combat. Perhaps more of an xcom campaign style affair with 'base building' aka Roman style forts and encampments. At least I think that would be cool.

 

[Redglyph]

Question is:
- should we expect Expeditions = another historical RPG?
- or did THQN push for different genre like fantasy, post-apo... ?

I can't picture them doing fantasy or post-apo, but who knows. They seem to have tons of ideas for another Expeditions though, and hopefully that's where they are headed.

What do you think?

I expect another Roman romp with turn based combat.

I doubt that they'll use the Roman Empire setting again, or maybe just as a DLC to help financing the next game? But for a new game, it wouldn't be very original and I would be disappointed because there are so many other cultures to tap into, for example in the Middle East or the Far East. I loved what they did with Rome, don't get me wrong, it's a captivating part of history.

 

[Redglyph]

They confirmed today that it won't be Roman-related.

 

[Couchpotato]

There are plenty of settings to choose from so that's fine. Even if they go the fantasy or Sc-fi route that's fine as well. Look like no more Expeditions: Rome DLC though.

 

[JDR13]

They confirmed today that it won't be Roman-related.

Good.

Not that I have anything against that setting, but there are already quite a few games that use ancient Rome or Greece. I'm not real big on games that use historical settings to begin with.

 

[Silver]

They confirmed today that it won't be Roman-related.

Good to know. I hope it has some meaty lore in it regardless.