The Flock Will Remind You of Human Mortality – If You Live Long Enough to See the Game’s End

For the five of you who were hardcore Caprica fans along with me, you might remember the game New Cap City, in which once a player was killed in-game, they couldn’t play again. Well, we can now have a similarly troubling game experience that reminds us of our mortality in the new game, The Flock, from Vogelsap. Check out the chilling teaser below.

What makes this horror/thriller extra intriguing is that it purposely has a limited life-span, based on the number of deaths in the game. But to understand why that is, we should first understand what the game’s all about. Here are some key deets from the Vogelsap website:

The Flock is a multiplayer thriller in which you can scare your friends. Everybody starts as an agile monster from a species called the Flock, but the goal of the game is to grab and hold the Light Artifact which transforms you in the hunted Carrier. Only the Carrier can win the game, so you want to get a hold of that Light Artifact. The twist is, the Flock are not allowed to move in the light of the artifact or they will be burned to a crisp in mere seconds. If they choose not to move, they turn into a stone statue and are invulnerable to the light.

If you’ve payed attention, there’s two things that can happen to the Flock. They either die (e.g. by moving through the light) or they transform into a whole different creature called the Carrier. In both scenarios there is eventually no more Flock. If this were the real world it would mean the Flock is a tragic race doomed to extinction. We want to convey that story into our multiplayer.

We’re going to launch the game with a population of Flock. Earth has become a dark and barren place where only the Flock still roam and create the planet’s present population. They have started a struggle that revolves around the Light Artifact which will lead to their demise. With each Flock that dies, earth’s population will drop until the Flock are no more.

So, how many people will get to play? Vogelsap announced their game launch population at 215,358,979. That’s it (unless the game comes to consoles). Once that many “Flock” die, the game is over for everyone.

Normally, I’m not into horror games – but this premise is just too juicy to pass up. If you want to join the Flock, the game goes on sale August 21st, will cost $16.99, and will be available on the Vogelsap website, on Steam, or via the Humble store. If you pre-order before August 21st, you get a second game key for a friend.

See you on Earth in the year 3000! May we all be Carriers.

(via Polygon)

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