The Victorian inspired gaslamp fantasy world of Nightingale holds a lot of promise, and with the launch of its dramatic Realms Rebuilt update in September developer Inflexion Games is beginning to truly deliver on that. The hefty overhaul featuring a more prominent story and progression systems, along with expanded built limits, has seen the embattled survival game’s recent Steam reviews climb from ‘mixed’ to ‘mostly positive.’ A few weeks on from its arrival, Inflexion CEO Aaryn Flynn and art director Neil Thompson sit down to discuss the reception to Realms Rebuilt, and to talk about what’s next.
“We’re super grateful to everyone who’s tried Nightingale – maybe for the first time,” Thompson says. “We always love to hear people’s feedback, what you’re enjoying, what you’re not enjoying; that just helps us make the game better.” The overhaul to the survival game seems to have been well-received across the board – “It’s been great to see Reddit pretty popular and pretty positive about things,” Flynn notes, “That’s been really nice. Reddit hasn’t always been the best for us, so the update has been really nice to see people invigorated and feeling good about where we’re going with the game.”
Flynn says the team is happy with how Realms Rebuilt has panned out – he adds that about half the players trying it are returning, and half are new, which is “about what I would have wanted.” In particular, Thompson says the much faster start has proven a real winner, tossing out the old tutorials in favor of a system that gets you into the action quicker. Major early bugs, such as charms lowering gear levels and mysteriously invincible trees, have also been addressed in the weeks since the update arrived.
“There’s still a few too many bugs in the game,” Flynn says, “we feel really bad about that. So it’s our mission right now to keep dealing with those bugs – so thank you to those who file reports and post [about them].” Thompson also highlights the UI improvements, which Flynn says the studio is hoping to build on further with additional upgrades. “The team’s cooking, they’ve got a lot of ideas for where they can improve more.”
The new storied realms have been a big highlight of Realms Rebuilt, and Flynn says Inflexion is currently looking at what else it can do with these; in particular, he mentions wanting to expand the range of biomes they can offer. Item customization is also a high priority, Thompson adds, and should see an update soon. “It’s very important that people can fully express themselves through their items and clothing with full customization.” That echoes the team’s sentiment from my recent Nightingale interview where Flynn spoke about wanting to better embrace the game’s unique setting and aesthetics.
Additionally, Flynn hints that there are plans in the works to improve NPCs and let you build villages for them to live in. He jokes about making a mining complex: “True fact, I really enjoy mining, it gets very zen for me and I just totally zone out.” The developer also has “more ideas for really cool apex creatures that we’ll talk about soon – but more on that in a future update.”
Rounding out the current plans is a focus on improving the game’s overall performance. “You can only get a certain amount of performance out of Unreal 5, because it’s still a newer engine,” Flynn explains, but he says the members of the team are working on an update to integrate UE 5.4, which should further improve performance. The pair add that they intend to continue regular short-form developer updates to keep players in the loop on what else is coming.
For now, you can explore even more wondrous worlds with the best fantasy games on PC, or bring your friends along for the best co-op games you can play right now.
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