Amid troubling financial times for Age of Conan and The Secret World developer Funcom, the Norwegian studio on Wednesday announced an “experimental” single-player horror game for PC called “The Park.”
It’s described as a “short and intense” project developed by Funcom’s team in Oslo, Norway. You won’t have to wait long to play it, as it’s launching for PC in October 2015.
The Park is set in a creepy amusement park “where a dark and sinister secret is waiting to be uncovered,” reads a line from the game’s description. The game definitely gives off a eerie vibe, as you can see in the announcement trailer below. “Most amusement parks are happy places, but not all of them.”
You play as a character named Lorraine, whose son, Callum, goes missing in the park. Things don’t go well.
“Amusement parks are happy places, filled with the innocent joys of childhood and the exhilarating rush of hair-raising, but safe adventure,” reads another line from the announcement. “Balloons, cotton candy, and fantastic rides to be dared. Perhaps that is how Lorraine pictured it too when she brought her son Callum to one… just before it descended into the most terrifying nightmare of her life.”
The Park is the result of a new business strategy that Funcom announced today where it will develop “small, experimental, and innovative” games that focus on new concepts and platforms (VR and AR were two examples) and use the company’s existing IP. Funcom said it hopes this strategy will help pull it out of the financial trouble it’s in as a result of Lego Minifigures Online’s poor performance.
Warning: The Park video below features intense flashes that could trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy.
It may be an all-new game, but The Park does carry ties to Funcom’s legacy. The game’s location, characters, and story elements are pulled from The Secret World, Funcom said.
“Funcom’s ambition is to further explore how the company’s established universes can be drawn upon in other projects outside the MMO space,” the developer explained.
Overall, Funcom said The Park is an experiment designed to “gauge the market and to develop the team’s ability to create different types of games.” As such, Funcom said it does not expect The Park to be a big money-maker.
What do you make of The Park? Share your thoughts in the comments below.