Readers may remember our previous coverage of indie romance roguelike Ambition: A Minuet in Power, and the note that developer Joy Manufacturing Co. was planning a Kickstarter to help fund development. The day has finally come, and the game’s Kickstarter page is now live, along with a tasty new trailer video.
Set in pre-Revolution France, Ambition: A Minuet in Power follows Yvette Decaux, youngest daughter of a middle-class family in the south of France as she arrives in Paris at the behest of her fiancé, Baron Armand de Marbo. Unfortunately, by the time Yvette arrives in the City of Light, Armand is nowhere to be found, and she is left on her own. Unwilling to return to her family in disgrace, Yvette takes on the role she knows she was born for, mingling with the rich and powerful to influence all of Parisian, and French, society.
Designed as a cross between a romance game and a roguelike, the game presents players with an ever-changing world of choices through which to steer Yvette. Decide one way, and Yvette may find herself leading the French Revolution. Make a different series of choices, and the revolution may never happen! Choose poorly, and well, let’s just say that Madamé Guillotine was not picky about her victims during the Reign of Terror.
Along with their new Kickstarter, the team at Joy Manufacturing Co. also released a fantastic time-lapse gif of one of their signature scenes for Ambition. Moving from initial penciling, through lighting, and through to the final rendering, this is the kind of behind-the-scenes art footage that I personally love. As a programmer, there’s nothing really similar for my line of work, and the stages of a scene coming together have always fascinated me.
The Kickstarter for Ambition: A Minuet in Power runs through December 17th, 2017. The game is scheduled for release in November 2018 on PC & Mac via Steam, GoG.com, and DRM-free direct downloads from the website. We wish them good luck, and hope we’ll be reporting more good news soon!