Excalibur Publishing, the PC publisher best known for Minskworks’ simulation game Jalopy, is announcing a new game at UK gaming expo EGX in September. The mystery title has been described by Excalibur as “Animal Crossing meets Papers, Please,” and the reveal will also be livestreamed on Twitch.
Excalibur Publishing is quite a prolific British games publisher, with the likes of Euro Truck Simulator 2, Water Park Tycoon and the Minskworks-developed Jalopy all part of its label. It’s been announced that they’ll be unveiling a brand new game at EGX, one of the UK’s biggest gaming events, in September during a developer session. Currently, we know little about what the game will actually be like, but it’s been described by Excalibur as “Animal Crossing meets Papers, Please,” an incredibly unusual but rather intriguing combo.
There’s plenty of room for speculation on what exactly this mystery game will entail; and if I’m good at one thing, it’s speculation. It seems reasonable, to me at least, that with the Authoritarian, pseudo-Communistic themes present within Papers, Please, and the very strong community-based management and resource collection gameplay that Animal Crossing is best known for, that it’s possible we’ll see the player assume the role of a leader or manager in some kind of Republic or State, with a heavy focus on citizen conformity, collectivizing resources, and quashing dissent. That is, of course, all speculation, but until we know for sure what it’ll actually be, it’s fun to imagine the possibilities from such a fascinating combo pitch.
We’ll only have a few months for some imaginative fun, though. EGX is happening soon, around the weekend of September 20-23. Thankfully, you won’t need to attend the event to see the reveal, as it’s being livestreamed on Twitch – and uploaded afterwards to YouTube – when the developer conference that it’ll be unveiled at begins at 12pm BST (4am PDT, early start for everyone in the Western US). On the show floor, attendees will also be able to get their hands on the game to give it a go.
