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Mintrocket made waves last year with Dave the Diver, a mesmerizing game about diving for fish and running a sushi restaurant that charmed with its earnest character and story and its gorgeous pixel art style. The Korean studio’s newly revealed game, Wakerunners, couldn’t be more different.
Wakerunners is a sci-fi multiplayer action game with a cel-shaded art style that plays out from a top-down perspective. There will be a variety of game modes that support 4v4 and 5v5 matches, as well as several heroes with unique abilities for players to choose from. In those modes, it looks like players will be fighting both giant mechs and each other. Mintrocket says Wakerunners emphasizes close-quarters action and speed ,and that players will be able to easily switch between characters in the middle of a battle. It looks like a pretty exhilarating action game, and its top-down perspective and emphasis on speed should help it stand out in the crowded hero shooter space.
It is a complete departure from Dave the Diver, though, as well as Nakwon: Last Paradise, the zombie extraction shooter Mintrocket is also working on. Because Nexon’s new studio put itself on the map with this cozier, indie-but-not experience, it’s been surprising how different its latest project feels. We asked Wakerunners‘ director about this and learned that Mintrocket does not want to be “pigeonholed” into one style of game.
“While I can provide the perspective of the Wakerunners team, I don’t think I can speak for my colleagues working on other projects at Mintrocket. The studio comprises separate dev teams; they are free to work on the projects they are passionate about,” Director ChaeHyun Lim tells Digital Trends. “The studio can’t be pigeonholed or restricted into one genre. However, we are united by a common goal to create immersive experiences that bring joy to players worldwide. It was exciting that the Wakeruners team worked closely when we created this science fiction world. We want to balance gameplay and combat with enough depth to support casual players who want to join in with friends and common players, [as well as] players with more passionate or competitive inclinations.”
Lim’s sentiment reflects Mintrocket’s mission statement in the press release announcing Wakerunners, which says the studio “aims for a world where various genres and new kinds of enjoyment coexist,” and that its development teams are united by wanting to “bring immersive experiences to audiences worldwide with creative and inspiring games.” Although Dave the Diver might have given the initial impression that Mintrocket is a Nexon team focused on more intimate, single-player, and indie-like experiences, the reality is that we shouldn’t expect any one type of game from this emerging studio to watch.
Wakerunners does not have a release window yet and is only confirmed for PC, but its first public test will come during February’s Steam Next Fest. A demo released for that event will allow players to try seven of the game’s playable characters across the Team Deathmatch, Raider, Control Conquest, Command Siege, and Escort modes.
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