We have a great project to share with you today. Phoenix Point is the new strategy game from the creator of the original X-COM series, Snapshot Games. It features turn-based tactics and world based strategy in a fight against a terrifying, alien menace. We also caught up with Allen Stroud, Co-Lead Writer of the Phoenix Point Stories.

The game is in the production stage, and with a closing day on the 8th of June, it has already reached its target and more. Over 7 thousand backers have pledged $564.000 – they are obviously keen to see it come to life.

The game has a very interesting backstory. In 2022 a new virus emerges from the melting permafrost; it affects the seas, transforming them into something alien… literally. By 2057 the human population has been decimated. And here is where The Phoenix Project comes in. They are humanity’s last defence. As the player, you will control one cell of the organisation, which includes some of the world’s best scientists, engineers and soldiers. After the cell is activated, you realise that you have no contact with any other cells. You need to find out what happened to them.

Phoenix Point will also release stories, and here is where Allen Stroud comes in. Allen has great experience in writing for games, as the author of Dreams of Chaos and Elite: Lave Revolution. He is also one of the Lave Radio Presenters.

Allen has a busy summer ahead, with his work featuring in anthologies as well as a new dark fantasy novel coming out in September: The Forever Man, published by Luna Press Publishing.

“I began working with Snapshot Games and Julian Gollop in 2014. I helped design the fictional world of their first game, Chaos Reborn a fantasy about duelling wizards, which features in a lot my fiction.

Phoenix Point is a different, dystopian beast, much closer to the premise of The Forever Man. There’s a strong H.P. Lovecraft theme to the game. Its set in AD 2057, where the Pandoravirus has wiped out much of humanity. Now we’re at war with a mysterious alien invader. Writing stories set in Phoenix Point is an interesting fusion of modern world themes and science fiction. Fans of XCom and Julian’s previous UFO games will see that this is the spiritual successor to his work back then in the nineties.

I’m working with Julian and Jonas Kyratzes, who worked on The Talos Principle and The Sea Will Claim itself. At this stage, we’re building this dystopian world in the mind of fans of Phoenix Point by telling the stories of individuals from a variety of different countries as they experience the gradual decline of global society and alien invasion before beginning the game in AD 2057. There’s a lot of ground to cover, including the story of the Third World War and how close we came to nuclear Armageddon.”

You can see a selection of the story work here.

Phoenix Point is due out in 2018. The crowdfunding campaign is currently live and you can back the game until the 8th of June.

Kitty L loves books, space, fiction, frogs, furry animals and coffee. A lot of coffee. Fantasy, SF and Dark Fantasy have cocooned her world since the Mesolithic period. And she likes it like that.