Nightingale - An Upcoming Fantasy Survival Game

Initially announced during the 2021 Game Awards, Nightingale promised something new for the survival game enthusiasts. Procedurally generated maps, created by the game’s unique Realm Card system.

In Nightingale, players will combine Realm Cards in order to traverse the infinite portal network that makes up the world of Nightingale. Using Realm Cards will change certain aspects of a Realm such as the biome, the creatures, and the resources that can be harvest.

Earlier this week, Nightingale developer, Inflexion Games, released a Q&A on their official Discord server.

So, what will make the cut for Early Access and what will be left out?

In Early Access, players will be able to build shelters in their Respite Realms. A Respite Realm acts as a player’s home-base in the world of Nightingale. This is where players will store their resources, craft new weapons & gear, and generally hang out when they’re not investigating other realms. If a player decides that they want to move their Respite Realm, they can generate a new Realm, using the Realm Card system, and they can easily move their base to a new location. Along with the Respite Realm, players will also be able to open a portal to one other Realm at a time, and leave this portal open for as long as they like. But once the portal is closed, players will not be able to access that specific Realm ever again. Though players will be able to create procedurally generated Realms through the Realm Card system, all Realm maps will be relatively the same size.

Once a player chooses a Respite Realm and begins building their home-base, an enemy NPC faction, called The Bound, will send monsters to attack player's bases periodically. But don’t worry, base attacks will not happen at random. Attacks will only happen when a player is connecting to a new Realm, or at night time, if the player is at their home-base. The day & night cycle in Nightingale will last one real-time hour. And while the player’s Respite Realm will only be attacked at nighttime, players can use a Minor Realm Card, such as one that generates a Realm that is always daytime, in order to prevent these attacks. In addition to attacking the player character, enemy NPCs will hunt down and kill each other as well. The current weapon types that players will be able to find and craft in-game include the ax, pickaxe, maul, slingbow, pistol, shotgun, and rifle.

The player-built structures in Nightingale will be destructible, but destroyed structures will retain a portion of their base materials that can be reused. When buildings are destroyed, they will not deal damage to players or NPCs. Building structures will also be editable and dismantlable, so if there is a weakness in the base, or something that the player would like to change, they can do so easily. In order to craft certain weapons, gear, or buildings, players will need to acquire specific schematics related to these crafted items. Some schematics will be given to the player during the game’s tutorial, but more advanced schematics must be earned through collection, NPC dialogue, or questing. In order to build, players will also need tools, which can be created, destroyed for parts, or repaired; and there will be no limit on player building.

Players will be able to create up to 3 playable characters. Players will also be able to invite other players into their Respite Realms to play co-operatively and explore other Realms together. However, the maximum capacity for Realms will be between 6 - 10 players at Early Access. Nightingale is designed so that all content will be soloable, but solo players will have a far more difficult experience. For example, Apex creatures are the boss enemies in Nightingale, which will take a considerable amount of time to kill, and will drop unique rewards. These will be much easier to take down as a group. If a character's HP goes to zero, they will become downed. Downed players can be revived by others, but on death, characters will drop their entire inventory. Respite Realms will act as the character’s respawn point if and when they meet their downfall. The character's death location will be marked on the map, and players will be able to retrieve their dropped items with no time restrictions. There will be an inventory limit and encumbrance system, but players will be able to craft backpacks that will increase their inventory space.

The devs see Nightingale’s narrative as optional content that players can completely ignore if they so choose. It has also been confirmed that the storyline will be linear. Player journals will track what players have already discovered, and provide hints about things that have yet to be found.

Although Nightingale is being developed for PC, it is also being made with controller support.

Not Available in Early Access

Although they have been spotted in a few of Nightingale’s trailers, the devs have confirmed that airships will not be pilotable by players.

As a way to encourage players to use the Realm Card system to explore the various procedurally generated Realms of Nightingale, the developers have made the decision to not allow resources to respawn in Realms. So, once you’ve chopped every tree, mined every ore vein, harvested every plant, and killed every creature, it might be time to think about creating a new Realm to travel to.

Although the procedural generation of these Realms is vast, there are still some restrictions. One example is the lack of an underwater Realm. While there will be coastlines, rivers, and lakes to explore within Realms, the devs have confirmed that there will not be any Realms that exist primarily underwater.

Since this is not a traditional RPG, there will be no character leveling. Instead, the game will scale in difficulty as the player progresses further into more difficult Realms.

Speaking of difficulty, there will be no ability to change the difficulty in the settings menu. Players will be able to use Realm Cards in order to change the difficulty of a Realm, but this will also affect the rewards of the Realm.

Originally, Nightingale was planned to release in Early Access in 2022, but due to the migration to Unreal Engine 5.1, Inflexion Games decided to push Early Access into 2023.

If you’d like to read the Developer Q&A yourself, you can do so on Nightingale’s official Discord server here.