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00:00So, what is Imperial?
00:10In a nutshell, Imperial is a third-person action RPG about transcendental revelation.
00:15The game begins with your arrival on an unexplored planet to join an expedition that's discovered
00:20a monolith built by a lost ancient civilization.
00:24And so, you are immediately presented with these grand questions.
00:28Why is it here?
00:29Who built it?
00:30What was its original purpose?
00:32And perhaps even, what power might it still contain?
00:35And as you progress through the story, you'll explore themes and ideas about humanity's
00:39place in the cosmos.
00:42Some of these themes have largely fallen out of favor in the modern world, perhaps you
00:47could even say post-modern world.
00:49Things like duty, sacrifice, a tragic view of life, a sense of civilizational impetus,
00:55the idea that humanity is on a journey through history and that there is a meaning and purpose
01:00to that.
01:01And so, as you uncover what this ancient civilization managed to achieve, the question you have
01:07to consider is whether this still has relevance to the modern world.
01:12Despite all of its technological advancements, has the modern world forgotten some things
01:17that are important to humanity's story?
01:25To begin your journey towards these discoveries, you will of course first need to make your character.
01:29We have a fairly extensive character creation, you can play as male or female, and there's
01:34quite a lot of customization options beyond that.
01:37When you're happy with how you look, then you select a background.
01:41So this is not a hugely important decision, honestly, because the equipment that you get
01:45as part of the background you choose is going to be replaced as you play the game.
01:49But it does give you a little bit of flavor to begin the game with.
01:55Once you finalize your character, you arrive in the hub to meet the rest of the expedition.
01:59Each member of the expedition has their own personal questline.
02:02All of these questlines have multiple endings, and it's even possible to fail them entirely.
02:08These quests each explore a different facet of the human condition, and this is based
02:13on the ideals of the individual themselves, the challenges they faced, and what they hope
02:18to ultimately achieve.
02:20But again, all revolving around this incredible discovery that the expedition has made.
02:27The gameplay of Imperial is a mix of traditional third-person action, and I would say isometric
02:33ARPG elements as well, in the way that abilities work in the game.
02:37The first thing to take note of is which weapon archetype you want to use, as this will have
02:42a big effect on your overall playstyle.
02:45Each weapon comes with its own core moveset, and they differ quite a lot from each other.
02:50You can change this later on, so it's not a class-based system.
02:53You know, you pick up loot, and you can change your equipment, and that includes the weapon
02:57which will change your core moveset.
02:59But in addition to that, and this is where those isometric ARPG elements come in, you
03:04equip abilities to your action bar.
03:07But you can only have a limited number of them equipped, so you equip four abilities,
03:11and in addition to that, an ultimate ability, but there are many, many more in the game.
03:16Choosing what abilities you like is a big part of making your build.
03:20Other aspects of character progression and making your build is, of course, finding new
03:23equipment, which is the main way to increase your stats or gain new stats.
03:27So there is a strong RPG aspect to the gameplay, but there are skill-based elements as well.
03:32You can do perfectly timed attacks, deflects, parries, and even some abilities have extra
03:38effects if they are perfectly timed.
03:42One of the most important and unique features of the game is something that we call cartograms.
03:47Cartograms are the levels that you play in the game, and you can almost think of these
03:52as a blueprint for some of the aspects that you're encountering in a level.
03:56I want to highlight that we don't do procedural level design.
04:00We do the level design by hand because we wanted to create all sorts of interesting
04:03details, shortcuts, hidden nooks and crannies, and things like that.
04:07What enemies you face, what loot you can find, how many lives you get, what element you'll
04:12need a matching resistance to, all of these things and several more are randomly generated.
04:17So while the overall level layout is fixed, there'll be many ways in which each level
04:21is different depending on the attributes of the cartogram you're using to access it.
04:25One of the key things that is decided by the cartogram is the loot table of the boss, which
04:29means you can somewhat target the items that you're going for.
04:32There's still an element of chance to this.
04:34A boss might only drop two out of a possible four items in a loot table, as an example,
04:39but it does give you some ability to direct your playtime towards the goals and rewards
04:44that you have in mind.
04:45The last thing to note with cartograms is that you can actually share these with other
04:48players.
04:49So if you found a cartogram that had a really powerful item, you can share it with another
04:53player so they have a chance of getting it too.
04:56You could give it away or you could trade it.
04:58So there's a cooperative aspect which allows players to share the cool levels they find
05:02with each other.
05:06I think it's important to emphasize that Imperial is a single-player game.
05:09It plays like a single-player game, but we do have a few asynchronous, cooperative multiplayer
05:15elements that will allow you to just feel the presence of other players in the world
05:19as you play through it.
05:21And my personal favorite of these is a feature that we call Into the Aether.
05:24When you defeat a boss, you'll get this tear in the aether appear, and this is an opportunity
05:28for you to donate, essentially gift an item from your inventory into the aether.
05:33And this will cause it to potentially appear in another player's game.
05:37And if it goes through this process, it will get a big increase to its stats.
05:40But there's no immediate direct reward for you doing this, which means it's really up
05:44to the players, in fact the community as a whole, to make it work.
05:48And I'm quite curious to see how, or even if, players engage with this feature.
05:53At Silent Games, though we are a small team, our ambition is to make feature-rich games
05:58that have a great deal of depth to them, both in terms of the mechanics, the combat,
06:02the RPG systems, but to the narrative as well, with themes that are thought-provoking and
06:07a detailed backstory to give context to the world and the universe.
06:11Our hope for this game is, maybe it almost sounds too obvious, but we hope players enjoy
06:15it for what it is, a single-player RPG experience with a thought-provoking story, with a lot
06:21of RPG mechanics and systems that you can really get stuck into, playing around with
06:25these systems to make interesting builds and with a pretty substantial endgame to try
06:29those out in.
06:30If people play through the game, they enjoy that experience, they may be a bit surprised
06:35about the amount of depth there is to the game and the size of the endgame.
06:38We have a fully fleshed-out New Game Plus, for example, with some features that are exclusive
06:42to New Game Plus even, so play through all of that and then leave happy, then we would
06:47consider that to be a big success.