The Callisto Protocol is getting a spin-off, but it's not the kind of project that those who played the horror game are probably expecting. Developer Striking Distance Studios announced this week a game called Project Birdseye which is a roguelike as opposed to a survivor horror game like The Callisto Protocol. Instead of playing as protagonist Jacob Lee from the original game, you'll be playing as a number of different characters as you die and try once more to make your way through Black Iron Prison while adapting and upgrading your abilities along the way.

In the video announcing Project Birdseye, Striking Distance Studios addressed the expected question by first by confirming that this game is not meant to be The Callisto Protocol 2 which has not been announced yet. The in-development game set in Black Iron Prison itself was born out of a "small group" of developers within Striking Distance who happened to like roguelikes and wanted to work more within the world of Callisto.

"Last year, a small group of us began working on a passion project that was born out of our obsession with easy to pick up and play but fun to master roguelikes," an overview of the new project explained. "We love the world we created for The Callisto Protocol and want to keep playing in that sandbox – and Black Iron Prison is the perfect future-punk playground for the team's vision."

Check out Project Birdseye, an action roguelike we've been cooking up at @sd_studios. What do you think? Let us know using #ProjectBirdseye pic.twitter.com/HBWgov7Axz

— The Callisto Protocol (@CallistoTheGame) March 19, 2024

For those keeping up with Striking Distance's announcements and teases, you may recall that the studio is indeed working on a new game. Again, it's not been confirmed yet that the new, unannounced game being working on separate from Project Birdseye is a direct sequel to The Callisto Protocol, but Striking Distance assured fans that this roguelike project isn't impacting the development of whatever that new game is.

"As you can tell, this isn't The Callisto Protocol 2 – think of it as a side quest that really resonated with the team – it let us expand the world of The Callisto Protocol and stretch our creative muscles on something a bit different without impacting development on our next AAA game," the overview continued.

While it wasn't specified, it looks as though players are controlling either Black Iron Prison guards themselves or prisoners who've found themselves quite the arsenal of gear, but the former seems more likely given that you'd have to play as a new character every time you die. That part was confirmed in the trailer through the neat feature highlighted where you can find your old corpse and fight it, too. Other key roguelike features such as acquiring new weapons and suits to be used in future runs and upgrading abilities to strengthen your efforts over time were shown off in the first trailer for the game.

Project Birdseye does not have a release date yet nor was anything discussed about the platforms it'll come to, but a PC release at a minimum seems like a safe bet.

Posted: Mar 23, 2024 11:10 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/the-callisto-protocol-roguelike-project-birdseye/