MAGIC Spell Studios, one of the only publishing labels to publish student-created games, has announced they’re bringing Fragile Equilibrium to this year’s Game Developers Conference. Students from the Rochester Institute of Technology are developing the side-scrolling shooter, but players will also need to balance their attacks with rebuilding the decaying game world:
Fragile Equilibrium is a game about the imperfection and impermanence of life. It is a reflection on transience, a balancing act between progress and regrowth, and a reminder to find beauty in decay and inevitable destruction.
Using old-school shmup mechanics and form, Fragile Equilibrium invites the player to explore a world of quick actions, forced decisions, and subtle strategy: will you engage every enemy you can? Will you pass over a difficult encounter? Will you fire or dodge? But with each action or inaction, the player falls ever out of balance – too aggressive, too passive, too quick, too slow. And as balance decays so does the world, eroding over time and out of space, compressing the player to a smaller and smaller area, pressing in upon the mind. Built upon layered interactions, a Wabi Sabi aesthetic idealism, and a rich, broken world of times long past, Fragile Equilibrium invites the player to reflect on their play, their world, their nostalgia, and themselves.
Fragile Equilibrium is currently in development for the PC, and a playable demo will be available for attendees of GDC 2018.
