Black Salt Games, the independent studio behind the fishing adventure Dredge, has announced Team Trifold, a new Christchurch-based game development studio working on its debut title, Nothing Lost.
Team Trifold joins Black Salt Games and Disc 2 Games, with all three studios developing their own games under the same roof in Christchurch. Supporting them is the newly established Saltworks Entertainment, which brings together shared expertise across production, marketing, QA, localisation, audio, business operations and publishing while allowing each development team to remain creatively independent.
“We really enjoy being a small development team,” said Nadia Thorne, CEO at Black Salt Games, in a press release. “We find it works well to keep development teams small and creatively focused, while sharing the resources and experience that it doesn’t make sense for the teams to necessarily have on hand across the full development of a game.”
Team Trifold is currently developing Nothing Lost, a generational action-roguelike where death strengthens the hero who follows. Players battle through ever-shifting dungeons while building a lineage of heroes whose successes and failures shape the generations that come after.
That sense of accumulated progress runs through both the story and mechanics of Nothing Lost. “What resonates most with me is that Nothing Lost is a game that celebrates the optimism of incremental human progress,” said Jed Uy of Team Trifold, in the same press release. “The story and gameplay mechanics work together to express the notion that in some sense, time is never truly wasted.”
“Unlike other action-roguelikes, Nothing Lost remembers every attempt the player has made,” added Wilson Teo of Team Trifold. “With each spirit’s power you infuse, you’ll begin to compound them, making each run more powerful over time.”
The announcement comes as Disc 2 Games releases a free Steam demo for Canvas City, its rebellious turn-based tactics RPG combining tactical combat, roller skating and street art. The demo includes the tutorial and first four levels and six playable characters across three classes.
Nothing Lost is currently in development for PC and is available to wishlist now on Steam. The Canvas City demo is available free now on Steam, with the full game currently in development for PC and Nintendo Switch.