What former lawyer Nick Pearce did took courage and probably some insanity, but he succeeded. He created a small but mighty epic of modern adventure gaming.
His life would probably look completely different today if he had stuck to his files. Instead, the former lawyer Nick Pearce piled up a veritable mountain of work. And why? Because he wanted more than just to create one of the best Skyrim mods ever.
The Australian quit his job and founded the studio Modern Storyteller in 2017 to turn the hobby project with soon more than three million downloads into a standalone game based on Unreal Engine 4.
80 hours a week
But The Forgotten City was going to take a lot out of him in particular until it was finally ready for its release in 2021. Because although he got support from veterans of the industry, (the studio head shouldered plenty himself). Working up to 80 hours a week on the project far beyond normal working hours and even brought in expertise from professionals from Italy.
Because the ruins of Pompeii, which are still well preserved today, served as their model, and he and his team wanted not only to tell a gripping mystery story, but to bring it to life as closely as possible in a historically believable game environment.
Deserved success
The standalone game should eventually surpass the success of the mod. Apart from several nominations, the title won for example in the category Excellence in Narrative
of the Australian Game Developer Awards in 2021. And also the ratings of trade magazines like ours or the colleagues of GameSpot or IGN attested the game a very good quality – especially in the world design, atmosphere and in terms of narrative.
Whoever enters the Roman city, forgotten in time, feels sucked into the world and entangled by the characters in their stories. It’s an experience that no lover of story-focused games should miss.
Not the end of the story yet
Even though the adventure development of The Forgotten City has come to an end, the story of the studio Modern Storyteller continues. Already last year twittered he – yes then it was not called X -, from the beginning of work on a new dream, the next adventure.
It’s been a good awards season for TheForgottenCity Now we’re dreaming up our next adventure…. Can’t wait to tell you about it, when it’s ready. 🤐 pic.twitter.com/Db4ChPnD44
– Nick Pearce (@ModnStoryteller) May 1, 2022
What about you guys? Would you be willing, or perhaps already have, to give up a secure career path to chase a dream, no matter how wild, of a completely different career? Or do you think this is simply unreasonable and such stories show only the rare exceptions when it succeeds?= Feel free to write your opinion in the comments!
