Hi everyone!
We are ByteRockers’ Games, an indie developer and publisher based in Berlin, Germany 🤘
As some of you eagle-eyes have already spotted, we recently signed a partnership with Elysium Game Studio, the developers of this game, to bring NEO BERLIN 2087 to the market.
We like to make and support games that are a little bit out there and are likewise drawn to developers that chase their vision against all odds. A small, local indie studio that is not only trying to bring a Berlin-based Detective Story alive, but also insists on high-fidelity visuals for maximum immersion? Count us in.
Since there seems to be a lot of curiosity around the game and its development process, we wanted to address a few things heads on in an FAQ at the bottom of this introduction post.
On top of that, please enjoy the new trailer we just released!
For those of you who want to stay in closer touch from now on, we opened a Community Discord. Make sure to also follow Elysium Game Studio on Twitter/X where we will share more behind-the-scenes content soon!
Is this game real? Are the trailers AI?
We understand the doubt, considering you have only seen trailers so far. Rest assured that we have playtested the game in our office and are happy to report that it is shaping up amazingly so far.
You don’t have to simply trust us on this however, since for the upcoming gamescom we invited a handful of media representatives for a first hands-on experience as well. We are looking forward to seeing their reports and, more importantly, your reactions to them!
The trailers are a mix of early gameplay and cinematics we made in-house, not generative AI.
Do you use Unreal Engine 5?
Yes! However, we hand-crafted our main characters in other tools and only then employ MetaHuman primarily for rigging and animation. If there is interest in the technical details, we could look into writing a devblog on this topic in the future?
What's up with the government funding?
In Germany, local game studios can apply for federal funding to support their projects. This money can however only be spent on labor costs; marketing materials (like trailers) are explicitly excluded.
Without this kind of support from the state, we would never have been able to create an ambitious project like NEO BERLIN 2087. A big thank you to the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space for making the development of our game possible.
Further Reading: Official Funding Page
What languages will be available at launch?
We too would love to hear Nolan speak in our native tongue. It’s cool to see many of you asking for German, Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese... because it means we have reached a truly international audience!
Deservedly, bespoke voice acting is not exactly cheap. The further story and game expand, the more lines need to be recorded, which can quickly scale out of proportion and budget. To be safe, we decided to focus on finishing the game with full English audio first.
That being said, we plan to localize interface and subtitles in a handful of languages, already allowing more players to experience the game at launch.
Based on the success of NEO BERLIN 2087, we aim to revisit the topic of additional voice acting post release.
How will the performance be like in the final game?
What you have seen of the game so far is mostly pre-alpha footage: stutters and other rendering issues are to be expected and no cause for concern yet!
At the moment, we are focused on making the game exist first and will dedicate a significant amount of development time later to making it better. This applies to general polishing as much as to performance tweaks.
There is a lot that can be done in that regard, so we will do our best to keep minimum requirements as low as possible in the end. Note that the game is intended to release on consoles as well.
Where do I know the main actor/actress from?
While we could only speculate on your personal exposure to pop culture, we can certainly give you the names of the amazing humans bringing our main characters to life:
Nolan – Elias Toufexis
Natalie – Dunja Stojanovic
Are you looking for playtesters? How about a demo?
While we appreciate the excitement that is behind such questions, we unfortunately must ask for patience when it comes to trying out the game for yourselves.
We are working with great QA companies that also provide playtesting, so that we are already getting some essential player feedback on our early builds.
Once we are ready to let more people in, you will hear it here first!
When will this game release?
NEO BERLIN 2087 is officially releasing in 2028.
Hopefully, this FAQ covers your most burning questions. We are just as excited as you seem to be about getting this game into your hands and will be back with more development updates soon.
Greetings from Berlin,
ByteRockers’ Games & Elysium Game Studio