It's always nice to see that no matter how corporate game development gets on consoles, there will always be cool indie games developed for PC, made by small teams, or in this case just one man. Oakenfold is a new turn-based strategy roguelike made by Dutch creator Rutger van Dijk with his new one-man game development company Studio Taghua after his successful Kickstarter. The debut game of the studio, Oakenfold began its journey when Rutger quit his job in 2019 to form his studio and work on it. He was heavily inspired by Subset Games’ classic indie hit from 2018 Into The Breach, and that clearly shows in the square maps and turn-based strategy of Oakenfold.
However, Oakenfold takes that style of gameplay and throws its own unique spin on it. Where Into the Breach is its own strategy puzzle game, Oakenfold brings the indie procedurally generated replayability and permadeath to the gameplay and strategy. In addition to the classic variable levels and upgrades common in the genre, Oakenfold’s big selling point is its unique time manipulation mechanic. If a solution you are using for a level’s puzzle doesn’t work out, you can then reverse time and try it again with the new intel you’ve gathered.
In terms of story and general plot, Oakenfold centers around a character named Asha, a young woman who lives in a time when humanity is on the brink of extinction, due to a mysterious alien threat known as the Biocides. Her father has placed humanity's last hope on her shoulders after his death in a Biocide attack; retrieve the last of the fuel-packed crates to power up the Oakenfold, humanity’s last settlement and a biodome that Asha needs to launch into the stars. Using the skills her father taught her Asha must collect the fuel while she fights the Biocides to escape.
As common with roguelikes in this era, there will be a Highscore leaderboard to encourage a community around the game as well as friendly competition. In addition, there will be Weekly Escapes, a weekly updated playthrough where all players will be offered the same challenges and choices. This will allow players to repeatedly play through it and min-max all for that glorious position at the top of the leaderboard.
Oakenfold will launch for Windows via Steam on November 17th, 2022. A mac version of the game is currently in development.
