Press Play announces Hunger Games-style Knoxville

Knoxville 1

You might not have heard of Press Play. The Denmark-based developer is perhaps most well known for Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Kalimba.

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, a child-friendly puzzle paltformer with a child protagonist, was the odd one out in the lineup of Xbox One games shown during Microsoft's E3 press event the year they announced the console. Kalimba is a more difficult puzzle platformer that also came first to Xbox One.

Since both games did eventually make their way to PC, however, and given that Microsoft is trying hard to push the Xbox brand onto PC, news that Press Play has announced a new game seems relevant.

It's called Knoxville, and it was chosen by the community who got to vote for one of three possible games (Knoxville, Karoo, and Dwarka) for Press Play to work on next. According to Microsoft, it's "a third-person, multiplayer action game that deals with fragile alliances and survival, in a game show setting", inspired by films like The Hunger Games and The Running Man.

The announcement video above shows absolutely nothing from the game, but you can see from the player's reactions what kind of experience the team is going for. They actually look like they're playing, too, far more naturally than these live multiplayer demos we get at press conferences. This prototype teaser gives a better idea, with disclaimers, of what the game is actually like:

If you want to know more about Knoxville as the team gets on with development, next Thursday (September 17) at 1pm will be the first of their bi-weekly streams over on Twitch. Here's a teaser trailer, some concept art, and a poster that pretty effectively demonstrates the theme:

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Project Knoxville poster