Lords of New York announced

Lunchtime Studios, a Boston-based indie outfit, has announced a new adventure game/RPG hybrid set in Prohibition-era New York. The aptly named Lords of New York centers around the New York mafia–and more specifically, your character’s attempts to either rise up through its ranks or bring it tumbling down.

The premise:

It’s 1925. Prohibition is in full swing, alcohol is forbidden and business is booming for the mafia. Speakeasies and jazz clubs are packed every night.

Step into a world that dances between glitz and guns, glamour and danger. Are you going to make your mark by working your way to the top of the mafia or by bringing it down?

Your journey begins at the end of a dark alley where the only thing that stands between you and the path to glory is a knock and a password.

Aside from the setting, the most unusual feature in Lords of New York has to be the combat system. Basically, it’s poker, but with character stats governing metagame elements like spotting tells or cheating. LoNY’s combat is to poker what Puzzle Quest’s was to Match 3 games, in other words.

Lords of New York has a really nice art style, an unusual mix of 3D rendered backgrounds and 2D cartoon character animations. You can get a sense for it all in the video and screenshots below:

Lunchtime are currently seeking some pretty significant funding on Kickstarter to make this game happen; their campaign is off to a bit of a slow start, but it’s nothing a cadre of enthusiastic indie RPG fans can’t fix! Without funding, Lunchtime dev Courtney Pinnell tells me that development will continue, albeit with fewer playable characters, downgraded visuals, and longer development time. If you want to help this project out, here’s the place to go.

Lords of New York is being developed for Windows, Mac and iOS. Assuming successful funding, it is planned for release in summer 2014.