Roguelike The Callisto Protocol spin-off announced

Project Birdseye shares a universe with the survival horror game

Striking Distance Studio has revealed its follow-up game to The Callisto Protocol. It’s currently called Project Birdseye – a codename subject to change – and shares a universe with the title released in 2022.

According to the studio, Project Birdseye is a roguelike experience centered around fast action. Set in the very prison The Callisto Protocol takes place in, Project Birdseye bids players to fight their way out of the complex, overcoming dangerous biophage monsters.

If you were wondering why it’s called Project Birdseye, one look at the first gameplay footage is enough to clear that up: It’s played from a top-down perspective. Unlike The Callisto Protocol, it possesses a very colorful, comic-like aesthetic.

You can check the first gameplay trailer out below:

In terms of gameplay, players can expect the usual roguelike fare: You make a run, collect some upgrades, achieve a bit of meta progression, and then die before starting your next match. Both melee and ranged combat seem to be available in the game, with plenty of weapons to choose from. Players will seemingly be able to play as different, predetermined characters.

Striking Distance Studio noted that Project Birdseye’s creation will not impact the development of its next triple-A game, so this seems more like a small side-project for the time between its large releases. KRAFTON is once again publishing the title.

“Last year, a small group of us began working on a passion project that was born out of our obsession with easy to pick up and play but fun to master roguelikes,” the studio stated. “We love the world we created for The Callisto Protocol and want to keep playing in that sandbox – and Black Iron Prison is the perfect future-punk playground for the team’s vision. As you can tell, this isn’t The Callisto Protocol 2 – think of it as a side quest that really resonated with the team – it let us expand the world of The Callisto Protocol and stretch our creative muscles on something a bit different without impacting development on our next AAA game.”

The Callisto Protocol received a middling welcome by critics and users when it launched in 2022 and failed to hit its commercial targets. Among the most criticized aspects of the game was its combat system, which dragged the rest of the experience down.

“Horror games should have friction, but that friction shouldn’t come from external factors like the control scheme,” our Kirk McKeand summarized in his The Callisto Protocol review. “It should be the player running low on ammo, or limping their way to a med station, or making some kind of active decision to solve a situation they’ve found themselves in. Here, your only real proactive decision is: how do I make this encounter go away as quickly as possible? Maybe Two-Heads aren’t better than one.”

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