Why Imagine Dragons Are Making a 'Pure' Capture the Flag Video Game

If you’ve listened to your car vigor astatine immoderate constituent successful the past decade, you’re astir surely astatine slightest alert of the set Imagine Dragons. Best-known for hits similar Radioactive, Demons, Believer, and Thunder, Imagine Dragons are among the best-selling and astir decorated bands worldwide. Like them, emotion them, dislike them, immoderate – conscionable astir everyone knows their music.

What they’re not known for is making video games. But set manager Mac Reynolds and his brother, pb vocalist Dan Reynolds, privation that to change.

Back successful 2020, the brothers founded Night Street Games, a caller workplace built to facilitate their different passionateness successful life: crippled development. Speaking to Reynolds astatine the Game Developers Conference past March, helium described making games arsenic a “life agelong dream” that helium and his member person been softly dabbling successful for years now.

“Dan and I, we played a ton of games unneurotic [growing up]. And for us, I'm truly dating myself now, but adjacent successful the Commodore 64 days each the mode to Sierra. I was sneaking successful the different country to telephone the Sierra helpline. And from determination on, LucasArts and Delphine, wherever we would conscionable hold for the adjacent game. I retrieve playing Another World and Flashback came retired and I needed to get it. And those games played a large portion of our puerility and for maine then, GoldenEye, that was a pivotal moment. So Dan and I, gaming was successful our DNA. I adjacent recovered this insubstantial successful my bureau conscionable a mates months ago. Never remembered this astatine all. It was from 3rd people and it was like, ‘What bash you privation to beryllium erstwhile you turn up?’ And it said, ‘I privation to tally a crippled studio.’”

Of course, the brothers ended up successful euphony instead, but Reynolds says their passionateness for games continued. The 2 inactive played and discussed games regularly. Mac learned 3D modeling and animation, and Dan learned however to code. And arsenic a band, Imagine Dragons person done a fig of collaborations with large games implicit the years, from penning a opus for Starfield to playing Zelda euphony astatine The Game Awards with composer Koji Kondo, from composing the opening taxable for Arcane to underscoring the Nintendo Switch’s Superbowl commercial. Dan Reynolds has adjacent published a small, experimental crippled already, connected itch.io.

With that discourse successful mind, then, it’s hardly astonishing that Imagine Dragons’ founders mightiness yet effort their hands astatine crippled development. And they’re not doing it alone. Night Street Games consists of astir 25 people, including aggregate Activision Blizzard veterans with acquisition connected games specified arsenic Diablo 3, World of Warcraft, and Heroes of the Storm. And they’ve partnered with Ukrainian workplace Argentics to marque Last Flag, a third-person leader shooter that is centered astir a crippled show-style rendition of Capture the Flag, inspired by Dan and Mac’s puerility memories:

“Dan and I, we utilized to play Capture the Flag successful the woods astatine nighttime arsenic Boy Scouts and had large memories and precise overmuch enjoyed immoderate of the assorted Capture the Flag crippled modes implicit the years from Quake to Unreal Tournament to Warsong Gulch to whatever,” Reynolds recalls. “And I reflected connected the information that nary of those truly got to that bosom of what it meant to fell and to find, and the magic of being successful quality and sneaking astir and being a hero. When Capture the Flag is an afterthought oregon a crippled mode, it tends to truly beryllium predictable bases, predictable locations.

“And truthful we started with this mentation of: what would a axenic Capture the Flag crippled consciousness like? And rapidly recovered a mates things, which is fig one, hiding and uncovering is ace fun. It makes the acquisition antithetic each azygous time. But fig two, determination are immoderate challenges to that unpredictability. And you request to person a precise thoughtful operation to beryllium capable to marque it consciousness much similar poker and little similar roulette wherever if you play your cards right, you truly person a bully changeable astatine winning careless of however fortunate idiosyncratic gets successful uncovering the flag. And truthful that developed into what is contiguous a crippled wherever everything from the crushed up, from the halfway crippled mechanics, to the level design, to the heroes and their abilities is each centered astir however to person the champion Capture the Flag experience.”

Like the crippled it’s based on, Last Flag is conceptually simple: 2 teams of five, each broadside has a emblem that they fell determination connected their side. When the crippled starts, each squad indispensable effort and find the opponent’s emblem and bring it backmost to their ain base, past support it for 1 infinitesimal to triumph the game, each portion protecting their ain flag. Last Flag throws successful a fewer twists, specified arsenic towers astir the representation that tin beryllium captured successful bid to constrictive down the flag’s location, and of people the unsocial abilities of each subordinate of the roster of heroes, each of which tin beryllium upgraded passim the match. There are 10 playable characters astatine launch, each with a unsocial kit: there’s an archer, a thief, a scout with a cyber falcon partner, and more.

“Part of the magic successful find is learning however to play the heroes successful unexpected ways,” Reynolds explains. “Then there's each these amusive shareable moments that get created by radical discovering caller synergies betwixt immoderate of the abilities oregon discovering caller ways to usage them oregon looking astatine a concern that's wholly caller and being like, ‘Oh crap, you cognize what I stake I could do?’ And to me, that's immoderate of the astir fun. You get immoderate of that successful games that we love. You get immoderate of that successful the wildness of Team Fortress 2 oregon the over-the-top games of Super Smash Bros. wherever you person those moments you privation to speech astir and clip and share. We anticipation to make a batch of those.”

Reynolds and his squad person large plans for Last Flag long-term. The game’s framework communicative is that of a 1970s dystopian crippled amusement tally by a mysterious media mogul, and Reynolds hints to maine that determination whitethorn beryllium a grander communicative waiting to play retired implicit time, possibly with nods to helium and his brother’s emotion of ARGs. There’s besides plentifulness of country to adhd caller elements: caller characters, caller stages, oregon adjacent caller gameplay elements. Reynolds does suggest that portion nonstop pricing hasn’t been decided connected yet, helium expects Last Flag to beryllium a one-time, premium acquisition crippled arsenic opposed to a free-to-play crippled with microtransactions.

Last Flag is planned for motorboat successful 2026 connected PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, and there’s a PC alpha planned aboriginal this year. When I inquire Reynolds astir a Nintendo Switch 2 merchandise astatine GDC successful March, helium tells maine helium doesn’t person entree to a dev kit conscionable yet, but hopefully that’s changed by the clip this portion publishes. Reynolds confirms the crippled is successful improvement for console arsenic well, truthful expect those different level releases sometime aboriginal down the line. He and Night Street expect to beryllium moving connected Last Flag for immoderate clip to come. He and his member aren’t conscionable musicians anymore, aft all. They’re musicians and crippled developers.

Rebekah Valentine is simply a elder newsman for IGN. You tin find her posting connected BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a communicative tip? Send it to [email protected].