Konami has released a striking trailer for Scottish shoot ’em up Cygni

Konami has announced that it will be publishing a new shoot ’em up being developed in Scotland.

Cygni: All Guns Blazing is a visually impressive twin-stick vertical shooter from a new Scottish studio called KeelWorks, whose co-founders have a background in film and animation.

The game is set on the planet Cygni, where players take control of one of the last pilots in a colony that’s been nearly destroyed following a surprise attack by a biomechanical alien race.

Players have to make their way across the planet and defend Cygni from the alien bombardment, either alone or in two-player co-op.

The trailer can be viewed in the embed below:

KeelWorks was founded by brothers Meher and Nareg Kalenderian, and Nareg’s partner Helen Saouma, all of whom were originally from Lebanon.

While Meher had moved to Scotland a number of years ago, Nareg and Helen were working in their apartment in Beirut, but various issues (12-hour power cuts, poor internet connection and political and economic crises) caused them to move to Armenia in 2019. The three are all now based in Scotland.

Nareg, the game’s director, spent time at Pixar and was a lead VFX artist on some Hollywood films, while Helen was also worked on feature films and TV. Following the publishing deal with Konami, the team will be expanding “to fulfil the ambitions of the game”.

“As a small indie company, KeelWorks was in need of an investment to grow its team and dedicate its full attention and time to the development of its first venture, Cygni,” Meher said in a statement.

“Of all the publishers we spoke to, our communication with Konami was different from the start and it stood out among the rest. With a long and wide-ranging history of work on classic shmups, Konami immediately recognized the direction in which Cygni was heading and decided to bet on its potential outcome.

“However, what persuaded and encouraged us the most to commit with Konami was its team’s eagerness to invest not just in the game itself, but also in the people behind it. We were both humbled and honoured by their approach.

“We’re absolutely delighted with this partnership and cannot wait to share more updates on Cygni in due course.”

Cygni will be released on PC and consoles, with a release date to be announced in the future.