Cyan, the developer behind Myst and Riven, is building a new first-person steampunk puzzle game called Firmament that will apparently destroy high-end gaming hardware. The game has unusually daunting system requirements, starting at 16GB at a minimum for RAM, while a whopping 32GB is recommended.
32GB is a very rare requirement to see; only a handful of titles originally had 32GB recommended requirements while in development, including Forspoken, Hogwarts Legancy, and the PC port of Returnal. However, all three eventually changed their recommended requirements to 16GB or 24GB at launch. The same could apply to Firmament since the game won't be released until May. However, if the game does launch with the 32GB requirement, it will be one of the only games with such a high memory requirement.
Thankfully Firmament's 32GB requirement appears to be more specific than what the Steam page leads people to believe. According to a dev response by PCGamer, the developers wanted to ensure Firmamenent runs as smoothly as possible, especially in VR. As a result, they decided to increase the memory requirements to 32GB so users better understand what the game requires to achieve the game's maximum possible graphics fidelity.
The devs go on to say that the game will run perfectly fine on 16GB of memory and even supports M1 Macbook Airs with just 8GB of RAM.
This is good news and means the game will run smoothly on mainstream hardware. Conversely, the 32GB is more of a "high-end" system requirement, aimed at users who will be cranking up the visual quality settings as high as possible. Cyan's explanation also proves why Valve should incorporate entry-level, mid-range, and high-end system requirements into the Steam page, instead of limiting the requirements section to a minimum and recommended requirements alone.
We don't know how graphically demanding the game will be, but based on what the devs have said, the game appears to be intense. The Steam page screenshots demonstrate this well, with extremely high-resolution objects, textures, and superb lighting effects.
Firmament will launch in 4 weeks, on May 18th, 2023.
