Last Flag

Lore & Background

Last Flag was conceived by Dan Reynolds and his brother Mac Reynolds, who founded Night Street Games in Las Vegas. Mac recalled playing capture the flag in the woods at night with flashlights and friends, noting that video game versions like those in Halo did not capture the thrill of real hiding and finding. The game was originally built in Unity but later switched to Unreal Engine. Planned features such as NPC monsters, fog of war, and pickup items were scrapped for slowing gameplay. The soundtrack was composed by Dan Reynolds alongside JT Daly and Dave Lowmiller, using vintage instruments, with special attention given to a song for the losing team.

Reader's Guide

Last Flag's significance lies in its attempt to innovate the capture the flag genre by allowing teams to move and hide the flag, with a minute to hide it and collect currency for upgrades. Three central towers provide healing and scan map sections to reveal the flag's location. After a flag capture, sudden death requires defending the flag for a period. The game was positioned as 'fun first, competitive second' with extensive playtesting for balance. Despite enthusiastic initial player reception, it struggled to find an audience, attracting fewer than 600 players at launch. Two weeks after release, Night Street Games ended post-release support beyond planned updates and abandoned console ports, citing inability to find the needed audience. The financial failure led to layoffs of about half the studio's staff, reducing it to 13 employees.

Did You Know?

• Dan Reynolds, vocalist of Imagine Dragons, founded Night Street Games with his brother Mac Reynolds.
• The game's art style was inspired by game shows from the 1970s.
• Last Flag was originally made using Unity before switching to Unreal Engine.
• The losing team gets a unique song that the winning team does not hear.