The kbones reper-to-i-re continues to expand, this time with a little boss-battle game I put together last weekend for the Goblin Bunker Game Jam, entitled BONE/SAW. I’ve been playing around a lot with 3D projections lately, so I’m pretty proud of the super-scalar-like look I’ve got going on. I was at least somewhat inspired by Thumper (and the laughing skull from Return Fire) for this one. Make sure you play to the end for a little visual treat :)
I won’t do this for every video I make to avoid mucking up the feed.
In this one I do more than rattle on about comics. I look at my last surviving sketches and comment over them. They aren’t interesting pieces, but the exercise was cathartic.
one of the big hassles of working as a voice actor who isn’t super famous is constantly updating reels (basically a two-minute portfolio for work consideration), which gets increasingly laborious – both on logistical and psychological levels – the more time goes by and the bigger your body of work gets
I was capturing footage from this season of anime as it comes to a close, and couldn’t help but notice how much this one character I voiced got bodied. constantly. so I goofed for two hours to make this useless reel instead of doing productive work: portrait of a first-season anime character as a young man
I’ve always wanted to make a game. I recognize that this is not a unique experience. I began thinking about it in earnest about 6 years ago, in my mid-thirties. I’ve been thinking about the game and its systems, making pixel art and writing a script on-and-off as a hobby since then. I’ve never showed any of it to anyone (except my spouse). I guess I’m pretty shy.
I guess I have some reason to be shy about it though. I’ve been a pharmacist for over a decade, and I’ve always thought it would be interesting to make a game about drugs from a pharmacist’s point of view. This is part of what makes it so hard, emotionally, to show people. It’s about all drugs, from caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine to blood pressure pills to viagra to chemotherapy to fentanyl and PCP. It’s allegorical, funny, vulgar, and a biting criticism of the US healthcare system, drug manufacturers, and the working conditions of healthcare workers. The taboo subject matter would make it difficult to make/publish/sell this pipe-dream of a game. It would also be risking my employment with a large healthcare corporation, as I am not kind about my feelings towards such entities.
Besides, any time I think of showing it, I say to myself something along the lines of, “but really, who will care about this specific thing I like?”
Reading the mission statement of this site (I’ve been listening and supporting the podcast for a while now, but I’ve only started using the forums) whacked me on the head with a sudden urge to share something.
I’m not sure quite what to share. I guess I’ll start where I started: the Pharmacy. Here’s the pharmacy exterior, and the coffee shop next door:
I think plenty of people will care about something that’s in conversation with the US healthcare system, because plenty of people who aren’t pharmacists deal with and have feelings about that. that’s art’s looking great, too, I’m glad you swung by and shared this
This is the player-character, Ambidex, or “Ambi”. He’s a sleepy lil’ fellow, and his drugs of choice are sedative-hypnotics like benzodiazepines (valium, xanax, etc.), barbiturates, or “z-drugs” (ambien, lunesta, etc.). He is a dreamer.
He works for a drug company in an unusual capacity. He is paid to sleep. That is, he takes an exclusive, experimental sleeping pill that allows his body to function and accept commands while the mind is unconscious. The work he (or rather, his body) does is apparently so top-secret that a simple NDA would not suffice, and even he does not know what he does. We can assume it’s something shady. The job pays extremely well, but Ambi inexplicably lives a quite modest life in a tiny apartment with very few possessions or amenities.
While his body labors, Ambi experiences vivid, unusual dreams (this is where the primary gameplay takes place).
In terms of your question about who would care or buy such a thing, I get the feeling that something like this game, a cool looking game that Makes A Point, gains traction pretty regularly on Steam.
I get your concern about your employment but I hope you can find a way to release it.
Sorry, but I don’t think release will ever be in the cards. I don’t know how to program and have no musical talent. I’m not going to be able to one-man-dev this game (at least not to my own satisfaction).
I’ll continue to work on art, writing, and design, because I feel like I need to keep making this…thing, but I doubt it will ever be made. No one else is going to care about it like I do. I don’t think it’s just a lack of confidence to say that no one wants to work on someone else’s dead-end, unmarketable passion project.
I am feeling good about showing a tiny piece of it here though! I’ll probably show some more.
This is the Pillslinger. She’s Ambi’s pharmacist. She’s from India, but became so infatuated with Westerns when she moved to the US that she adopted cowboy trappings. She attempts to use cowboy dialect when she speaks, but doesn’t always get it 100% right. She still reverts to cursing in Hindi when she’s upset.
The Pillslinger dispenses the experimental drug, eszombiclone, to Ambidex. She has a tragic backstory involving the failings of the hospital-healthcare system. She also has mysterious ulterior motives. Ooooooh.
Her drugs of choice are…well that’s just part of the mystery!
Bonus: Here is a mockup of a boss from one of Ambi’s dreams. It’s the Griseofulvyrn: part Griffin, part Wyvern, and partially the anti-fungal agent, Griseofulvin!
