It’s episode 12 of Indiescovery and this week we’re being a bit cheeky as we dive into which indie game characters we’d love to do a pub crawl with. Who are we getting sloshed with? Who’s not making it past pre-drinks? Who are we sharing our end-of-night chippies with? All that and more this week! Summer has well and truly arrived here in the UK, but wherever you are, grab your sunnies, sip a pina colada, kick back, and have a listen.
Listen and subscribe via your podcast provider of choice! Find us on RSS feed, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Deezer, and YouTube.
]]>Hollow Ponds have released a video detailing the real-world inspirations behind their 2020 puzzle game I Am Dead, a game about a ghost returning to their hometown and view it through new (dead) eyes. The cultural specificity in I Am Dead becomes clear as the two lead developers, Richard Hogg and Ricky Haggett, discuss how the British seaside town of Hastings influenced the creation of the game’s fictional setting Shelmerston. It's 25 minutes long, but it's a lovely watch.
Hogg and Haggett give insights on the various buildings, objects, and jokes from Hastings that infiltrated their way into the game. The video shows off previously unseen concept art, photography, diagrams, maps and mood boards that were used in the development of I Am Dead. You will also learn a lot about the town Hastings.
]]>Recently I have been blessed with a plethora of sweet, soothing games with a good sense of humour (like Spiritfarer, for example). I Am Dead, from the developers of perennial RPS favourite Wilmot's Warehouse, is a 3D puzzle adventure game about past and present and place, and is another tonic for these trying times.
In it, you play as Morris Lupton, erstwhile director of the Shelmerston museum, and ghost. Starting out dead does take a lot of the pressure off. Shelmerston is an unbelievably idyllic island community off the coast of England, in Channel Island territory, but it's also on top of a dormant volcano. Except it turns out the volcano isn't so dormant anymore, and you - accompanied by Morris's also dead dog Sparky - must hunt out the ghosts of other Shelmerston residents to try and solve this impending problem.
]]>"If you're a ghost, and you walk through a wall..." asks Richard Hogg, in the tone of a man confronted with a real head-scratcher, "...do you get to see the inside of the wall?"
It's a good question. The kind which, for most people, might fuel a good half hour in a pub, or a 2am chat with a partner who can't sleep. But for Hogg and his long-term collaborator Ricky Haggett - who last year spun a thought about the simple pleasure of stacking shelves into the phenomenal Wilmot's Warehouse - it's a question worth writing a game about. That game is I Am Dead, and after watching Hogg and Haggett play for half an hour, it looks like exactly the tonic I need in the middle of this long, dark year.
]]>There are perks to being dead, it turns out. You can talk to your dog who is also dead, talk to other ghosts, and look inside just about anything to take a peek at what's hidden within. Hollow Ponds gave folks a look inside I Am Dead, explaining how recently deceased museum curator Morris Lupton and his dog Sparky will save the Shelmerston with their new ghost powers.
]]>The next game from the team behind the wonderful Wilmot's Warehouse will not be Wilmot's Distribution Centre or Wilmot's Lockers, it's not about supply chains at all, and in fact it's a game where someone has already done all the hard work of organising for us. The collaborators of Hollow Ponds and Richard Hogg today announced I Am Dead, a "puzzle adventure game" about a lovely little island and the curator of its local museum - who happens to have recently died. Mystery is afoot. It looks lovely in the trailer, below.
]]>
