🗝️ Bosskey Newsletter 31 - Metaphor ReFantazio 1 Million, Off the Grid, Star Wars Outlaws limits of Familiar
# 🗝️ Bosskey Newsletter #3 Things: 1 🎮 Game news, 1 🔎 Interesting Find, 1 📱Social Post. Written by a Part Time Indie Game Dev
Hi There Gamers and Devs,
3 Things I read this week:
#3 Things :
🎮Game news: Off the Grid Neil Blomkamp meta take on Battle Royale.
📱 Social Post: Metaphor: ReFantazio reaches 1 Million sales plus posts from around substack
🔎Interesting Finds: Limits of Familar with Star Wars Outlaws
Around the Stack : Lastly showcasing a blogpost from on Making games You Don’t Like
Lets Go!
🎮 Game News
Off the Grid Gunzilla
That Neil Blompkap game, movie director who is actually working / collaborating with at Gunzilla as a creative director. Looking at the trailer it has some feel of meta commentary of gaming battle royale.
The game idea is battle royale in real life with soldiers replacing their body parts after battle and hopping back into the arena.
This is something in line with Neil Blompkamp might do in his movies and short films exploring cyberpunk and technology.
Games to exceed Movies
Neil Blompkamp is one of the few directors talking about Games Replacing film early on when making real time short films in Unity Engine. He was already taking to Twitter in 2017-2018 on how to direct a game.
I do feel the younger audiences already are digital natives and may not go to the Cinema, thy rather watch YouTube, Netflix and game. I do remember a time as millennials going to there often but now enjoy playing games and Netflix. I am thinking Neil Blomkamp is onto something as a movie director experimenting in this medium.
Blockchain NFT
On Epic Games Store and their Website there is mentioned the use of Blockchain for the NFT side of the game. I am not sure how that will tie into the battle royale mode but at the time of the trailer it mentions on the website it is an optional element.
They are currently using Avalance blockchain for it, I am unsuare if not about the crypto part, it has an NFT element not sure how that plays into gameplay.
I did have an interest in blockchain gaming but found it too hard to learn and develop for, and keep track of various crypto prices.
Maybe this may go main stream who knows?
Other Notes Founder ex Fintech
Former Banker in FinTech turned game developer at Gunzilla. Maybe that’s why the blockchain and NFT.
Wishlist on>
Epic Games Store: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/off-the-grid-7e3cc5
Links:
https://www.thegamer.com/neill-blomkamp-off-the-grid-gunzilla-district-9-games-film-media/
Official Site: https://gunzillagames.com/
Avalanche Blockchain: https://www.gamingonavax.com/games/off-the-grid
Play to Earn : https://playtoearn.com/news/the-gamers-guide-to-off-the-grid-everything-you-need-to-know-to-play-and-earn-in-this-action-packed-shooter
📱Social Post
Metaphor: ReFantazio hits 1 million sales
Quite an achievement for this game. News about this came in my newsletter reading. I do think this game might help with the JRPG genre.
Metaphor: ReFantazio was first announced under the codename Project Re:Fantasy in December 2016, with no further information revealed until 2023, I remembered seeing the artwork which is typical fantasy tropes. But did not expect it to turn into a Persona like game with its own take on Fantasy.
I only played Persona on PSP and a bt of Persona 4. Checking out the Demo on Steam look really neat that this JRPG genere is making a comeback in a big way.
Game Reviews about the game
Gamespot Review:: https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/metaphor-refantazio-review-everybody-wants-to-rule-the-world/1900-6418297/
From Substack:
Podcast
Game of the Year? Friends Per Second discuss Metapor: ReFantazio as a GOTY.
🔎 Interesting Finds
Limits of Familiarity Star Wars Outlaws
Star Wars Outlaws set in the period between Movies Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Though this article is interesting about the limits of using the familiar in design of the game. Unfortunately maybe the Game used too may familiar Star Wars archetype topes set by the movies that it could not break out of the box.
“Familiar but with a twist" is a common "pillar" you'll find in many game design documents. It's a quick way to explain your game to financiers and investors, and it can help developers think outside the box when conceiving game mechanics, character design, art environments, etc.
If you're not careful, the phrase can put you back inside the box you hoped to escape.
Perhaps the designers could have traced back even further rather than relying on the movies as the source materials.
“What would be better would be to search for specifics in how you blend familiar concepts. I cracked open the art book for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, and found references to paintings by Lawrence alma-Tadema, illustrations from LIFE Magazine by Chesley Bonstell, and the '60s TV show Swiss Family Robinson. You can trace a line from the referenced art to images in the film itself, and all those specifics tell us more about the power of Star Wars than the fabled monomyth.
Around the Stack:
Today blog showcase
post on Making Games you Don’t Like. I like that he gives good reasons to start your game dev journey making games you don’t like as a first step.
I think Hideo Kojima is exploring a similar thing to Blomkamp but from the game side of things? I heard rumblings that he had partnered with a director already (though who I can't remember).
It'll be interesting to see how game-like interactivity is incorporated into a storytelling medium like movies!
Maybe a choose your own adventure movie??
Thank you for the mention! ❤️👾