The release date for Mothmen 1966, a visual novel and one of LCB Game Studio’s ‘Pixel Pulps,” is drawing ever closer. Every cryptic bit of information we’ve heard so far about the game has only made us more curious, so we reached out to developer LCB Game Studio for more information.LCB Game Studio co-founders Fernando Martínez Ruppel — who mainly works in art, and music and sound design — and Nico Saraintaris — who works at writing, development, and game design — were kind enough to answer all our Mothmen 1966 questions, and even gave a little hint at what we can expect from the next games in this first volume of Pixel Pulps. Read on to find out more…What is Mothmen 1966?Mothmen 1966 is one of LCB Game Studio’s ‘Pixel Pulps’ — which the devs describe as a “visual novel featuring a fusion of exceptional writing and stunning illustration, inspired by mid-20th century pulp fiction and 80s home computer graphics.” It’s set during the 1966 Leonid meteor shower. Mothmen 1966 is developed by LCB Game Studios and published by Chorus Worldwide Games. “‘Pixel Pulp’ is a term we coined to refer to the type of game we’re creating, a fusion of fast-paced writing and rich illustration inspired by mid-20th century pulp fiction and ‘80s home computer graphics,” Martínez Ruppel and Saraintaris begin. “When we think about our ‘design goals,’ we aim to create something similar to the early adventure games from Japan — from Portopia to Snatcher — a time when there was lots of freedom in terms of game genre exploration. Funnily enough, we haven’t played these games first hand,” they continue. “It’s more like we’re imagining what they might have done within those games more than using them as a direct reference for our own work. And this is something we really like to do, using something we know is some sort of classic without ever experiencing ourselves, imagining how it might be, what it might say. Imaginary games, imaginary books, imaginary movies, are way more powerful than real ones! As for the literary point of view,” the pair conclude, “we can do a bit of name-dropping here: Hodgson, Poe, Howard, Doyle, Fort… And as the twentieth century progresses, soft science fiction of the sixties and seventies — Lafferty! — fantasy… Also contemporary weird fiction — Langan, Tremblay, Evenson…”When does Mothmen 1966 launch?We already have a release date for Mothmen 1966 — it launches on July 14th!What’s it about?Mothmen 1966 is set in November 1966 during the Leonid Meteor Shower. According to the game’s Steam page, “A young couple, a gas station owner, and a paranormal investigator get caught up in a terrifying conspiracy taking place at the edge of their reality, where nightmare creatures lurk, and the mysterious men in black lie in wait…” This intriguing description only made us more curious, so we asked Martínez Ruppel and Saraintaris for more info. “Mothmen 1966 is a Pixel Pulp, our own take on the ‘Interactive Fiction’ (IF) genre,” they begin. “It includes lots of action, plot twists and… Mothmen! I mean, not only one, but multiple instances of this cryptid.” Martínez Ruppel and Saraintaris add that 1966 is the same year that ‘mothman’ was first spotted.And what about that unsettling conspiracy? “‘Conspiracy’ is an interesting concept,” they answer. “It may imply a certain plan behind it, and plans are usually devised by some rational being. We’re not sure we have something like that in Mothmen 1966. We’re speaking of a different kind of conspiracy here, something more primal perhaps. There’s definitely something eerie going on, something that involves specific celestial events, weird sightings, and really strange phenomena…” That’s only made Mothmen 1966 sound even more fascinating. Has it piqued your interest? Read on to see what we’ll be up against in terms of gameplay…What’s the gameplay like?We know that Mothmen 1966 features a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ style of gameplay, with “brain-ticking puzzles” scattered throughout. Martínez Ruppel and Saraintaris tell us that each chapter of the game stars one of three characters. “Players will read their thoughts, make choices in dialogue and puzzles. This change in POV allows us to show different perspectives and construct an interesting and complex story — although accessible, like a good ol’ pulp fiction!” As for those “brain-tickling” puzzles: “They are all different. Some of them are pretty straightforward interactions to make players interact with what’s happening in the story… Others are slightly more difficult, although players can make other characters solve them for them. We have a rotational puzzle, and some ‘conversational’ brain teasers… And then there’s The Impossible Solitaire! The name speaks for itself, right?”What’s the world like?Mothmen 1966 is set during the Leonid Meteor Shower. We asked Martínez Ruppel and Saraintaris what it was about the Meteor Shower that drew them to it. “We love Charles Fort, an author from the early Twentieth Century who wrote four great books collecting weird phenomena from all over the world,” they answer. “One thing we love from his work philosophy is the idea to correlate facts and make relations between distant things. We also love Breton’s idea of understanding creation through Lautréamont’s quote: ‘the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.’ This chance of encountering multiple things in the same space is truly Fortean, in the sense that this practice generates new meanings by making facts collide, facts that are usually far away from each other. So,” they continue, “we have this Leonid Meteor Shower — a strange celestial event that happens every 33 years — happening with particular strength in 1966, the same year as mothman was originally spotted… Can you feel it? That’s a story emerging from these two separate facts colliding with each other!”One of the key parts of Mothmen 1966’s atmosphere is that inspiration of 80s home computer graphics. “We were both born in ‘83, and we both played with ZX Spectrum first hand. So it’s something that evokes our youth,” Martínez Ruppel and Saraintaris explain. “But It’s also a useful constraint — and we believe constraints are really important in any medium! Having said this, and as we are limited by using the ZX Spectrum palette, in order to work our pieces the use of chiaroscuro is key. The image should work in black and white, and allow its readability. In this case our influences come from the world of comics: Alberto Breccia and Jorge Zaffino mainly.” The pair continues, adding, “also, pixel art is just another art medium, like oil or watercolours, but unlike these other techniques, it seems unable to detach itself from certain nostalgic weight, which seems to become more evident when dealing with short animated loops for example.”Any news on the Mothmen 1966 achievements?We don’t yet have the Mothmen 1966 achievements, but Martínez Ruppel and Saraintaris gave us some hints as to what to expect. “Some of the achievements will be unlocked just by finishing the game, but others will reward players for solving certain puzzles or getting to special bits of the story,” they explain. “So we basically design the achievements system to hint players to complete certain objectives, or to play the game having something specific in mind, as a puzzle itself… And there are also secrets, but we won’t talk about them until players find them!”Martínez Ruppel and Saraintaris were even kind enough to specify one of Mothmen 1966’s achievements. We asked about the possibility of achievements tied to multiple endings caused by the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ style of gameplay, but they told us that this is a “tricky question. There are different endings, but there’s only one good ending. And this is important for us in terms of establishing some sort of ‘canon’ related to our Pixel Pulps — as we’ve stated before, all our Pixel Pulps will be somehow related. There are deaths, and there’s a specific achievement tied to these deaths called ‘Sudden endings completist’, but the game will let players restart from the branching point in which they died to continue playing,” Martínez Ruppel and Saraintaris explain. Mothmen 1966 looks to offer a twisting, layered, atmospheric story — out of all that the visual novel offers, what are Martínez Ruppel and Saraintaris most excited for players to experience? “The Impossible Solitaire! But also this idea of playing a game like reading a book or watching a tv series episode, the idea of accessing interesting content without hitting a wall — the way we design our Pixel Pulps, players will finish the game no matter what. BUT. They would also access different bits of information by making different choices, or deciding to solve some puzzles on their own, etc,” they answer. “And last but not least, we’re really happy with the world we’re creating. All our Pixel Pulps will share the same universe, so we’re really eager to see players starting to make relations between our games, drawing their own conclusions or coming up with weird theories…”We know the first volume of LCB Game Studio’s Pixel Pulps include three games: first Mothmen 1966, then Varney Lake, and lastly Bahnsen Knights — so what can we expect from these upcoming games? “Varney Lake is a summer story of friendship, big dreams, and blood. We’re already working on it and we might have some neat surprises in the near future — we’re also posting on our Twitter account some WIP material on Fridays! Bahnsen Kinghts,” they continue, “is a story featuring a world of religious fanatics, F5 tornadoes and Ford Sierras. Players will play as Boulder, an undercover agent investigating a religious cult driving Ford Sierras and performing ‘route exorcisms’ while a string of F5 tornadoes rips across the country”.So, what do you think? Will you be ready to tackle ‘Pixel Pulp’ Mothmen 1966 when it launches in July? Let us know what you think in the comments!
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