#black game dev

Hey, y'all! I don't usually make posts, but I wanted to let you know that my team and I have started development on a narrative adventure game in the same vein as Night in the Woods and Mutazione.

Here's our official description: A Brownstone Tourniquet is a 2D story-focused adventure game that invites players to step into the shoes of four people as they navigate Harlem, New York City, in the late 1970s. Lucifer, who goes by Sam, ekes out a meager existence as a dishwasher at a high-end club. Sam finds himself jolted out of his routine when the archangel Gabriel demands that he track down God and convince them to return to Heaven. Things are further complicated when Ruth Ellis, a recent widow, and her two children Alfred and Josie, move into the apartment next to him. Sam soon becomes entwined with the Ellis family and many others, spurring an unforeseeable sequence of events that force Sam to break out of his rut and fight for the people he loves.

Why should you care?

ABT features the following:

- An all-black main cast! (With a majority of the adult characters being aged 35 and up.)

- Frank discussions of grief, mental health, alcoholism, etc. But also the game revolves around themes of moving on, finding new love, learning to cope, what being a part of community means, etc.!

- A neighborhood filled with people to connect with and talk to! (The game revolves around community building!)

- Two LGBT+ storylines that make up the backbone of the game! (MLM and WLW!)

- Story-driven minigames.

- An art style inspired by black artists in the 70s.

- A Jazz/Gospel-based soundtrack!

- Four playable protagonists with four unique storylines/goals.

- You get to punch God in the face. What more do you want?

ABT is also heavily inspired by 70s movies (Mikey and Nicky, Edge of the City, Claudine, Marvin and Tige, etc), the work of James Baldwin and Langston Hughes, Barry Jenkins' filmography, and video footage of Harlem in the late 70s.

NOTE: This game is not a Christian game! It just utilizes the Christian canon for story purposes. I grew up Christian but I'm atheist now and would really love to punch God in the face, hence me making this game lol.

So here's where y'all come in!

I just finished a demo for the first chapter of our game in Twine. It isn't game-y per se at this stage, as I'm mainly focused on getting the dialogue/story right. We're planning on re-implementing dialogue choices when we build the game in Unity.

I was hoping to get some feedback on the demo as it stands. You can play it on mobile or PC. The gameplay is super simple: just read and click the blue links. If a link is purple, that means you've already clicked it.

Play the Demo!

Getting feedback at this stage is critical and it would really mean a lot to me and my team! If you could play the demo and reply to this post with your thoughts that would be amazing! 🥺🥺🥺

(I also recommend listening to our unofficial playlist of inspo music while you play!)

Clique - “Clique” is a dual story told through the perspectives of the young teenage girl and the avatar character within the game. - http://kck.st/25IPtej