Today marks the one month milestone from when I first started working on my new game project, which for now is under the working title "Project Barkeep". It's been both exciting and nerve-wrecking. On the one hand I finally have time to work on it, but on the other it's been a weird time with self isolation in an effort to avoid getting too familiar with the current pandemic...
So let's get familiar with the good stuff instead, Project Barkeep, what is it?
The Elevator Pitch (TL;DR)
You are the new bartender in a family-run bar where all of your patrons are occult beings. Learn your way around mixing drinks suitable for their particular diets, listen to their stories and learn about your family's legacy.
If that got your attention, then you can read on for a longer version that goes more in depth below.
The Extended Version Pitch
You are the new bartender at a family-run bar that you recently inherited from an estranged uncle. Despite your patrons attempt at trying to respect your uncle's wishes of hiding their true nature, you quickly learn that your regular patrons are occult beings — with the likes of witches, vampire, zombies, demons and more.
Get to know your regulars, what their preferences are and how they change depending on the day and mood. Mix everything from the classic Piña Colada to an Extra Bloody Mary (with an optional dash of real blood for the occasional bloodthirsty occult, "ethically" sourced from the local hospital).
Uncover lifetimes of stories from your patrons and learn about the coven that they're all a part of, the laws they follow, to ensure a safe haven and freedom to roam the human worlds despite their occult nature. Learn about your family's heritage as they were all barkeepers who mixed drinks for the very same patrons long before you.
The game will include:
Branching storylines, where actions and dialog choices will alter the story you partake in. When it comes to dialog options, there will be 4th wall breaking from characters that are part of or nearby a conversation you have dialog options in. Depending on which dialog option you are considering, different characters will appear and act out something that's directed at you as the player.
Mystery solving and adventuring. As the story progresses you'll unlock dormant abilities that run in the family which help you see what others cannot. There are defectors of the coven who wish to interfere with the safe haven provided by the covens laws. Stay in the know by reading the newspaper for peculiar stories, talking to your patrons at the bar as well as the occasional eavesdropping. Thwart the defectors schemes to break down the coven and your patrons safe haven.
Drink mixing and serving, with a skill and memory based point system. Get orders or preferences from your customers and mix the appropriate drink for them. Earn extra points by executing skill-based bartender moves used to impress the customer while mixing the drink.
Release Target
The release goal is the following (at least initially):
Platform: PC (Windows, Mac and Linux)
Input support:
- Keyboard/mouse
- Controller support
Release window: To be determined (TBD), it's too soon to tell as of right now. As things progress and more is in place I will take the time to write up a roadmap for everything and announce the release window.
Disclaimer
However, some disclaimers to keep in mind... Since it's so early in development (like, it's basically pre-pre-alpha when writing this) I just feel like I need to get these disclaimers out of the way.
- Since this is very early in development, everything is subject to change, and I do mean everything (even the pitch).
- Project Barkeep is just a placeholder name — barkeeping is a part of the game but at this time I'm unsure of how much of the gameplay it will make up.
In the future, all of these disclaimers will be summarized with a banner at the bottom of the page that looks something like this:
Project Barkeep is in a pre-alpha state at the time of writing this article, everything here is subject to change!
What's happening in the near future
I don't want to plan too much into the future because personally that just feels too overwhelming, so instead I'm going to add a section in a monthly progress post of what's in the scope for the near future.
The first thing that I'll be spending time on this coming month is to start working on the level design, after which I'll take a small part of the level to play around with in order to nail down the environmental art style I'll be going for with the game. I have a few ideas so I'll be making up a smaller environment where I can switch and swap to see which direction I'd like to go in.
But not only that, if things go well I want to work on the gameplay elements as well — such as the barkeeping aspect of the game.
Stay tuned for that!