We are excited to announce that the Pixel Rped 1995 is coming to PS VR tomorrow! Expectantly, we decided to talk more about new teammate David and explain how we designed his world to move players back to 1995!
In the Pixel Rped series, Dot is a video game heroine who is supposed to defend Pixel Stone, a product that maintains the balance between Game World and Man of the World. As the evil King of Cyblin takes over Stone himself, Dot seeks the help of a human actor to beat the villain in both places. At the 1989 Pixel Rped, Dot fought alongside a rebellious British student, but now it's time for David Keene, a nine-year-old New Jersey boy, to prove he's the best player since 1995.
Virtual reality has the power to take us to the most interesting places, and with the Pixel Rped, we have the opportunity to travel later. To design David’s universe, we wanted the players to feel immersed in a different world of the 90s, seen through the eyes of a very curious child. Nature must feel true, but they knew it needed more wonder and happiness than it could give.
Our approach was to support our research not only in real-life contexts and experiences, but also in the way movies and TV shows depicted life back then. That means that our players can remember the good times of nature, such as battling for the last copy of your favorite game at a rental store or hitting your friend's high scores in the arcade, while feeling like a child-and-parent action movie star that could come straight to a family sitcom.
The transition from suspension from the Nicola accreditation school to the winter holidays of David and his parents turned the story into a very intimate story, focusing on personal relationships. Unlike the best bats from 1989, our new characters needed depth to feel like the people David cared about.
During the play, we used the worst types of dialogue, recorded by ourselves, to collect feedback about the characters. Our biggest struggle was with David's mother, Karen, whose overcrowding and fear of technology have set her up as one of the main protagonists. Through various repetitions, we saw that displaying the unique qualities of Karen and the strong backs of the church's mother helped the players related to her, even when she made their games difficult.
This process also helped us find Karen's voice. Since I had recorded her interview exams, Karen would often discuss my Brazilian statement. This came from our Lead Artists, who have proposed re-branding him as Latina. The group liked the idea and, in the end, we decided it would be Mexico. The team's collaborative work, brought up by the talented voice actor, Michelle Bonilla, made Karen go from banning gameplay to a confusing, never-to-be-forgotten character.
Designing the universe of the Pixel Rping 1995 involves a lot of research, practice and hilarious braingraphing sessions. But most of all, it was about pouring out our hearts to this story. Our amazing creative director Ana Ribeiro lets her passion for video games shine through every corner of the game and daily inspires us to do the same. Gradually, the world of David became an image of our collective childhood memories, we treated ourselves in less important ways. Now, we invite you to make yours your own!
We look forward to hearing all your thoughts after the game's launch! And while you're here, why not tell us some of your favorite memories of being a game fan in the 90s?
