Here’s Landlord’s Super.
This is the next game I’m working on. It’s about being a builder 1980’s Great Britain. It’s life-simy / simulatory type thing. I hope the idea interests you.
Very few of you will probably know that before working in games I worked as a concrete erector, and later a steel erector. With Jalopy, I was drawing inspiration from my days driving a Minsk motorbike through Vietnam. With Landlord’s Super, I’m drawing from those days travelling up and down the country erecting and installing things.
The setting is a desire to show the Britain dear to me. A Britain that isn’t just tweed & jokes about being posh, but one that’s more diverse, more northern, more working class. For a visual idea, I’m drawing from the work of Chris Killip, Ken Grant & Peter Mitchell and from directors such as Ken Loach & Shane Meadows. If I buckle down and put in the graft, I’m hopeful that this game can be worthy of similar regard.
With how badly Jalopy’s code turned out, and it being stuck on an unsupported engine, I’m building Landlord’s Super from the ground up. This means it’ll take longer, but it also means I can learn from what didn’t work with that project.
The gameplay will focus on allowing the player to engage in an as real-to-life construction experience as I can achieve, whilst being wrapped in a life-sim layout. Some days you’ll be building scaffolding or mixing mortar or building a wall, brick by brick. Some days union interference might just mean you spend the day down the pub playing darts.
Another thing I found while showing the announcement page internally to non-brits, no one could understand the colloquialisms. So instead of dialling back the flavour, I’m going to localize the game in both American English & British colloquialisms.
Hopefully I don’t make a dog’s breakfast of the whole thing, but either way I invite you to join my progress as I make this game a reality.
Be sure to sign up for the mail list, join the discord, and follow @minskworks to be the first to see what becomes of all the ramblings above.