Perhaps not secrets per se, but things that have inspired me over the years, and that I keep coming back to from time to time, which have had some influence on Jo's Bar.
Up until this point I have been fairly closed about sharing anything related to the game, other than the basic outline and gameplay. This is bad, because it provides no real substance for future players to get excited over (unless they've REALLY dug it out of me and then had to listen as I ramble on and on).
So here we go. Top 5 influences for Jo's Bar, in no particular order.
Undertale
Without wanting to spoil anything, the initial goal isn't half as exciting as the journey it takes to get there. Undertale person needs family and friends that were actually in the underground all along. Done. Also : Determination.
Papers, Please
A lesson on how every decision you make could be a bad one, no matter what your intentions are. It's slow. It's silent. It's emotional.
Hey Arnold
Football headed kid with his conscience firmly in the right place and an assortment of multicultural family/friends around him teaches everything you need to know about what it is to be a good person. Bonus points for achieving best music in any kids TV show.
Kill Bill
Only my nearest and dearest truly know how much this film means to me, and why. But basically anything with a strong female protagonist will win my heart.
Amélie
Sort of a mix between Kill Bill and Hey Arnold. The protagonist is mostly alone, doing good things (and more) but minus the blood and gore that The Bride delivers. Being the kind soul that she is, she freely helps those around her, but is incapable of truly helping herself without the encouragement of a few fellow kind souls who notice her. Relatable.
Honourable mention : The Legend of Zelda (Ocarina of Time and Link's Awakening)
Ok, I had to stick this in there. The entire Zelda series has given me the firm belief that you can do anything - be it save the world or build your own computer game.
The past few weeks have seen me reflect a lot on the past year and the past in general. It's been a testing year for most of us, and though I must admit I am incredibly grateful to have had this much forced time indoors, it has been a little lonely at times.
Being alone is something I am pretty comfortable with, having had no siblings growing up and any immediate family being in vastly different parts of the world, I turned to games, music and my overactive imagination for entertainment. But I've discovered strange new friend-families over the past few years with which I've found incredible bonds, love and a type of 'real life adventure' attitude I rarely found in my friends growing up. To quote a line from Spaced, "They say the family of the twenty-first century is made up of friends and not relatives...”
I'll end it there for now.
Thank you all for the many whiskey shots you've bought me so far! They really do fill me with determination.
Image from Toby Fox's UNDERTALE