Of course you’ll get your key! Whether from itch.io or Humble Store, any purchase will get a steam key once available.

Any attempts to differentiate us are futile

We are two, and yet, we are one.

Our name is Sukeban Games, for we are many

Unless explicitly stated, any opinion mentioned comes from both of us (And by extension, the company’s stance on the matter)

There’s so much inspirations for this game it’s ridiculous, these are from the top of my head:

• PC-98 eroge and adventure games
• Ghost in the Shell
• 80’s/90’s synthpop and Vaporwave aesthetics
• Blade Runner
• Snatcher
• Policenauts
• Deus Ex
• Bubblegum Crisis
• Cheers
• Taxicab confessions

Last two might sound super weird (maybe not so much for Cheers) but the whole theme of  ”Stranger telling all kinds of weird-ass stories to another stranger” came straight from Taxicab. Cheers… well, that doesn’t need any explanation as some people have described this as Cyberpunk Cheers. The bar idea also came, as we mentioned in a previous answer, after saying

“Screw being the hero, what if you’re just the bartender in that one shoddy bar that always gets a scene?”

Everything I listed helped greatly on creating the atmosphere of this game, but rather than making dumb references or straight up stealing things from them, what we wanted to borrow the most was the feeling of those years, since one of the goals is for VA-11 to feel like the product of a dystopian future were entertainment got stuck in the 80’s and 90’s, and that’s where the Vaporwave influence starts to show up since that aesthetic it’s a product of an alternate future that turned into a consumerist dystopia. This game is exactly the same, this is a product of an alternate future, a scary one at that.

Alright let’s see…

1. We’re currently working with Ysbryd Games, a cool new publisher who offered to cover our needs in funding and exposure, but before that all the “funding” was from our pockets, I say “funding” because we only managed to cover the very basics like food and internet. As for advice on finding a publisher… that’s more about luck, kind of. Ever since we started three publishers have approached us and my conclusion is that you need something unique *and* playable, but that’s easier said than done and probably requires years and years of trial and error (we have around three years making games so take that for what it’s worth). Sorry if it’s not very useful but we literally kept making games until something happened. The key is never stop trying I guess.

2. We haven’t even left the country before so the answer would be… nope, but we plan on attending GDC if we turn a good profit to justify the trip. It would be mostly to meet and stalk our gamedev heroes.

3. This one is hard since I don’t want parents after our heads, but in my opinion… you don’t even need to go to college to start making videogames, you’re better off turning on your computer and googling your way to glory. The only positive thing I can say about college is that you will meet all kinds of people, and one among those people can become a vital piece of your gamedev jigsaw puzzle. I guess what I’m trying to say is that: Doing nothing will lead to nothing, if you want to reach your goal then you need to get your hands dirty: There’s Game Maker, there’s Unity, there’s Unreal 4, Ren'Py, etc. - follow tutorials, do a game per week until you get good, *let people play your games* – getting experience is far more important than anything else if you want to make games for a living.

For the record, we both (Christopher and Fernando) have a degree in Graphic Design but neither learned too much about it and whatever we know about GD it’s because of the internet.

Yep, most of them are top secret though, we don’t want to spoil the surprise.

We’ve been thinking about doing a Prologue “remake” with the new visuals and all that but it would be a post-release thing. For now, vanilla Prologue will be bundled with the final game.

Only really small games for game jams and whatnot, but VA-11 HALL-A is our first commercial game.

Time for a fun story: Before VA-11 HALL-A we were working on another commercial project called Devil’s Journal, but it was taking too long and it got way too big, so VA-11 HALL-A is actually us saying “let’s take a break and make something smaller”

Here’s a screenshot for Devil’s Journal, we’re planning to finish it pretty soon since the plot is already done but we changed the gameplay, is now more of a puzzle game rather than a traditional VN.

That would be the greatest thing since I really loved the demo they released a few days ago, so comfy…

They will return, but saying anything beyond that would be a [spoiler]spoiler[/spoiler]

Our walls in development always seem to be related to giving the game the right “feel”, making it feel like something we’d play. The wall in this case is a point where you start feeling like making the game is a chore you just need to endure. This usually comes when a new mechanic doesn’t completely convince us or when there’s something we just don’t find fun. Be it on the story, the designs or the game itself. We usually hit these kind of walls now and then individually.

The way to overcome them is actually simple. Step back, think on what doesn’t work and on what you want to do. When you start thinking new stuff or solutions and you get pumped up over the mere idea of doing it; when you can’t wait to start doing what you thought, then congratulations! You passed the wall. Everything you came up with might not always remain on the final version, but when you lose that feeling of excitement and you feel like making the game is like dragging your feet… at that point, you need to stop.