Hello!

My name is Enzi, but online I go by Issumatek. I'm still pretty new to the world of Game Design, at least in practice. I've read books about Game Design since I was a young lad, and have been playing games my whole life. That being said, welcome to my first official project, Gas Station Story (working title)!

I intend for this game to be an exploration of my personal experiences in the service industry (although I've primarily worked in food service, not in a gas station), as well as a projection of my view into others' lives: both customers and coworkers I've had. That being said, of course, none of the characters or locations in the game are intended to accurately represent any real life person or place, yadda yadda, and so on.

A significant amount of my time in the service industry (coming up on a decade, now) has been spent talking to and listening to my coworkers and customers. And a lot more of my time in the service industry has been spent thinking about ways of getting out of said industry. This project is both an exploration of those thoughts, as well as me acting on my desire to move on. I hope to strike a chord with anybody that's ever worked in service, as many of our experiences are shared across the industry. From the smoke breaks to the shitty customers, this one is for you.

This game is being made with GB Studio, and is compatible with both the original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance, and the ROM file can even be loaded onto a Nintendo DS or 3DS using the right tools. I'm sure you can get it running on many other systems as well, being that the Game Boy is a frequently emulated platform. If somebody wants me to, I'll even export a version for the Analogue Pocket, I just don't have one currently so I haven't bothered to yet. Eventually I would like to get cartridges printed for this game, but that's a ways away.

Also, a big gimmick of this game is that I've been using the Game Boy Camera for the character images. All of the portraits in this game (even the weird ones) have been made using practical effects captured through the lens of the Game Boy Camera, and ripped using my GB Operator. I plan on writing a devlog about this process some time later, when I've accumulated enough photos and examples. I've only captured about half of the characters I need, and have been actively working on finding more models. Worse comes to worst, I'll just toss a wig and some makeup on and figure it out.

That's all for now, I think. Thanks for reading this far! I'm hoping to have a demo up by the end of August 2022. See you then!