Substation 7

Byte-Off IV Introduction (aka wth is this?!):

My kids and I had a lot of fun with this!  Our entry for Byte Off IV decided to take the form of the first issue of a ‘Zine (link provided if you understandably need to know what that is).  A ‘Zine, that is, that happens to come with an episodic NES game!  For now it’s digital but it is fun to imagine a physical version on our shelf.  The sprites are meant to pair with, and evoke, the “rough and dirty” look of the 90s ‘Zines that I grew up with, introducing the style to my kids and allowing us to express ourselves in a way that is raw and fun for us. It’s also very freeing for both the dev and the player, to eject the story into a fun-to-consume package so that when you start playing.. you can just play with minimal story stops, hopefully making for a smoother, more arcade like gaming experience while maintaining a deeper narrative and enhancing the immersion in it.  That’s the idea anyway, and where better to experiment than Byte Off!

This episode acts as an introduction to the galaxy, and each subsequent episode will come with a self-contained story and a game that could be any genre but taking place in the Substation 7 Universe.

So prepare for genre hopping fun and look forward to discovering new planets, meeting new cowboy factions and even exploring Substation 7 itself in future episodes!

My kids and I had a blast just letting our imagination roam free and creating this universe which we didn’t originally intend to extend beyond the Byte Off.. but the lore of it seems to have a way of growing around our house and it’s now taken on a life of its own. 😉

And with that (apologies if long-winded) introduction out of the way, my little progeny and I are proud to present to you Episode 1 of Substation 7!

Things we wanted to get to but didn’t in the initial release but then we’ll add it after the Byte Off is over because it’ll be cool and wow this sentence is getting long:

• Old fashioned gas pumps to refill life/ammo (a bit moot due to infinite lives and checkpoints)
• Lazers in Drack’s Castle Resort have been temporarily disabled due to opening day malfunctions.  We thank you for your patience!
• The music (podcast chatter ambience) in the Podcast Princess Cowboy Area isn’t playing for some reason and that area is as a result alarmingly silent.. we were losing our minds trying to fix it so will come back to it later lulz​​​​​​​​​
• Satellites and signs will give universe exposition or interesting facts in a future version.