Update log
Full Jack Move update
The complete published notes, normalized for clean reading and source attribution.
Extracted changes
- Balance
- Store
- Gameplay
Hi there!
We've got two goals today: to remind you that Jack Move will be out on Steam in a week, i.e. on September 8, and to tell you about the stuff Jack Move has been inspired by – we believe it's a great opportunity to learn about some of the iconic works and plunge even more deeply into the world of cyberpunk by the release of the game. Having accomplished the first goal, let's promptly move to the second one.
But, before that, make sure to add Jack Move to your wishlist if you haven't done it already. By the way, the game's international price will be 20 USD – better start saving up!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1099640/Jack_Move/
An English poet John Donne once said that no man is an island, meaning that no one is self-sufficient. Well, no game is an island either! In the postmodern world of ours (or metamodern, but let’s leave this debate to the academics), full of influences, references, and allusions, everything we make is born from the extensive cultural heritage of humanity, or, to be precise, its part we interact with. Some might say that nothing we make can be truly new or unique then, but we prefer to think about it in a more positive way: good stuff multiplies itself! And, come on, isn’t it always fascinating to catch some smart reference or realise how one thing affected another one?
Edd Parris, the creator of Jack Move, didn’t get born with the concept of the game in mind, nor did he live in isolation: he read books, watched films, and played games, that eventually inspired him to start developing Jack Move. What kind of books, films, and games? That’s what we asked Edd, and what we’re going to share with you now.
Since Jack Move is a) a game, b) a cyberpunk game, this text is divided into two sections: game influences, and cyberpunk influences. Let’s go!
Games
Final Fantasy VII
FFVII was the first JRPG Edd ever played, around 1999, when he was in college. He and his best friend played it together, trading the controller back and forth. They loved it so much, they'd ride home from college during their lunch break to play it. The lunch break was an hour, and it took 15 mins each way, so they’d only get to play about half an hour.
“I loved the wide ranging story that was both goofy and deadly serious in equal measure, the cast of cool characters, and, perhaps most importantly, the turn based battles.” Edd says, “I'd never played anything like it before and it instantly got me hooked!”
When he first started thinking about about making a JRPG, it was his fond memories of FFVII that inspired him. Moral of the story: our first games indeed matter!
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X turns out to have Edd’s favourite battle system. He really enjoyed its chess like aspects, and having to pair up the correct party members against your enemies in order to defeat them as efficiently as possible. This was helped by the visible battle timeline that could help you plan your attacks. So don’t get surprised when you come across something similar in Jack Move: this was a huge influence on its battle system after all.
Golden Sun
A massive triumph in a tiny package. Golden Sun for the Game Boy Advance was a perfect JRPG for the handheld system. The battle screen also had an awesome pseudo 3D look
Source