AND shoutout to all the other entries!! It was so inspiring to browse everything and see everyone's wild and surreal and very cool submissions. itch.io/jam/game-man...

Anyway making all the art was great but part of me is happy to move on and to not have to actually make the entire game. I mean unless...👀

You can download the whole manual on itch! S/o again to the organizers, most fun I've had in a while 🤓
robertvinluan.itch.io/old-school-m...

More puns: since it's set in an underwater homage to NYC, of course there's a SUBway. And here are a bunch of unused neighborhoods I didn't have a chance to get into the manual somewhere:

Puffer East Side
West Krillage
Shellsea
Ashoreia
Clown(fish) Heights
Eelmhurst
Red Hook (lol)

Also—the underwater setting is a rich vein of puns, the title included. These two didn't make it into the manual but I had to make these logos.

Another big part is the fashion. Originally it wasn't the focus but I think since the game is so much about the intersection of NYC, hip-hop, and the 00s, I really couldn't avoid it. J is specifically wearing Timbs and I feel like that is a crucial part of their character design.

In Old School, Dr Shark is a character that represents the exploitation of the music industry and is actually the antagonist. He used to be a huge rapper and producer but now he's the CEO of a streaming company, Tsunami (That reference wrote itself).

Narratively, I thought it'd be fun to tell a story that is the opposite of how games about musicians usually go. Instead of rising to stardom playing bigger and bigger venues, what if it was a game about realizing the value of your local community?

The cast is my favorite part and was so much fun to design. Originally it was going to be more about one main character and maybe 2 best friends, but when I was designing all the characters I just got so attached to them that I just decided to make it about a whole crew.

My video game holy grail is a rhythm game where you're actually making music. So a huge part of Old School is this interface where you take songs and sample them and chop them and make new beats. The game then generates a chart based off this that you can perform to, with rap/vocal accompaniment.

Old School is a PS1-era rhythm game about a crew of aspiring hip-hop musicians in the underwater town of New Shark City. Obviously Parappa The Rapper is its biggest inspiration but I also wanted specifically to reference some of my biggest loves: NYC, 00s fashion, and music production.

B?? I'm in section 105...

WAIT ME TOO

More screenshots!