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 that used a lot of parallax to give the battles depth. Jack Move's behind-the-player view is directly influenced by this!
Cyberpunk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Neuromancer is the first cyberpunk book Edd ever read. He was instantly transported in to that world through William Gibson’s prose that leaves so much up to the imagination. “I had never read anything like it, with it’s flawed characters and dystopian setting, all help together with this incredible description of a future internet.” he says, “At a time when the internet was just becoming available to normal people, it was truly awe inspiring.”
Neuromancer gave him a thirst for other cyberpunk literature, and he quickly got in to other authors such as Walter Jon Williams, John Shirley, and George Alec Effinger.
These early science fiction pioneers helped inspire the setting and story of Jack Move.
Ghost in the Shell
“I think Ghost in the Shell was the first Anime film I saw, around the time I was 16 or 17.” Edd says, “I had seen it in the video store, and amongst the all the other cassettes, it looked like the coolest thing ever.”
It’s another source of inspiration for the story of Jack Move, asking questions about what it means to be human.
Hackers
In Edd’s opinion, Hackers is one of the greatest films of all time. A peak time in 90’s culture with a mash up of sweet sweet computers, cool rave music, the goofiest dialogue and a classic story of rebels taking on some bad guys.
Hackers has vibes for days, and Jack Move loves it!
Strange Days
Strange Days is Edd’s favourite cyberpunk film with the grounded setting and neo-noir detective story. The film covers themes that are still relevant today: technological addiction, racism, police brutality, voyeurism, reality vs the virtual.
Strange Days is kinda depressing in a lot of places. The world is falling in to despair, there are riots, murders, weird VR snuff tapes etc, but at the core of the film is a message about people choosing to do the right thing.
One of Edd’s favourite things about the film is how chunky and real the technology that it presents feels. Everything runs off a Minidisk (it’s no coincidence Jack Move’s Data icons look very similar), and all the computers are chunky and clunky. This was a big part of how he wanted Jack Move to feel. We have previously described it as “VHS-era”, futuristic but still retaining the analogue feel, like technology at the cusp of the millennium.
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So, these were the main sources of inspiration for different aspects of Jack Move. Some of them might be quite obvious, some of them might be not, yet another thing is important here: everything that you read, watch, or play could be a source of inspiration for something you make in the future. And the best we can hope for is that someday Jack Move will become such source for you.
See you in the cyberspace of Jack Move!
