Where are we? Who am I?
Picture a giant octopus-like creature resting on top of a mountain. Instead of frolicking beneath the waves, our ginormous octopus resides in an inhospitable snowy world. The dregs of humanity have learned to coexist with their colossal protector, fortifying it with various structures and machines. In particular, large towers were built around each of the creature's 8 arms.
Our story takes place in the districts of the densely populated Gold Tower. Here, we meet a small and repulsive humanoid who goes by the name Kaf Kafkaryan. Kaf occasionally works as a tentacle trimmer, someone hired to cut the excess tendrils that grow all over the city. Our unlikely hero starts out applying for a job at the Curtain Crust corporation, and has to endure their lengthy recruitment process. Around the same time, Kaf begins to experience a series of bizarre dreams, playing the role of a soldier in a beetle army, a horse in a lawless frontier town, or a stranger in love with a turkey. What does any of it mean?
In some of these dreams, Kaf is asked to investigate matters in the real world. In doing so, a terrible truth slowly comes to light, one that has to do with Octopus City's sordid history and its ominous future. Among many other things, Kaf will have to raise a child, fight with insults, spread false rumors, work with shady factions, cure baldness, ride a centipede train, and climb a tentacle in order to decide the city's fate.
Why am I shaking?
It's important to note that Kaf isn't a hero. Our pathetic little friend is a walking bundle of nerves. Faced with several nerve-racking encounters, you'll have to navigate complex forking paths while carefully keeping an eye on Kaf's stress. You need to keep a level head in order to come up with rational solutions. On the other hand, Kaf's creativity and boldness under pressure might surprise you. It's up to you to decide the right approach for each encounter.
Stress is indicated by shaking text. The more shaky an option is, the more stressful Kaf will be. The shaking text is optional and can be replaced with textual or iconic indicators. While managing short-term stress, you need to keep Kaf's overall health in mind as well. Eating junk food and making hard choices isn't the best lifestyle for our lovable old geezer.
Not every choice you make is stressful, but many of them are significant. There's always more than one way to deal with any situation. If a door stands in your way, you can try to talk your way in, pretend to be someone else, climb through the window, hire a professional to open it, or build your own lockpick out of crushed beetle remains. Each of these choices may result in different outcomes, and will impact your relationship with other characters.
There's no penalty for making a "wrong choice", and no game-over screens. Even failure will sometimes reward you with unique content down the line. We hope that players will ultimately feel inspired to experience the simulation multiple times to see everything it has to offer.
Who are all these people?
While story and choices are important, remember that we're talking about an Octopus City Simulation. We're building an educational experience to teach you about life in the historical city. That's why we paid a lot of attention to simulating the lives of the many denizens who had inhabited that cursed place.
The simulation starts on an early Mossday morning. The date is Cod Moon 6, 130 (FC calendar) to be exact. From that moment, the simulation plays out in real time, albeit at an accelerated rate of 1 simulated minute for every real second. Time passes as you explore the town, but it's also possible to skip ahead by reading comic books. The day is divided into 3 distinct phases: morning, evening, and night. Usually, Kaf will fall asleep when it gets late, but you can drink coffee to stay up at night.
The inhabitants of the city have their own daily schedules. A person might be found at work in the morning, in a restaurant in the evening, and might not appear at all on weekends. Certain events also take place on special days throughout the year, such as a weekly street market. Each character has their own sets of interests, confidants, and dispositions towards Kaf. They might also be part of larger factions or groups, and angering one faction member will have an effect on the other members.
The world of Octopus City is relatively small. Armed with new gossip and items, you'll find yourself repeatedly interacting with the same characters. That's why we put a lot of effort into writing many unique responses for them. Each character has their own life and history, and you'll slowly get to know them and understand their connections to each other and the main plot.
How do you talk to someone?
To help you interact with the city and its citizens, you are equipped by a state-of-the-art BUNKER 2X Personal Assistant. The device offers two modes: Field and Bunker. Field mode is used for sharing items and gossip with other characters, and it's also where you'll get occasional notifications about the items you pick up and the gossip you learn.
The Bunker mode on the other hand is the domain of Old Man Bunk, your very own virtual grouch. Bunk will give you hints whenever you get stuck, and you can explore his room to access a variety of applications. For example, use the item bag to combine or drop items, the calendar to keep track of upcoming events, and the journal to view all the gossip you've learned.
Think of gossip as special items that you earn by talking to people or witnessing events. New gossip can override or combine with what you already know, allowing you to deduce connections and uncover new truths. The main use of gossip is to ask characters about various topics. You should be careful about what gossip you share with others, however. Depending on the character and how viral a factoid is, gossip can spread to other characters over time.
But what's Octopus City Blues?
Octopus City Blues is a graphical terminal where you guide a hideous avatar through several real and imaginary worlds. You control the avatar directly using the keyboard or a controller. You examine the environment, talk to characters, and learn gossip or receive items to use on other characters. Sometimes you find yourself in stressful encounters where you have to make choices based on your mental state and the gossip you learned earlier. There is no way to experience everything Octopus City has to offer in one session, as many of your choices lead to mutually exclusive outcomes.
Along the way, you will also engage in little minigames. You might play baseball with a scary insect queen, attempt the perfect business handshake, or learn to dance. There's also a dedicated button for spinning like a hedgehog, but that's mostly useless.
Octopus City is a comedy and a tragedy. Octopus City is love and hate. Octopus City is you and me. Octopus City is everything… and nothing.
I need this in my life!
We've been working on this project for years, and we're getting closer to the finish line with every passing day. In the next update, we'll go over everything we did this year, in addition to our plans for the upcoming one. Stay tuned!
By the way, we're currently preparing for another round of play testing. It'll probably take place some time in the next few weeks. If you're interested, feel free to hop on our Discord server and wait for the announcement. We'll also provide more details via some of our social media accounts. For completeness sake, here is a list of places where you can find us: