Hey gamers!
In this new entry for our dev diary we’d like to share with you the main inspirations behind Extra Coin. If you’ve played the demo and have been wondering where the ideas for The Arcade and its inhabitants came from then you’re in the right place!
The real world
We decided to set the story in a dystopian foreseeable future, around the years 2050 to 2070. Most of it will take place in the arcade, a social network where people upload their consciousnesses to live a better life than the one in the real world which has been destroyed and torn apart by endless wars between corrupt governments. The world we see outside of Mika’s window is futuristic yet not that far from us. Our main inspirations here were some of the most famous cyberpunk works which describe a reality not too far away from us that has developed some very advanced and complex technologies even though the world is in shambles. Quoting cyberpunk’s most important author, William Gibson, we tried to represent a reality consisting of “high tech and low life”.
The Arcade
Striving for a better life, a big part of the population, including Mika’s parents, decided to upload their minds to a virtual reality that allows its inhabitants to live in a seemingly peaceful and colorful world. This metaverse is called The Arcade and in order to access it Mika has to wear a VR headset that, as some of you might have noticed, resembles the one from “Ready Player One” and even “Neuromancer”. The theme of uploading one’s consciousness to escape reality is a common one between sci-fi and cyberpunk tropes more specifically. You might remember “San Junipero”, the brilliant episode from season 3 of the show “Black Mirror”, or even “Upload”, the tv series that covers similar themes to the ones in Extra Coin. As soon as you enter the arcade you’re met with a neon-lit room, you might have caught the Tron reference for the futuristic and sci-fi aesthetic of this room.
The themes
Ever heard of transhumanism? It’s a philosophical and intellectual movement that pushes the idea that humans should use science and technology to enhance their capabilities. The whole point at the base of transhumanism is aiming to transcend our current biological limitations. Scary? Or maybe interesting? When exploring this very controversial movement we started wondering how far technology could get when trying to make us “better humans”. The Arcade is a new reality that makes life better for its users by letting them escape from the wreck of the world and making them transcend their biological limitations one of those being, you guessed it, death.
That was a lot, enough for this log. We hope you’re enjoying this journey to the release of Extra Coin. Feel free to jump into our Discord server to keep updated about all the news regarding the game!
Game on,
CINIC Games 🎮