Hey Detectives!
We have noticed that many of you are fans of Ken, you liked his persona and him as a character in general; he was a good friend for Gamedec, and we think that he deserves to receive his post with his story. We have contacted Marcin Sergiusz Przybyłek, who is an author of the Gamedec book series, who worked closely with us while we were making the game, and asked him to share more details on Ken and his life 🔥
Grab your favorite beverage, snacks, and enjoy the story Marcin prepared for you:
Many players like Ken Zhou, but hardly anybody knows his story and how important he was to creating the “Gamedec” game.
Let’s go back to the beginning. When we got the green light to create the very first gamedec case, we sat with Piotr Poskart (one of the main designers of “Gamedec”) and started a discussion. I recalled what the graphic team chief said. I said: “Piotr, remember that "Biegan" (art director) claimed that “a real cyberpunk is dark and wet”? And it should be something like Batman things?” We both knew Gamedecverse is not really dark, and it doesn’t rain there too often (Piotr knew my world very well), but hell… So I said: “Let’s create the first case (mind you: the first case we worked on was not the first in the game) in the lowest layers of Warsaw City. It is dark there. And as far as Batman is concerned, let there be a man with the hologram of bat wings. He is lying there, on an air pavement, dead. Can you see him?”
And this is how it started. We created a story of a dead Knight’s Code player who betrayed his game clan and got executed for that. I named him Ken Zhou. He was never supposed to be alive in this game. A player was to discover his story solving the case of Clan Hon, his love for Ramona, his career as a gravball player, desire to run away from the clan and from the Low City gang known as Shooting Stars. It was the name of the case: “Shooting Stars”. But then Piotr liked Ken so much that he decided to give him life. It was not the first time I created a character he wanted to give a bigger role. Remember Jester? In the beginning, he was just a minor folk greeting gamedec at the entrance of Knight’s Code.
But let’s go back to Ken. So Piotr decided gamedec would have a helper. A funny guy. A young person from Low City. Have you watched “Constantine” with Keanu Reeves? Remember Shia LeBeouf being his sidekick? Well, Ken was supposed to be someone like that: wanting to be a gamedec and learn the craft. Eager, zealous, funny. That is when artists from the graphic team, especially Magda G., got a brief on what Ken should look like. She stated he should have a little bit funny hairdo, an awkward color arrangement of his clothes, and a smiling, sympathetic face. She painted him, and we all loved his looks.
But his character evolved in Piotr's mind. At some point, he decided, Ken would no longer be funny, but rather a cool guy, also not a former gravball player (as stated at the beginning), but a Goodabads player. And it is a heavyweight. You see, Goodabads is a game where you don’t get hit points. It hurts when you get hit, and every next blow hurts even more. Goodabads players are real badasses, pain-resistant, composed role models. But we already had his portraits, his face; many dialogues were written and stylized funnily. In the beta player's opinion, Ken was not that funny, more of an annoying guy, and this was why Piotr changed the concept. Well, if so, many things had to be rearranged. First – dialogues. I had to rewrite them for him to sound a little bit cool, a little bit witty, a little bit distanced, but still likable. Secondly, the graphic team had to do something with his looks. They changed a bit his face and overall appearance; important was his coat when gamedec first met him in Twisted & Perverted. Then we all knew Ken was an important figure in the game, so at the end, gamedec meets him again. Nobody likes losing friends, does he?
Now, would you like to know the fabular background of Ken, the final one?
Here it is.
Ken was born in Low City, near the tower where Yeti’s Coming bar was situated. He grew up in the darkness of the lowest parts of Warsaw City, experiencing poverty, and getting to know the shadow of existence, and the unfairness of life. He was a kind soul, so everybody liked him, and many saw there was something exceptional in this kid. He helped Old Yet in the bar; he often got hurt carrying heavy kegs, and cleaning the bar, but he never complained. “Don’t you feel pain?”, Yet once asked. “Pain is just information”, answered Ken and kept to his chores. When he learned about Goodabads game, he decided to try it. It turned out that his attitude to pain was very productive in this game. He was concentrated, focused, and committed to the game regardless of the pain. Remember John Wick? Well, he was something like that. His temperament was the only thing he didn’t have in common with famous John. Sometimes, when he saw unfairness, he burst into anger. He saw too much of it in Low City to be oblivious. That is why he couldn't bear it and rage-quit when Trolls busted his most important match.
Well, now you know almost all about Ken. But there is a story behind Tick, Old Yet, Jester, and many other game characters. Many of them were different at the beginning than in the game's final version; we had many plans to create separate cases (with Tick, for example).
So…
Would you like to know more? Let us know!
We encourage you to join our discord server if you are more interested in Gamedec and it's world ❤️