2021 Christmas Presents – page 14
Not to say “it’s all downhill from here” or anything, but this is absolutely my single favorite new piece of art in this entire series. I am ABSOLUTELY going to be looking for chances to reuse that picture in other contexts. Also, I think I’ve mentioned this in a Patreon blog or something, but another really obvious choice for an actual, real Far Out There game would be a top-down shooter staring Stilez. Like, it’d play the same as one of those 50 billion bullet hell games, but instead of being an airplane or spaceship flying in the air, you’d be a sprite of Stilez constantly running up the screen, shooting everything in her way. And Tax would occasionally ride in on a hovercar or something and drop upgrades to make your giant guns even MORE giant. It pretty much designs itself!
Actually, maybe the “all downhill from here” part is accurate after all. I mentioned earlier that I’d been posting these pages one day at a time because I was still working on the later ones and was afraid I’d loose track of where I was… BUT THAT’S NOT AN ISSUE NOW, BECAUSE I JUST FINISHED THE LAST ONE! As soon as I get this page loaded up, I’ll spend the rest of the night queuing up the rest, and for the first time in MANY years, I’ll be a done with the Christmas comics over a week ahead of time! Now I’ll be able to take a deep breath, kick back and… focus on all the OTHER work I need to get done before the 25th. I promised all my nieces and nephews custom-made coloring books that I really need to get started on!
Now, is this a Survival Horror Game, an Action Game or a Puzzle Game? Because in the first you’re trying to survive Stilez’s attack, and in the second you are playing as Stilez, and in the third you’re Stilez trying to find Tax. Other questions, like “Is this game Single-Player or Multi-player Horror” (Survive long enough for Stilez to meet Tax, out survive the other competitors, or have Tax run into Stilez by out surviving the other competitors).
I mean there are some more options, but those are the easiest ones.
If we’re assuming that the game in the comic is the same as the one I was describing in the commentary, then it’s all action all the time. I guess it COULD be anything we want, though. It’s not like we can see any screenshots on the back of the case, after all. This could be an open-world GTA-style game for all we know.
I do think it’s highly unlikely that Stilez would star in a puzzle game, though. Anything involving thinking doesn’t seem like a very good fit for her character.
The “Puzzle” game has two modes, “Find Tax” and “Punish those who harmed Tax”. Both of which can include destroying a city, but the difficulty raises as the environments add dangers (for Tax), and the possibility of opening a hole to the vacuum of space. Basically, if Stilez is responsible for Tax being harmed, the Puzzle is failed and the entire GAME needs to be restarted.
GSRB? I’m guessing that’s supposed to be Galactic Software Rating Board.
I actually can’t remember exactly what I meant the G to stand for. It might have been something as generic as “gaming,” though galactic definitely sounds more Far Out There-y.
The abbreviation you’re replacing (Entertainment Software Review Board) is already quite generic, even though to my knowledge it is only used for video games released in North America. PEGI (Pan European Game Information) at least specifies a geographical area.
I hadn’t realized it before doing some quick Wikipedia research, but apparently video game rating is more complicated in Japan, with one distinct organization for console games and two for PC games: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_content_rating_system#Japan
That sounds like a very Japanese way of doing things, yes.
Now, if I REALLY wanted to be nerdy, I would have dug up that custom ratings system that Sega used on themselves for a little while.