Neofeud - A Cyberpunk Adventure Game

[SilverSpook]

Neofeud is a Dystopic Cyberpunk adventure game drawing from Blade Runner and District 9, but with an overlay of Game of Thrones-like political intrigue. Neofeud was made with Adventure Game Studio in 90's LucasArts / Sierra style, but with 1366x768, hand-painted, stylized visuals.

Synopsis:

2033 - We create AI. Sentient robots arrive, but not as our Terminator overlords or our Singularity saviors -- conscious machines are humanity's unwanted bastard children. A few are geniuses who design flying cars, beat cancer, invent teleportation, but millions of defective prototypes roll out of factories -- mentally challenged, motivationally-challenged, criminally-inclined. Legally conscious, but unhirable, these "Defectives" are shuffled through public housing and welfare assistance, straining the already overburdened back of the meager social safety net. The robots who don't end up in prison are dumped, as a last resort, into a massive landfill known as "The Pile".

Humans engage in perfection of their species -- or at least the powerful and well-connected -- genetically engineering children with the human and animal DNA. The failed eugenics experiment "Frankenpeople" are discarded into "The Pile" as well. The new dynasties, 'Neofeudal Lords', live in towering neon glass castles, shuttle around in pristine nanotech-enabled pods, minds and bodies full of cyberware, spending most of their time taking selfies and "optimizing their monetization schemes". A race of supermen concerned only with their own status, their prestige, their success. Where machines have become all too flawed and human, people have become flawless, perfect, cold machines.

Karl Carbon is an ex-cop, dishonorably discharged from Coastlandia PD for disobeying an order to shoot an unarmed sentient humanoid. Karl is exiled to "The Pile" as a lowly social worker. There he counsels gangbanging foster-kid robots and confiscates chimera-children from deadbeat half-wolf parents. Till one day a case goes horribly sideways and and Karl is drawn into a sordid conspiracy that could threaten the strained fabric of Human-Robot-Hybrid civilization -- or save it.

FEATURES

• 15+ hours of gameplay.
• An original dystopic sci-fi world and story that will (hopefully) make you question some of your core beliefs. Or at least my sanity
• Tricky yet satisfying, point-n-click detective work, interspersed with tense action shootouts.
• Handpainted, uber-gritty, noir futureland. Makes Mad Max and Rick Deckard crap their pants.
• Endless bombardment of witty one-liners from hardboiled cyberpunk.

Neofeud is available now! Get it here:

 

[Lagole Gon]

 

[ERYFKRAD]

whhat the fukc

Prosperity

 

[Bonnie]

GOTY.

 

[taxalot]

You can buy it.

This is a real game.

Someone made this.

 

[CryptRat]

I may eventually play that.
I like the weirdness of the thing, but I'm really not sure about the gameplay, it seems it's not a traditional adventure game and it's hard to judge what to expect based on the trailer and the description.

 

[SilverSpook]

Hi guys, this is the creator of Neofeud. Thanks for the kind feedback.

CryptRat: If you'd like to see more of the actual gameplay, there's a Let's Play of Neofeud on Youtube that you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouv7RqS2Czw&t=39s

 

[supervoid]

It's Adventure Game Studio game https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=54627.0 So it's probably just standard ASG mechanics. It looks like there's more talking and walking than puzzles. You can watch gameplay here, it looks rather boring tbh:
Also, it's ugly af.

 

[Lithium Flower]

The aesthetics...when you think of cyberpunk, you think of chrome and hard edges. Clay (atleast I think that's clay) is more soft and flesh-looking, literally the opposite. This combination looks ugly and uncanny as fuck.

 

[SilverSpook]

It's Adventure Game Studio game https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=54627.0 So it's probably just standard ASG mechanics. It looks like there's more talking and walking than puzzles.

The first section does have a lot of talking as you're getting to know the world and the folks in it. There are more traditional adventure game mechanics later in the game, but it is fair to say that Neofeud is more story-centric than point-n-click puzzle-centric.

 

[SilverSpook]

The aesthetics...when you think of cyberpunk, you think of chrome and hard edges. Clay (atleast I think that's clay) is more soft and flesh-looking, literally the opposite.

It is an unusual combination, I will admit. However I think Neofeud is cyberpunk more in the original literary sense, in that is is a subset of science fiction that examines society through the lens of "High tech - low life". It explores the impact of technological advancements in IT, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, etc. on the human (or trans-human) condition as well as civilization (i.e. breakdown of the social fabric resulting in radical / revolutionary movements -- hence 'punk').

I was actually very much inspired by Primordia, another AGS adventure by Wadjet Eye Games, which uses a style that seems to me like lo-rez H.R. Giger art, if Giger worked with wax:

I loved the fact that they used this style in a world exclusively populated by robots. The go-to style would be sharp, specular, and angular, a la Transformers, but instead the artist flipped the cliché on its head by using organic, melting shapes to depict a post-apocalyptic wasteland of conscious machines.

 

[MRY]

"90% DNA match" made me laugh. Can't tell if the art is crazy genius or lazy hodgepodge.

 

[SilverSpook]

Wormwood Studios:

"90% DNA match" made me laugh. Can't tell if the art is crazy genius or lazy hodgepodge.

Speak of the Devil! Also, apologies- I should've mentioned Wormwood Studios and Primordia in the same sentence.

 

[CryptRat]

The first section does have a lot of talking as you're getting to know the world and the folks in it. There are more traditional adventure game mechanics later in the game, but it is fair to say that Neofeud is more story-centric than point-n-click puzzle-centric.

Thanks for the honest answer, I'll think about picking the game.

 

[Lithium Flower]

The aesthetics...when you think of cyberpunk, you think of chrome and hard edges. Clay (atleast I think that's clay) is more soft and flesh-looking, literally the opposite.

It is an unusual combination, I will admit. However I think Neofeud is cyberpunk more in the original literary sense, in that is is a subset of science fiction that examines society through the lens of "High tech - low life". It explores the impact of technological advancements in IT, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, etc. on the human (or trans-human) condition as well as civilization (i.e. breakdown of the social fabric resulting in radical / revolutionary movements -- hence 'punk').

I understand the low life part of cyberpunk. However, Primordia is actually highly detailed and cluttered whereas your characters look like they were painted in broad strokes - a very different look. I actually think your current style works well on biomodified humanoids in the game, but not at all for the cyborgs. However, I do like the designs themselves - pretty creative stuff.

Also I actually appreciate a story-driven adventure game rather than a puzzle focused one, so I might check it out at some point.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

The art looks like vomited out by a drunk racoon.

 

[MRY]

Whoa, I missed the Primordia reference above. That's nice to hear!

 

[SilverSpook]

I understand the low life part of cyberpunk. However, Primordia is actually highly detailed and cluttered whereas your characters look like they were painted in broad strokes - a very different look. I actually think your current style works well on biomodified humanoids in the game, but not at all for the cyborgs. However, I do like the designs themselves - pretty creative stuff.

Also I actually appreciate a story-driven adventure game rather than a puzzle focused one, so I might check it out at some point.

Fair criticism, thanks for giving the game a look!

Whoa, I missed the Primordia reference above. That's nice to hear!

Of course, Primordia was the game that sold me on switching to the adventure genre, and AGS in particular. That and Technobabylon.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

I've really enjoyed the OST. I am even thinking about buying it.

The art style is hit and miss for me. Some things look interesting; while others, well, are too 'prosperous'. Also I am not sure that it was a good idea to go with such a high resolution. With low-res graphics the crappiness of animation would be less noticible.

 

[AngryKobold]

Contrary to what some special people say, consistency in art style IS important.

 

[SilverSpook]

I've really enjoyed the OST. I am even thinking about buying it.

The art style is hit and miss for me. Some things look interesting; while others, well, are too 'prosperous'. Also I am not sure that it was a good idea to go with such a high resolution. With low-res graphics the crappiness of animation would be less noticible.

I was going for an 'impressionistic' style with visible paint strokes, ergo the hi-res. But it was a risky move, yes, going for 1366x768 when most AGS games, especially the popular Wadjet Eye titles are 640 and lower, with most being 320 resolution. I wanted a more 'utopian' color scheme and texture for the 'Stratoplex' (upper city) -- royal gold and techno-utopian blue -- to distinguish it from the jumbled, patchwork mess of the '99%' Mexico City / favela wasteland below. Emphasize the extreme stratification.

In retrospect, this may come off as simply inconsistent, especially in a trailer or series of juxtaposed screenshots. It's a big ask of the audience, and I probably (definitely) tried to do too much. C'est la vie.

I did the writing, programming, art, music, and half of the voice acting on this game, while working a dayjob and a half to support a family of four, so I would've loved to spend more time on the animation and polishing. But alas, it wasn't in the cards. :/ I had other, more pressing 'domestic stakeholders' to pitch my endeavors to for greenlighting, besides Steam Greenlight itself.

Lessons learned, grist for the post-mortem and next project!

 

[Lithium Flower]

I've really enjoyed the OST. I am even thinking about buying it.

The art style is hit and miss for me. Some things look interesting; while others, well, are too 'prosperous'. Also I am not sure that it was a good idea to go with such a high resolution. With low-res graphics the crappiness of animation would be less noticible.

I was going for an 'impressionistic' style with visible paint strokes, ergo the hi-res. But it was a risky move, yes, going for 1366x768 when most AGS games, especially the popular Wadjet Eye titles are 640 and lower, with most being 320 resolution. I wanted a more 'utopian' color scheme and texture for the 'Stratoplex' (upper city) -- royal gold and techno-utopian blue -- to distinguish it from the jumbled, patchwork mess of the '99%' Mexico City / favela wasteland below.

In retrospect, this may come off as simply inconsistent, especially in a trailer or series of juxtaposed screenshots. It's a big ask of the audience, and I probably (definitely) tried to do too much. C'est la vie.

I did the writing, programming, art, music, and half of the voice acting on this game, while working a dayjob and a half to support a family of four, so I would've loved to spend more time on the animation and polishing. But alas, it wasn't in the cards. :/ I had other, more pressing 'domestic stakeholders' to pitch my endeavors to for greenlighting, besides Steam Greenlight itself.

Lessons learned, grist for the post-mortem and next project!

Everyone has to start somewhere. I admire your ability to take criticism as well as your honest self-reflection. How many people did you have doing voice acting for the game and how many of them were professionals? Some of these characters actually sound pretty good.

 

[vortex]

SilverSpook ,looks amazing. I would say surrealistic cyberpunk.

 

[SilverSpook]

Everyone has to start somewhere. I admire your ability to take criticism as well as your honest self-reflection. How many people did you have doing voice acting for the game and how many of them were professionals? Some of these characters actually sound pretty good.

Thanks. I myself did the protagonist and the character with the next most lines (around 30,000 words I believe). I brought on five primary voice actors who did the heavy lifting in the large roles, and this tier of actors all have a revenue split. There were another five or six bit parts filled out by one-time contract. Oh, and my wife played the Princess. This was part of the 'kitchen table contract'.

None of the voice actors were union, however most had either theatrical training or previous experience with voice work. The actor who played the scientist was a former stage actor in New York, and I thought he, in particular, knocked his roles out of the park. (I wish I could've gotten him a better microphone, though, as he had a tendency to project like he was orating on Broadway; just too much volume. Another note-to-self.)

SilverSpook ,looks amazing. I would say surrealistic cyberpunk.

Thanks, and I think you've nailed it, Anduin.

 

[Lithium Flower]

If I make a suggestion that may or may not be possible due to budget constraints, maybe relegate the main character role to a paid actor in the future? You weren't awful as the MC but I personally find it jarring when a background character has more "powerful" voice acting than the main one. I heard the cop's VA and thought "hey, that guy would be great for a burnout ex-cop, why isn't he doing the MC voice?"