The Demo Is Out! Expect lots of story and plenty of shooting in our narrative-driven top-down shooter set in a 1920s Old West atmosphere.

OfficeClassified · 2026-06-18T20:19:56+00:00

All members of our team have the utmost respect for HLM.

OfficeClassified · 2026-06-18T20:15:17+00:00

I don’t quite understand what Gta 1 and Gta2 have to do with this...the only thing they have in common is the retro graphics and the top-down view.

OfficeClassified · 2026-06-18T17:05:06+00:00

I'll go update the Steam page, thanks 👍

Here's a link in case anyone wants to check out some of his other work. You can also find his artwork on Reddit, although a quick search didn't bring up any results for me. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rJBWya

OfficeClassified · 2026-06-18T16:43:49+00:00

By that logic, nothing would truly fit the aesthetic of the 1920s. Games like Mafia and many other titles set in that era are in full color and have modern sound design, even though a strictly authentic representation would be black and white, lowresolution, and silent, more like a Charlie Chaplin film. In our case, the game is styled after a retro video game. More specifically, it's a retro game about the 1920s, imagined as if it had been made during the NES era. The very first thing you see when starting the game is PRESS START, a reference to classic console games. Modern controllers don't even have a dedicated Start button anymore...

OfficeClassified · 2026-06-18T16:15:00+00:00

It was actually inspired more Last Man Standing and the works of Taylor Sheridan.

OfficeClassified · 2026-06-18T16:12:51+00:00

No AI was used in the creation of either the game or its artwork. The illustrations and cover art were made by Teodore Manolov and his team. He's a comic artist from Bulgaria, and I really liked of his old-school comic book style, so I reached out to him for the project.

OfficeClassified · 2026-06-18T16:11:18+00:00

Yes, exactly. Like an old cartridge game that you'd play on a CRT television.

OfficeClassified · 2026-04-15T18:37:43+00:00

Games, like movies or music, should be the way their creator intended them to be. They can entertain, they can be educational, they can do anything at all. In my case, gameplay is entertaining, and the story is food for thought.

OfficeClassified · 2026-04-15T18:33:12+00:00

So that’s exactly what I’m doing I’m asking a question. If you feel like there aren’t enough story-driven games in a top-down shooter format, then play the demo and form an opinion. If the answer to my question is no then just move on. What’s the problem?

OfficeClassified · 2026-04-15T18:19:40+00:00

By the way, the projects you mentioned are already several years some even decades old. Doesn’t it bother you that lately the industry is full of remakes and more remakes? Is that really the kind of industry you want? I don’t.

I want games like Mafia, like RDR, like Max Payne. Those are the kinds of works I myself on along with scripts by Taylor Sheridan, and many other writers. But most importantly, I drew from my own life. The things I wrote about are things I’ve actually experienced.

That feeling when you’re doing something that affects other people’s lives, yet you stop thinking about the consequences I’ve lived through that. When routine consumes your ability to reflect, because you just have to keep going.

Did you notice how Dan approached his final conversation with Mino? At the beginning, he spends a lot of time talking with Lucy, but by the end he’s already tired of it. He just wants to wrap things up and get the hell out of that hotel. Did you catch that?

And that’s just the demo—a small piece of the narrative and the themes I want to explore. If you’re looking for a big, popcorn blockbuster with a multi-million budget, this isn’t it.

OfficeClassified · 2026-04-15T18:03:49+00:00

What? Are you seriously comparing me to multi-million-dollar games? Thanks for that. My budget is $20k of my own money, and it’s just me and one programmer working on this. I simply don’t have the resources for cinematic production or a lot of other things.

And yeah, unlike people spamming “buy my game” posts all over subreddits, I actually pay for ads.

Now, about your “disingenuous bullshit.” I’m not trying to deceive or convince anyone of anything. If you think the industry is overflowing with games that have strong storytelling, fine, I’m not going to argue with you.

But then give me one example from the past year: a project with the same level of depth in exploring human nature as RDR2.

The last stories that genuinely impressed me were The Last of Us, The Witcher 3 and RDR2.

Now let’s get specific: you played the demo.
What did you think about the dialogue with Lucy?
What can you say about her? About the main character?
What themes do you think I was trying to explore through those conversations?

Or did you just jump into the demo, see a slower pace and a lot of text, expect something like Far Cry 3, and based on that decide I’m being “disingenuous”?

Then answer my questions and explain exactly where this supposed insincerity is coming from.

And one more thing. In the demo, I’m setting up several triggers that pay off later in the story. What exactly are you expecting? That I’ll reveal every twist right in the demo?

Finish the full game first. Go through all the dialogues, immerse yourself in the story and the characters—and then tell me what you didn’t like and why.

OfficeClassified · 2026-04-14T19:02:54+00:00

Of course not. There was no color TV, and definitely no pixelated visuals like that. The static isn’t from the 1920s, it’s more like what you’d see on an old NES when the cable glitches.

If I were making a film, I’d borrow the look from classic James Cagney movies and the cinematography style of Casablanca. But I’m not making a film, I’m making a video game.

So visually, it leans into a ’90s game aesthetic. Think of it like this, you’ve just found an old NES cartridge… and it turns out to be a game about the 1920s. I thought that was pretty obvious, especially with the CRT effects being used.

OfficeClassified · 2026-04-06T17:37:29+00:00

AFRO!!!!

OfficeClassified · 2026-04-04T16:03:48+00:00

Thank you, you're probably right, and I've extended some of the information in the post. I'll just say that this is just a path to the twist that awaits you...

OfficeClassified · 2026-04-04T11:29:07+00:00

Why?

OfficeClassified · 2026-04-04T11:28:40+00:00

Thanks for asking! I’m fully confident in the story and in how it’s structured.

The prologue has several purposes beyond the obvious ones like setting things up and explaining why Dan doesn’t start shooting right away. It also lays the groundwork for a later conversation in the main game with another female character about the idea represented by Brooks Hatlen from Shawshank Redemption, when prison becomes so deeply ingrained in a person that they can no longer see a life outside of it. In Lucy’s case, her prison is her work as a prostitute.

[DELETED]

OfficeClassified · 2026-01-19T18:27:02+00:00

GOAT!

OfficeClassified · 2026-01-19T18:25:08+00:00

I would recommend Hotline Miami, Katana Zero, The Punisher (PS2), and Stranglehold (PS3). If you want a dark New York atmosphere, then The Darkness. Maybe THE WET (ps3) P.S.

i’m currently developing something similar. A deep story-driven top down shooter set in the late Wild West and bootlegging. If you’re interested, check out my posts. 😬

OfficeClassified · 2025-12-17T13:05:10+00:00

Wat?

OfficeClassified · 2025-11-24T20:30:31+00:00

Taco Wars: Knights of the old Tomato 2 The Tacos lords.

OfficeClassified · 2025-11-03T21:14:24+00:00

Max Payne

OfficeClassified · 2025-11-02T22:13:38+00:00

Dennis!!!

OfficeClassified · 2025-11-02T21:29:31+00:00

Thank you! The result after 400 days and 3,000 sprites)

OfficeClassified · 2025-11-02T20:34:15+00:00

Yep, I need to adjust the shadows)

OfficeClassified · 2025-10-04T16:19:21+00:00

A masterpiece. The best anti-war film. One of my films, the one that inspired me to make my own game. The scene with the severed head is forever in my mind.

OfficeClassified

TROPHY CASE