Up North
Up North is the world's first MRPG (Midwestern Role-Playing Game). I directed, wrote, and acted as the sole programmer on this game, which is built in Game Maker. Inspired by the "Persona" series and the "Mario & Luigi" RPGs, the game aims to tell a modern story using classic gameplay mechanics - a story of a chosen family of disgruntled renaissance festival workers who gain very real magical powers. The ragtag party is brought together by bizarre circumstances and tasked with exploring a parallel dimension in order to defeat a powerful manifestation of common, domestic evil.
Along with an amazing team of pixel artists, I created a vision of a rural Michigan that exists on the precipice between dream and reality. I made the movement system, dialogue system, combat system, dungeons, level-up and player statistics systems, and the in-game phone, which acted as the primary user interface. I wrote the characters, dialogue and narrative and provided overall visual direction.
40-minute playable demo available upon request. Art by Vukasin Kusmanovic, Sebastien Vakerics, & Mee Na Ko. Additional Art by Jane Hodges, Rose Dupuis, & Roxanne Dupuis. Additional Game Design by Nathan Gualtieri, Frankie Roussel & AJ Mattis
