Solo Developer Slumps Announces Retro-Styled Puzzle Adventure Game "A Pocket Full of Slagford"

Game Announcement and Setting

Patrick Grant, an Australia-born, New Zealand-based artist, has announced his solo-developer studio Slumps is creating "A Pocket Full of Slagford." This upcoming 3D puzzle adventure game is set in a retro-futurist, alternative-reality northern England during the Thatcher era. The narrative follows Pip Bunting, a local character in the town of Slagford, who discovers a relic that allows him to manipulate reality.

Gameplay Mechanics and Inspiration

Grant drew inspiration from point-and-click adventure games of the late 1980s and early 1990s, such as those from LucasArts and Grim Fandango. He aimed to differentiate his game by developing a unique puzzle system. Players collect imprints of scenery and then place them in other parts of the world to solve puzzles, described as a "jigsaw sticker book kind of thing."

The game also aims to evoke the aesthetic of the late 1990s CD-ROM era, incorporating looping CG-rendered backgrounds and low-polygon 3D models.

Narrative Focus and Cultural Influences

Despite the unique mechanics and retro visuals, Grant emphasizes that the primary focus of "A Pocket Full of Slagford" is its narrative. The story and dialogue are inspired by various aspects of northern English culture, drawing from British television programming from the 1980s, such as the BBC miniseries "Boys from the Blackstuff," which depicted life during the Thatcher years.