Gamedec – Genre Musings

Anshar Studios’ upcoming detective RPG Gamedec is often described as a cyberpunk title, however, that’s not entirely accurate. And in order to try and figure out what Gamedec actually is, Marcin Sergiusz Przybyłek, the author of the Gamedec saga the game is based on, brings us this article where he talks about various -punk subgenres of sci-fi and his unique creative process.

Here are a few paragraphs to get you started:

So why did I write “gamedec” saga? Gamedec is about a game detective in the first part, but in the next installments, that detective has to face the realium (reality). He observes and participates in the reshaping of the world as he knows it, and in the fourth and the fifth parts of the saga, the story changes to military SF and a solar utopia? Why did I do that?

I wanted to write a story of a human in a changing world – a human that has to change. Adapt. Develop. It was a kind of an RPG story: he got new skills and entered new realities in an ever-evolving world. It was my dream to write something like that.

Oh. And I loved video games.

That’s why I created the profession of a game detective. I wanted to show how complex and exciting the situation of gamers of the future can be. How deep and intricate the entanglement of realium and sensory worlds could go. Is it possible that a gamedec will accept payment for his job being a spaceship in one of the games? Will he discover who in realium is the woman his client met in a Paradise Beach game? Will he learn to control pain during Goodabads matches? Will he enter a forbidden game where it is possible to die? Like: really die? Will he help a group of young players to finish a cooperative game to win the prize? You see, the more games of the future I created, the more problems and questions I wanted to put. Is it hope, solar, or cyberpunk?