At Spooky Speakeasy, we’re all about making drinks and befriending monsters… That is, until the Big Bad Corporation shuts you down for good. You’ve got one week left on the premises, one week to do as much good as you can. Use your sharp bartending wits to create creepy cocktails and magnificent mixes to your customers’ satisfaction, all while helping out your newfound friends. What will become of your bar? Play Spooky Speakeasy to find out!
My Role: I acted as a gameplay and narrative designer as well as subbing in as art producer for one week of this 5 month project that was released as Open Alpha’s second full project! I assisted in the game mechanic ideation and was in charge of balancing the gameplay between drink mixing and character interactions. This meant determining the game loop for interacting with characters based upon your drink making proficiency and setting up parameters to be able to ask characters to the after hours event to get to know them better. I also worked with the art team to implement drink ingredients and napkin-slipping, thus designing mechanics for integrating the narrative without adding any unnecessary verbs. I also assisted the art team in setting time estimates for the challenge of designing character art and different emotions for each character. These estimates were then lain out in a draft set of sprint schedules before being handed to the production team for approval.
Download on PC or Mac: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1440940/Spooky_Speakeasy/ https://openalphausc.weebly.com/fall2020.html
Spooky Speakeasy takes the player through the story of bartender in a fantastical town facing eviction at the hands of an evil corporation. The player must make some incredibly spooky drinks and bond with their unique clientele to try and save their doomed bar. The player pours, tops, and mixes drinks using an array of ingredients. Customers come up to the counter with the drink orders and vague descriptions of their contents, leaving the player with the task of puzzling together what exactly will go into their drink. If the drink is satisfactory, the player may invite that monster to stay after the bar closes for some deep conversations and opportunities to bond. The player has a week to build relationships and spooky concoctions before they find out if which ending their actions have brought them to.
Art Lead: Sarah Yuen
Programming Lead: Justin Sindecuse-Hayden
Design Lead: Alicia John
Audio Leads: Owen Mech, Jon Ranieri
Narrative Lead: Megan Hermann
Playtesting Lead: Gabriella Martinez
Programmers: Helen Spight, Colin Spiridonov, Sam Mehdi, Charlie Feuerborn, Philippe Cutillas, Coco Zhang
Game Designers: Sarah Yuen, Aylish Turner, Masato Lin, Helen Spight, Megan Hermann, Ben Heid, Lee Albanese, Charlie Feuerborn, Ryan Levy, Colin Spiridonov, Coco Zhang, Gabriella Martinez
Artists: Aylish Turner, Masato Lin, Ryan Levy
Quality Assurance Managers: Aylish Turner, Masato Lin, Helen Spight, Megan Hermann, Sarah Yuen, Colin Spiridonov, Charlie Feuerborn, Alicia John, Coco Zhang
Narrative Designers: Helen Spight, Aylish Turner, Colin Spiridonov, Ben Heid, Lee Albanese, Charlie Feuerborn, Alicia John, Masato Lin, Coco Zhang, Gabriella Martinez