A&C
COURTESY RUST THIS WORLD
S FR E P O RTE R .CO M / ARTS
Press St a rt The Sprawl continues the old-school indie renaissance
BY ALEX DE VORE a l e x @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m
H
COURTESY RUST THIS WORLD
aving journeyed through the decaying city, I enter an area littered with crumbling neon bio-organics and signs written in an alien language. I feel only apprehension. In the center of the room, a humongous, bulbous cocoon shakes and bubbles ominously. I steel myself and swallow hard as The Din Emitter emerges—a massive moth-like beast with what appear to be razor-sharp tusks and jagged neon wings. Pulling out my trusty whip, I dash toward the monstrosity and crack at its face with ferocity. Orbs of deadly energy appear around it and zero in on me for the kill—a laser builds up power within the maw of the great beast; I speed away but not nearly fast enough. I am undone, and so do I come apart like ribbons in the wind. This is The Sprawl from two-person development studio Rust This World, and I love it so much I might cry. “You actually did better than I would have,” artist and animator Aileen Mell tells me of my untimely passing. Before The Din Emmitter, I’d survived the Paradise Mall hub area, climbed the heights of the Radiant Echoes District and fell to the depths of the Buried Fire District. Mell is developing the forthcoming platformer/Metroid-Vania style game alongside her husband, the artist Dylan Pommer. In the roughly one year since the married couple has been teaching themselves to code, design and execute a video game—all from home—The Sprawl has grown into a rather impressive homage to classic side-scroller games, but with an identity all its own. As development continues, the couple has now entered a labyrinth of play testing, the search for potential funding and/or grants and the tedious process of eliminating bugs. Making a video game is mountains of work, but as Mell and Pommer entered the pandemic without jobs,
years of what-if conversations least within the mainstream. have finally become a reality. Over the past decade-plus, “We went to grad school at however, games like Limbo, San Francisco’s Academy of Art Little Nightmares, Cuphead and University, which is basically Hollow Knight relit the torch— like a scam,” Pommer says. “My both for players and developmajor was game design, hers was ers, but also for artists looking animation, and we hated living to match exceptional evolving tech with unique visuals. And there. Coming from the desthough The Sprawl could easert of New Mexico to the most ily join the ranks of the most crammed city in the country was culture shock. You could barely vaunted platformers (seriously, see the sky. We felt trapped. The it’s already so fun, even in demo game is like an allegory for how form), its collaborative design we felt in that city.” has a decidedly more varied and Players enter said city as The modern art style than its Super Daughter, a humanoid spirit Nintendo-era inspirations or creature with mysterious origins even its contemporaries. Even who’s sent into a rotting metropso, the heart beats similarly. olis of dead malls, dilapidated The Sprawl is built using the docks, abandoned factories and Unity engine, but tech specs horrifying monsters in search of aside, Mell and Pommer are her brother. creating its visual design and Like Pommer and Mell, The aesthetics by hand. Certain anDaughter is of the desert, and if imations—like The Daughter’s the mutated beasts don’t get her, death, for example—are drawn the soulless steel and concrete by Mell by hand, and the pair Concept art for The Sprawl featuring lead character The Daughter. might. But whereas Mell decollaborated on level and enemy scribes The Daughter’s missing designs. Unity has allowed them brother as more of a brawny warrior, our up a world of play styles, and with the cou- incredible freedom to experiment with the heroine is stealthier, more measured—a ple having long been tabletop and video guts of the game, but anyone familiar with cartographer who utilizes agility and game nerds, they know what to do to make Pommer’s work will find something familwits over brute strength. As such, her something special. Case in point? Taos- iar within; Mell’s additions are like icing. And it’s nearly time to seek more robust moves are about quick attacks and careful based musician Sarah Martinez created planning. In the early demo-caliber build a few pieces of music for the game, and funding. I played, The Daughter can whip and per- they’re unexpected and brilliant. “There are different grants we’ve looked form a dash move, and it seems a cat-like On a broader scale, The Sprawl illus- at, and a lot of them are from people who attack-and-retreat strategy works best. trates an ongoing gaming renaissance. make indie games,” Pommer says, adding Still, it’s early in development, and Mell Surely most everyone recalls classic plat- that being selected by an outfit like Indie and Pommer say they’re still narrowing former titles like Super Mario World, Fund would not only mean more runway, down what types of other moves and pas- Metroid and Castlevania, but as gaming but access to expertise from industry vets sive abilities they might give The Daughter phased to 3D styles in the mid- to late who’ve made best-sellers. as they go along. Such abilities could open ’90s, that genre entered a state of flux, at “We’ve got a timeline and are hoping we can have a Kickstarter, too,” Mell notes. “After that, maybe we’ll make it to some trade shows.” “The weird thing about applying for video game grants is that a lot of arts funding doesn’t include games,” Pommer adds. “It’s this little niche that’s kind of new—but if some random sugar daddy wants to invest in our startup...” “I’ve done budget research,” Mell points out, “and there’s a way this game becomes a good, profitable investment.” It’s heartening to know a small team can dig into something meaningful like this. If we can search for silver linings within the pandemic fallout, The Sprawl would firmly be a part of that. For now, it’s worth popping by rustthisworld.com to see The Din Emitter boss battle wrecked me. what Mell and Pommer and cooking up. It’s not just for nerds. SFREPORTER.COM
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JUNE 16-22, 2021
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