We begin our hype journey towards Neo Guanabara release with an interview to the Co-Creator for the project, Dani Cruz.
In this interview, she tells us about her aesthetic inspiration that not only helped her find a voice for her art, but that inspired her to (co)create the game in the first place!
Neo Guanabara is a Cyberpunk game centered around a fictitious Latin America city with an emphasis on Martial Arts and some super hero elements.
In this interview, she tells us about her aesthetic inspiration that not only helped her find a voice for her art, but that inspired her to (co)create the game in the first place!
Neo Guanabara is a Cyberpunk game centered around a fictitious Latin America city with an emphasis on Martial Arts and some super hero elements.
Dani Cruz have already worked with us from Playing Hero World when she made the interior art for our Lucha Libre RPG, Intergalactic Lucha Libre League. However for Neo Guanabara, she is going beyond just the art. From setting creation to playtesting, Neo Guanabara could only exist as it does thanks to her co-authorial intent.
Here are some questions and her answers about the project!
Here are some questions and her answers about the project!
In your words, what is the "Neo Guanabara" project?
Dani Cruz: Neo Guanabra is a fully featured RPG book about martial arts and super beings (some heroic, others not so much) set in a tropic Cyberpunk city, inspired by the city I live currently, Rio de Janeiro.
What were your sources of inspiration for the project?
Dani Cruz: Neo Guanabra is a fully featured RPG book about martial arts and super beings (some heroic, others not so much) set in a tropic Cyberpunk city, inspired by the city I live currently, Rio de Janeiro.
What were your sources of inspiration for the project?
Dani Cruz: Our first bout of inspiration came when me and Arthur (the other Co-Author of the project) watched together John Carpenter's "Big trouble in little China" and "Escape from New York", we love action, sci fi and fantasy movies from the 80's and I guess we were in a John Carpenter binge at the time. I remember thinking "Why not create a game where you must use martial arts to fight an opressing system in a science fiction setting?" - A synthesis of the two movies we mentioned, more or less.
Because of the urban meets sci fi basic idea, we naturally were draw to the Cyberpunk genre, but we attached elements from our Brazilian, "carioca" reality. I get inspired by many different Cyberpunk media to create visually, that concept. The main contenders were Blade Runner (1982), manga anime like Gunm ("Battle Angel Alita"), games like Shadowrun.
Our goal was to represent the plurality of the Brazilian culture, showcasing how cosmopolitan the city is and that is a challenge in itself. Our main example character, Tainá, is disconnected from her family and native roots and was adopted into a Cyber Jiu-jitsu school. She even tries to rescue her identity and traditions, but it is very hard to connect to nature in a world where artificiality have replaced nature, were the sea is filled with plastic, radiation and weird monsters. The civilization reminds her of who she is supposed to be, yet she can never truly find that aspect of her heritage.
By embracing her context, Tainá forces her will through this uncaring world, using said Cyber Jiu-Jitsu as her cybernetic implants to thrive in a city of fabricated trash.
You can see in her all of my visual inspirations for the game. The high-tech martial arts apparel, the desire to connect to a heritage that has been deemed incompatible with the near future world, the motivation and process of trying to find her place in a violent world by speaking that language with her robo-fists...
Because of the urban meets sci fi basic idea, we naturally were draw to the Cyberpunk genre, but we attached elements from our Brazilian, "carioca" reality. I get inspired by many different Cyberpunk media to create visually, that concept. The main contenders were Blade Runner (1982), manga anime like Gunm ("Battle Angel Alita"), games like Shadowrun.
Our goal was to represent the plurality of the Brazilian culture, showcasing how cosmopolitan the city is and that is a challenge in itself. Our main example character, Tainá, is disconnected from her family and native roots and was adopted into a Cyber Jiu-jitsu school. She even tries to rescue her identity and traditions, but it is very hard to connect to nature in a world where artificiality have replaced nature, were the sea is filled with plastic, radiation and weird monsters. The civilization reminds her of who she is supposed to be, yet she can never truly find that aspect of her heritage.
By embracing her context, Tainá forces her will through this uncaring world, using said Cyber Jiu-Jitsu as her cybernetic implants to thrive in a city of fabricated trash.
You can see in her all of my visual inspirations for the game. The high-tech martial arts apparel, the desire to connect to a heritage that has been deemed incompatible with the near future world, the motivation and process of trying to find her place in a violent world by speaking that language with her robo-fists...
What type of experience do you wish the public to have with the game?
Dani Cruz: I wish for the game to have this "Hot" or "Tropicalia" as Arthur puts it in interviews, feel to it. The Brazilian brand of humor and energy. We also wanted to reach out beyond the usual Cyberpunk audience. It is one of the reasons why we didn't focus so much on guns as far combat goes.
Dani Cruz: I wish for the game to have this "Hot" or "Tropicalia" as Arthur puts it in interviews, feel to it. The Brazilian brand of humor and energy. We also wanted to reach out beyond the usual Cyberpunk audience. It is one of the reasons why we didn't focus so much on guns as far combat goes.
Gunm (Battle Angel Alita) was a precise inspiration
**
Stay tuned! Our next post will be all about the game System and how to subvert it!
Get ready to literally hack an RPG.
Get ready to literally hack an RPG.
Release Date?!
Currently we are on the layout process. The game has been successfully translated to English and will release globally hopefully until the end of this year.
Yeah you read that right! No Kickstarter. So we will need your help spreading awareness for this project.
Currently we are on the layout process. The game has been successfully translated to English and will release globally hopefully until the end of this year.
Yeah you read that right! No Kickstarter. So we will need your help spreading awareness for this project.
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