Teacher's 'absurdist' video game set for release

Richard Brown never expected he would create his own computer games when he first learned how to program with his dad as a child.

It was not until he introduced his own children to point and click games - where players progress through a story by collecting objects and solving puzzles - that he genuinely considered creating his own games from scratch.

Since then, he has had two games released onto PC gaming platform Steam and has become one of a growing number of small independent developers given an opportunity to share their work with a wider audience.

He is now set to release his third game, called Brownie's Adventures: The Final Resolution, which is a retro "silly and fun" adventure in a post-apocalyptic reimagining of North East Derbyshire, where Mr Brown grew up.

The special school teacher, from Sheffield, said the game was a nod to classic comedy adventures like Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders and The Secret of Monkey Island.

Brownie's Adventures pays tribute to real life locations including Padley Gorge, Buxton Opera House and Tideswell's Cathedral of the Peaks, and also leans into the humour of classic comedy shows like Blackadder, Red Dwarf and Monty Python.

Sheffield-based sound engineer Jonno Richards has been brought on board for the first time to help with sound effects and to capture the ambience of the Peak District for the game, which is scheduled for a full release by the autumn.

It is a far cry from the days when he was first introduced to coding as a child.

He said: "I remember writing pages and pages of code script to them, bringing it into primary school in Bramley Vale and showing it to some really confused looking teachers."

Mr Brown added it often comes as a surprise when he tells people he makes his own computer games.

He said: "I tell people I'm doing this thing and then get into an hour long tirade about this bizarre little project that I'm working on.

"You get a bit of an incredulity, and usually I'll have to show them something.

"People in the local area, they're usually quite interested, as it's something a bit unique that we've got our own point and click adventure game."

Yet Mr Brown is not alone according to John O'Shea, creative director at Sheffield's National Videogame Museum.

Mr Shea said digital distribution methods like Steam, Apple Arcade and Xbox Live have opened up the playing field for independent games to shine in a way that was the case in the earlier days of computer games on cassettes.

He cited Thank Goodness You're Here, created by two friends from Barnsley, which won this year's Best British Game category at the Baftas.

He said: "It's a really, really interesting moment in game development at all scales.

"If you can get your game to an audience through some of these platforms, you can then be, in some respects, on a level playing field with the PlayStations of this world.

"If you have a really good idea and you build a community around it, there is kind of a moment where games can have this success.

"Our charity, the National Video Game Museum, believe video games are for everyone. They're not just passive.

"There's lots of free tools online where you can within an hour be making your own video games - we'd really encourage people to see video games as a creative art form."

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