Jumpbutton Studios Launches Child Abuse Game, Keeper and the Soldier

Meet the Disruptor: Keeper and the Soldier

Jumpbutton Studio is trying to launch into the big leagues with a game about child abuse. Could it be the next multi-million dollar socially witting app?

February. 03, 2017

Nicodemus Madehdou first mentioned "Keeper and the Soldier" to me when I was interviewing him nearly his work on ME.mory, an app that helps users continue track of their day. Madehdou is a relatively soft-spoken xx-twelvemonth-old kid, and responds to questions every bit though he got them months in accelerate—no stopping, no grasping for answers, no saying "like" xxx times as he scrambles to get his thoughts together.

But when he brought upwardly the new game his development outfit, Jumpbutton Studio, is working on, he couldn't really comprise himself. He compared it to ane of the biggest video game hits of 2016. He hyped it up as something entirely unlike from anything he or anyone involved with his studio had ever tried. He barely gave whatsoever details, attempting to lend the game an aura of mystery, the kind of thing that goes out the window a bit when you're clearly giddily worked upward about something.

And he should be. For a young company that's focused more often than not on pocket-sized, like shooting fish in a barrel-to-play games and every bit a contractor for third-party development, a full-on action/chance and platforming game is a big step—one that could launch his eight-year-old visitor into the big leagues.

Madehdou, now 20, started Jumpbutton in 2009, when he was still in middle schoolhouse. Dorsum then, it was a loose grouping of friends working on growing their evolution skills; as Madehdou and friends entered high school at New Foundations Lease in Philadelphia, the grouping began to develop apps. Now a freshman at Penn State-Abington, Madehdou still runs his studio from his parents' house, with developers and designers all over the world, from California to Russia; about five former New Foundations classmates withal work with him. Virtually of their work has been in penny arcade games for Android and iPhone—complimentary games that accept uncomplicated, addictive gameplay mechanics and make their money off of in-game ads.

About two years ago, Madehdou and his crew decided that they wanted to move onto something bigger, and began entertaining some ideas for software to release on Steam, the premier online video game shopping service. Most of the ideas were more often than not pretty tame, nothing that could differentiate Jumpbutton from all the other studios that were trying to get a game to catch.

Fong and Jumpbutton are function of a motility amidst video game developers to tackle subjects that they may not take touched a decade agone. Indie darling "That Dragon, Cancer" is substantially an interactive interpretation of one family coping with their kid's cancer diagnosis; it has sold more than xxx,000 copies since its release. The 2022 budget super-hitting "Undertale" was near social acceptance and tolerance; it has been downloaded more than 2 1000000 times and has made its creator a multi-millionaire.

But 1 pitch from freelance artist Jessica Fong grabbed Madehdou'due south attention: an action/gamble game set in a fantasy world populated by machines, and navigated past a picayune girl who could be mankind'due south only hope—and that explores themes of surviving child abuse.

Jessica Fong's artwork is lush and complex; to expect at ane of her larger pieces, you'd remember it was created by committee, in the comicbook style, with a penciler and an inker. Her manner is the kind that large video game companies seek when hiring concept artists: bold, imaginative and decidedly lifelike, it's the kind of cloth that massive video game studios would contract and release as a proof of concept for a large-Christmas-release title. Her concept fine art for "Keeper and the Soldier" is warm, only cluttered and occasionally grotesque.

The game is a narrative about about a girl searching for an artifact that could bring humanity back from the brink of extinction, set up in an overgrown, post-apocalyptic dystopia; the fine art feels personal, with intense vignettes and a lonesome main character named Emi. Information technology takes cues from fantasy-hazard game "Zelda" and 2010's critical success art game, "Limbo." Madehdou knew that the character of Fong'due south work, as well as the subtext of the game—tackling child abuse—would be the departure between being the ten-thousandth game on Steam to get no traction and making the cutting. He put together a pocket-size squad to develop her story. Two years later, they're about to launch a Kickstarter to help fund the app's final development.

Fong's work on "Keeper and the Soldier" is a tribute to the suffering and coping methods of her early babyhood. She grew up in California, the daughter of an immigrant from Hong Kong and an American man. Fong says that her upbringing was immensely difficult; her parents, she says, fought regularly, and often experienced explosive culture-disharmonism. Fong says that her parents married later on knowing each other but a brusk while; her female parent, she says, was abused by her own father growing up.

Fong is no longer in touch with her mother, and has no plans to effort to reconcile. That part of her life, she says, is far backside her. Still, she suffers from low and has had trouble finding full time studio work; she currently freelances, which she says is easier than trying to find a company that will exist able to suit her psychological needs.

"My mother suffered from following older generational rules," says Fong. "She was raised with traditional civilisation in Hong Kong. At that place, in order to raise a child, yous need to teach them from the very beginning that if y'all do something incorrect, information technology is your fault, and this is the punishment you get. Growing up, for me, it was always existence berated emotionally and vocally, or being beaten."

Art became Fong'south escape from the reality of her home. She still has binders of cloth from her elementary and center schoolhouse years, which detailed a fantasy world where the pb graphic symbol was a lost little girl in a world of uncaring, scary machines. She developed this textile over the years as she matured from class-school doodler to AP art kid to digital art student at Cal Poly. Now she's turning that fantasy world of her babyhood into "Keeper and the Soldier," which she hopes will aid others find creative ways to bargain with their ain trauma.

"More companies are developing games with social themes, and those that aren't should be," says Fong. "When I was studying child abuse in college, it came down to generalizations about large populations of kids. You don't get the stories of those kids, y'all can't assistance them to the extent that you could if you understood where they came from. Video games telling those stories can exist extremely powerful."

Fong and Jumpbutton are function of a motility among video game developers to tackle subjects that they may non accept touched a decade ago. Indie darling "That Dragon, Cancer" is essentially an interactive interpretation of one family unit coping with their kid's cancer diagnosis; it has sold more than 30,000 copies since its release. The 2022 budget super-hit "Undertale" was most social acceptance and tolerance; information technology has been downloaded more than ii million times and has made its creator a multi-millionaire. Even top development shops are taking a stab at putting more meaning into their marquee titles. 2K Games' "Mafia III" may non have received great reviews for its gameplay, only it tried to deliver an expansive, if occasionally corny, narrative about diverse minority groups making their way through an analogue of New Orleans in the late 1960'due south.

"More companies are developing games with social themes, and those that aren't should exist," says Fong. "We're trying to understand social issues now more than e'er. When I was suffering corruption, I was simply one of those statistics. When I was studying kid abuse in college, information technology came down to generalizations nigh large populations of kids. Y'all don't get the stories of those kids, you can't help them to the extent that you could if you understood where they came from. Video games telling those stories tin can be extremely powerful."

Socially conscious or not, small development crews stand to make absurd amounts of cash if their Steam-release-that-could game gains traction. The guy who created and developed "Stardew Valley," a farming game, on his own has pulled in more than $30 meg since its release last year. That's the world in which Jumpbutton hopes to notice itself with "Keeper and Soldier." As it nears the completion of "Keeper and the Soldier," Jumpbutton is activating a Kickstarter with a goal of raising $fifty,000. Madehdou says that Jumpbutton is looking for greenbacks to help round the rough edges on the game, and to pay developers equally they hitting the final stretch. "Keeper and the Soldier" will initially be released on Steam, and if it performs well, Madehdou and company will explore other options for release, perchance directly on abode consoles.

Making a killing off of an contained game is no certain thing. The Steam store is cluttered with have-not games that either couldn't find a groove or are but underdeveloped. Madehdou says its worth the risk, though. He wants more than than penny games and behind-the-scenes work for Jumpbutton. He wants name recognition; he wants, amid other things, office infinite. And he wants it without compromising the content of his piece of work.

"When we started Jumpbutton, we said we wanted to exist socially conscious," he says, "and we're non getting away from that."

Correction: An before version of this story misstated Madehdou's twelvemonth and school. He's a freshman at Penn Land-Abington.

Photo Header: Whimsical scene from "Keeper and the Soldier."

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/jumpbutton-studios-keeper-and-the-soldier/