Backbone’s Isaac Bender talks about Brooktown High: Senior Year

Brooktown High: Senior Year - Image 1

Brooktown High: Senior Year is a dating sim game for the Sony PSP handheld system. Now, that might not sound “cool” to some of the more “macho” gamers out there in Gamerland, but this title looks to be one hell of a fun game. Anyway, NetJak managed to score an interview with Backbone Entertainment‘s Isaac Bender, the lead programmer for Brooktown High: Senior Year.

Bender revealed that there’s no multiplayer planned for Brooktown High: Senior Year, but he says that if they get a chance to do a sequel, it’s definitely one of the things they’d like to use. Bender also revealed some details about the characters who players will be encountering – and dating – in the game. Here’s what he said:

As far as the 20 datable characters go, there’s a wide range of guys of girls. We’ve established four basic cliques – jock, prep, rebel and nerd – and the characters generally fall into one of those categories, though many of them are a combination of two of the cliques.

But each character is really unique and most them have little quirks that make them really fun to interact with. For example, Nigel is paranoid about being hit on the head by falling space debris. If you go on a date with him anywhere outdoors, he’s going to be uncomfortable and looking for shelter. Another quirky character is Delia, who is convinced she’s half elf.

Of course, fleshed-out NPCs would mean squat without a good player character. Here’s Bender on the player customization features that can be found in Brooktown High: Senior Year:

As far as the player character, anything goes. Players can fully customize their in-game likenesses to be whatever they want. We get you started with a “Cosmo-magazine” style personality quiz that sets your gender, personality type and initial stats. Once you set your personality, there’s a character creator, where you can customize a lot of things about your character, like height, weight, hair, and skin color.

Another cool thing you can do is select your “emo type” which determines the set of animations your character uses throughout the game, and has choices like Confident, Sexy, Mellow, and Shy. The datable characters do have voiceover, but not of every single word. If their dialogue is lengthy, the first line or phrase will have voiceover, but the rest will not.

With high levels of customization and playback value, we’re sure those who’ve played through their share of dating sims for other systems (one memorable title that comes to mind is Tokimeki Memorial, the game that inspired Brooktown High: Senior Year) will find this one worthy of being the first true dating sim for the PSP.

Brooktown High: Senior Year from Konami and Backbone Entertainment is slated for a May 22 release. For the full interview, click on the “read” link below.

Brooktown High: Senior Year - Image 1

Brooktown High: Senior Year is a dating sim game for the Sony PSP handheld system. Now, that might not sound “cool” to some of the more “macho” gamers out there in Gamerland, but this title looks to be one hell of a fun game. Anyway, NetJak managed to score an interview with Backbone Entertainment‘s Isaac Bender, the lead programmer for Brooktown High: Senior Year.

Bender revealed that there’s no multiplayer planned for Brooktown High: Senior Year, but he says that if they get a chance to do a sequel, it’s definitely one of the things they’d like to use. Bender also revealed some details about the characters who players will be encountering – and dating – in the game. Here’s what he said:

As far as the 20 datable characters go, there’s a wide range of guys of girls. We’ve established four basic cliques – jock, prep, rebel and nerd – and the characters generally fall into one of those categories, though many of them are a combination of two of the cliques.

But each character is really unique and most them have little quirks that make them really fun to interact with. For example, Nigel is paranoid about being hit on the head by falling space debris. If you go on a date with him anywhere outdoors, he’s going to be uncomfortable and looking for shelter. Another quirky character is Delia, who is convinced she’s half elf.

Of course, fleshed-out NPCs would mean squat without a good player character. Here’s Bender on the player customization features that can be found in Brooktown High: Senior Year:

As far as the player character, anything goes. Players can fully customize their in-game likenesses to be whatever they want. We get you started with a “Cosmo-magazine” style personality quiz that sets your gender, personality type and initial stats. Once you set your personality, there’s a character creator, where you can customize a lot of things about your character, like height, weight, hair, and skin color.

Another cool thing you can do is select your “emo type” which determines the set of animations your character uses throughout the game, and has choices like Confident, Sexy, Mellow, and Shy. The datable characters do have voiceover, but not of every single word. If their dialogue is lengthy, the first line or phrase will have voiceover, but the rest will not.

With high levels of customization and playback value, we’re sure those who’ve played through their share of dating sims for other systems (one memorable title that comes to mind is Tokimeki Memorial, the game that inspired Brooktown High: Senior Year) will find this one worthy of being the first true dating sim for the PSP.

Brooktown High: Senior Year from Konami and Backbone Entertainment is slated for a May 22 release. For the full interview, click on the “read” link below.

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