Shifts
Game Details
- Type: Interactive Fiction
- Genre: Exploration, Slice-of-Life
- Engine: Bipsi
- Released: April 15, 2024
Shifts
For my fourth game, I decided to take things simple while also experimenting with something in 2D finally. Mx. Darby, it's been a hell of a day at work and you're ready to clock out finally. How're you gonna spend the rest of the night now?
This game is set within the Modern Fantasy character universe. If you wish to know more, that colored text will direct you to an in-progress version of a wiki documenting my works altogether.
Spoilers Beyond this Point
Game Features
Super minimal spritework for characters and levels, all done by me within the Bipsi engine.
73 explorable rooms, all set up as 16 x 16 tiles.
An explorable chunk of the fictional city of Opal's Shine, within the country of Loopswill Island. Chat with folks, get a feeling of the businesses present, and experience a night out n' about.
Four possible endings to achieve, with an option to restart back to the beginning after each one.
Dialogue and flavor text all over, written by myself. Tried my best to make this world really feel lived in, even during a night time setting.
Characters Featured
Clicking any of the listed names will bring you to their respective Toyhouse pages, which contains the characters' art gallery and any linked short stories they appear in.
- Darby Murray (Playable Protagonist)
- Ezekiel Battler (Supporting Character)
- Flo Cinnabar (Supporting Character)
- Maxie Cola (Supporting Character)
- Rina Belts (Supporting Character)
- Rory Diamond (Supporting Character)
- Sanders Bachelle (Supporting Character)
General Locations Featured
- Opal's Shine, Loopswill Island (Setting)
Trivia
The cover art above features my character Darby Murray, a non-binary bush dog in their 40s. Their design is heavily influenced by Harrier Du Bois from the videogame Disco Elysium. Something about that semi-disheveled look and age just really felt perfect for making my own game's protagonist.
Shifts as a title is inspired by a song of the same name I had put out on my first EP Ridin' Confusion. The song later would be remixed for my EP x, adding lyrics to it all that still felt right at home with the idea of a white collar office job that really had you at the end of the rope. Be thankful that last part was toned down severely in the game, however!
An early bad end can be reached quite easily in the game, provided the player follows instructions right to the letter. I liked implementing this because most would assume following the regular flow of the story as is always in your best interest. Not only did this serve as a surprise, but I'd like to think it encourages the player to stray off the past more and more - with the best of the endings tucked away in a bar of all places rather than your shift. The ending being the best further signified by the fact it's the only time the protagonist talks out loud!
Darby, the protagonist, works for a company named the Hundley Exchange. I bring this up cause its pulled from the character Richard Hundley from the first Deus Ex game. The VersaLife Data Entry Facility (the building he works in in said game) has an area full of cubicles that really hits that dreary copy-pasted environment well and is burned into my memory forever. You can see that in Shifts as well, once you begin exploring the building's floors.
The fictional band Sinner's Delight, mentioned in the record store the player can visit in-game, would be used as an inspiration for the fictional band Patty's Clover. The latter exists within my short story MoonDove's Descent. Despite the two fictional bands exisiting in opposite character universes, I'd say the vibes are pretty much the same fer' their tunes!
That exhibit patron the player can meet in the art gallery east of the starting building is just a reflection of the self back in my college years. Back then in 2017 an 18 (it's 2025 as I write this), I would be soaking up art galleries just like that and I miss it dearly.
When going for the neutral ending, the player will find themselves in a parking garage. I mostly added this location because I was always fascinated with the completely optional parking garage level the player could stealth through in the game Vampire: The Masquerades - Bloodlines.
Also present in the neutral ending is the final message of "JUST ANOTHER NIGHT". Threw this in there as a vague nod to the title of my first webcomic, "..Just Another Day!" which had been started roughly a year prior to this game's release.
It's always a delight to throw in references from the other (Trans in Barking) character universe of my works. When entering the game's DVD rental store, you'll notice one for my Cosmic Woof series of¹ short² stories³ - portraying it as just a space-focused television show within the Modern Fantasy character universe. You should let yourself have fun like this sometimes, since you're the creator of your own little slices of fun.
Another reference within the game's video rental store location Kino Klassics can be seen in the movie called Merryweather Men of the Sherwood. This is just a longwinded way of telling the player that the movie is about Robin Hood.
RADIO RADIO is a reference to a real classic of a track by Elvis Costello.
In an alleyway sits a supposed clairvoyant named Emil, who will vaguely use his visions to tell the player about short stories I put out after this game's release. 'Festive child' refers to Festive Angst, '..within Salacia's Embrace' is a teaser for Salacia's Embrace, and lastly 'vulpes shall become one' is about Oversea Ichor. However, that last reference is more-so about a now cut part of Oversea Ichor where the character Eileen Persimmon was to be inducted into a cult. By the time I got to writing that short story, I rewrote her involvement in the story to be a minor role where she had just had sex with her boss and that's it. Funny how plans change, ain't it?
The Aged Snake character vaguely reminds the player that the game has only four endings, just incase they forgot or even chose not to read about this game's features! Meanwhile just a screen to the right is a Ramblin' Hammerhead character that gives a little nudge to the player about one of said endings being in the subway nearby.
An advertisement in the subway for HOT-SHOT LANES is a real lowbrow and direct reference to Goatse. I'm not linking it here, since I think it's funnier if you do the research yourself (if you somehow have avoided knowing about it for years)!
The 'leave the city by train' ending ends with the blurb of HERE, THERE AND ANYWHERE. It's basically just a reference (and minor tweaking) of the song Here, There and Everywhere by the Beatles.