Project Bert - Retired secret agent back in action in 2D pixel steath game... Kind of

Hi all, I'm Andy and I'm here to introduce Project Bert.

Project Bert is a 2D pixel stealth game focused around a retired secret agent called back into action and our aim is to make something which is as fun to play as it is to develop.

We are a three strong team, myself and Jack on the art side and Ian on the programming. We are all professional game developers who have come together to create a game of our own in our own time.

We are all extremely happy to announce that Project Bert has entered into production and here is the first insight into it.

First off, lets introduce you to Bert.


Hi Bert.

What's the plot?
Twenty years ago Bert was just your average secret agent who accidently stumbled upon an evil mastermind for a minor offence which then resulted in said mastermind going to jail for a very very long time. Bert was completely unaware of how great this achievement was and figured this guy was just another schmuck. Soon after, Bert decided to call it a day with all this secret agent stuff and move on to other, perhaps more exciting things.

As time went on, Bert's name became legend among agents for what he had done. He had caught the greatest criminal mastermind IN THE WORLD, probably. (And was still completely unaware).

Now, fast forward twenty years to present day. *Breaking News* Previously mentioned mastermind (Did we mention he's a criminal?) has managed to escape jail and is on the run. The World Organisation of Public Security (aka W.O.O.P.S.) don't trust their inexperienced agents with the job of catching this guy and turn to the only guy who has managed such a feat before, Bert!

Only there's one small problem. Bert stumbled onto that guy by mistake and has no idea how to go about catching him again! And even if he did, twenty years have gone by and he might have gotten a beer belly, gained a few pounds, become lazy and lost all the important skills needed to do the job. He's no longer lean, mean or anywhere near a fighting machine! Nevertheless (how hard can it be?) he accepts...


Some fun disguises we have played with for Bert. Who doesn't love kicking butt in their pants, right?

So what will the gameplay be like?
Nothing is set in stone yet but the number one goal of this game, above anything else is to make it extremely fun. You will play Bert, a secret agent who has accepted the near impossible mission of apprehending a criminal mastermind. But he's lost all of his skills and relies on his natural instinct (which isn't always the best) to survive. So he's going to need a lot of luck along the way. You will have to gather intel using many different methods from talking to rats and insiders to sneaking around an office hunting for documents.

Of course there will be some butt-kicking along the way. You will get the chance to use a variety of gadgets and weapons to carve your path to victory, whether that's taking a group of bad guys (sometimes yourself) down with sleeping gas or going for all out fist fights and explosions.

We'd also like to include simple mini-games for actions such as cracking a safe and opening a locked door etc just so it's not as simple as clicking a button.

More art, please.


The team that will be helping Bert along the way.


A mock-up to show the style of environments we are aiming for.

As you can see, the artistic style of the game is extremely simple. This was a choice we made deliberately to keep the asset creation time down and because we think it looks great. The simplicity of the art will by no means take away from the games' experience. We are all a huge fan of this kind of art style and hope you guys like it too.

This is Project Bert so far. So what's next?

Bert's story is just beginning and we are excited about continuing to design and develop this into the awesome game we know it can become.

Our aim within this development diary is to include the community throughout the development of this project by updating as often as needed.
Questions and suggestions will be greatly received although please keep it constructive.

Thanks for reading please check us out again soon.

 

Interesting, I hope the idea can be implemented as planned. I really like the art style, while close to other pixel games this one just stands out for some reason.

 

Been working on the initial cutscene where Bert receives a phone call from Trudy telling him to meet her at an out of town location. Here's where we're at right now. All assets are in-game and the screenshot was taken midway through the cutscene.

 

Note to self, use bigger pixels.

 

Bigger pixels for everyone!

We thought we'd go down the 'big pixel' route because it adds a bit more style to the game aswell as keeping the art production time down. We didn't want to look too much like other great pixel art games out there, TOB being one of them

It's good to be different sometimes... Although trying to fit all the information you need into the sprites is challenging