Happy Birthday, Neurodiver
It’s a few days before we submit our game to certification. Our release date announcement trailer is behind us and we’re adding in the last few updates to Read Only Memories: Neurodiver. For the eyecatch sequences, I give the Neurodiver itself a birthday: May 16, 2024, and we proceed to let it go out into the world.
The Day After
May 16 has come and gone and the game is out now. I’ve been working on this with several others who have come and gone for the past six years. A lot has happened with MidBoss, our team, and the world during this time, but the game is finally out and a wave of relief washed over us, followed quickly by a lot of anxiety. The game, after all, is shorter than our previous one, and its story is brisk. I still find myself playing and enjoying it in my off time, though, and I’m proud of what our team accomplished. I got to work and collaborate with a lot of wonderful people.
Past and Present: Planning the Game
Read Only Memories: Neurodiver is a very personal project, both in its story– however brief it may be–and in its development. I was the original director and lead artist/animator for 2064: Read Only Memories. It’s a game I have a complicated relationship with. A lot happened with it, the original team, and myself. I’m finally comfortable sitting with my housemates and watching them play it as we celebrate the release of our current game. My head is spinning at all of the interactions it has and the logistics involved now. It’s very impressive that we pulled it off. I’m proud of that game just as well, but its development was at a great cost.
We couldn’t aim for the same scope as the previous game. It was simply out of the question. But after working out the initial story planning, we were delighted with the result: an engaging, light and brisk adventure. A pseudo-sequel with an established protagonist that can dive into memories, chasing a rogue psychic that hides within them. Whose memories would we be exploring? I wanted to revisit some old friends from the original game, a chance to see how they’re doing five or six years later.
Dive into the Details
Luna Cruz de la Vega, or ES88, is a young and ambitious psychic agent working at Minerva. The only one bonded to a special genetically engineered esper called the Neurodiver. This Neurodiver allows her to not only view and interact with memories, but also repair them. Each day she wakes up diving directly into work. ES88 wants to prove something to herself and her peers, and though she has confidence in her abilities, she still questions herself.
A psychic entity called Golden Butterfly is haunting people’s memories, fragmenting them, causing lingering anxieties to bubble up. These fragments range from something as simple as a lost password, all the way up to forgetting where you left off with someone important to you. It’s ES88’s job to repair these fragments and drive out Golden Butterfly. It’s a big task. Could it be too much? How much is she willing to push herself?
Read Only Memories: Neurodiver is a capsule filled with a lot of the things we love. ES88’s days play out like an episode in an anime, commercial bumpers and all. She dreams of herself as a magical girl. The soundscape is filled with glossy, vibrant FM tones reminiscent of old Yamaha powered sound cards. It was a joy animating every expression. Every character is voiced exactly how we imagined them to be in our heads. And it’s all framed within an homage to Japanese adventure games of the past.
Read Only Memories: Neurodiver is a game that’s filled with our enthusiasm for the things we love. It was a chance to spend time with some old friends again while meeting some new ones, and while it’s a brief journey, I hope it’ll continue to stay in your memories.
Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER
Chorus Worldwide Games
$14.99
ES88 is an esper tasked with capturing Golden Butterfly, a psychic entity hiding in the memories of others. Play as ES88 and join her cyborg colleague GATE, and the creature known as a NEURODIVER to help repair the memories Golden has damaged and stop them in their tracks in this “psy-fi” adventure!
You Are A Psychic Agent
Take on the role of ES88, a young esper employed by MINERVA, a powerful organization specializing in information science, neurotechnology, and extrasensory phenomena. She has been tasked with tracking down Golden Butterfly, a mysterious psychic entity hiding in and fragmenting the memories of Neo-San Francisco’s citizens. Who are they? Why are they doing this? And how will you stop them?
The NEURODIVER
The Neurodiver is a bioengineered psychic creature made to assist in boosting an esper’s natural abilities. With its help, you’ll be able to collect clues and thoughts in your subject’s memories in an effort to piece together distorted fragments inside them, pushing Golden Butterfly out!
New And Old
Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER is a return to the vibrant sci-fi world of Neo-San Francisco from 2064: Read Only Memories with a whole new story, and a whole new cast of characters. It’s an adventure that newcomers can easily dive into, but those familiar with the original game might notice a lot of familiar faces making a comeback!
An FM Sound Sensation!
NEURODIVER’s soundtrack is inspired by the OPNA/YM2608 sounds of the PC-8801 and PC-9801 series of computers, brought to you by Scarlet Moon composer and sound designer, Ken “coda” Snyder (Tree of Knowledge)!
If you love the sharp and glossy tones generated by late 80s and early 90s FM chips found in a variety of old computers, sound cards, arcades and consoles, then you’ll be right at home here. Long live the power of FM sound! 🎹
