Red Dragon Down, LCB Game Studio and "pixel-pulps"

RED DRAGON DOWN'S ORIGINS

In its early days, Red Dragon Down was a comic pitch we would try to make with our savings, six pages we would send to publishers accompanied by a one-page synopsis. The hook of the comic was both simple and powerful, and every time we talked about it people got really, really excited: Imagine Black Hawk Down… with Dragons!

This was… Four or five years ago. Eventually the whole thing was shoveled under other work: illustrated short stories, two illustrated novels, indie video games—lots of them, from small to mid-sized. 

(A selection of all the projects we've been doing together these last few years.)

REVELATION

Back to our story and cut to 2021.

Ruppel and I were talking about new projects and something hit us. And hit us hard.

All these years we've been writing and illustrating all forms of written fiction as LCB, but when we make games, we use other aliases—Beavl, BRUTO, and other studio names we had in the past.

Why never LCB? There's no reason really. 

So we’ve decided to create LCB Game Studio and focus all our creative endeavors under one label.

LCB GAME STUDIO

We'll be making games as LCB Game Studio. But what kind of games? 

Both Ruppel and I love to read and create pulp fiction, so a pulpy narrative game is a given. Regarding art direction—and despite Ruppel's range—we’ll be focusing mainly on his breathtaking pixelart.

Where does this lead us? 

We will be making “pixel-pulps”, fast-paced visual novels with stunning pixel art.

(Ruppel's pixelart for Trash Diamonds.)

PIXEL-PULPS

We love genres: crime, weird, horror, fantasy, sf, adventure… And even more 'genre-mashups': weird-crime, horror-sf, you name it.

Our pixel-pulps are going to be some weird mix of popular genres.

Think of Red Dragon Down for example. 

Having read lots of war comics and enjoying Moorcock, Ursula K. Leguin, Tolkien and many other authors tackling fantasy fiction, we came up with this idea, a war story set in a fantasy world:

A group of dwarves trying to protect an armored dragon carrying lots of gold behind enemy lines. (“Black Hawk Dawn with Dragons” was a shortcut to capture some of its tension.)

Naturally, Red Dragon Down's story is growing from there to truly weird and interesting places.

So buckle up! This is going to be a heavy-pixelated bumpy road!

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If you want to know more about Red Dragon Down or pixel-pulps, you can check the following links:

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