Until a few months back the truth is that not so many people were familliar with Cart Life, but over the last few days it is the talk of the indie town as the game won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize from the Independent Games Festival beating indie gems like Faster Than Light, Hotline Miami, Kentucky Route Zero and Little Inferno.
Those not familiar with the game Cart Life is monochrome retail simulation game that lets you examine the world through the eyes of a cart vendor. Creator Richard Hofmeier has stated that he decided to tackle this unfamiliar theme in a game as he thought it felt relevant at the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lFxeU8swXUc
“Representative of persistence in hard times, people trying something new. It was useful to make characters who’d parallel their players in being confused and maybe a little overwhelmed, by the process of starting a cart and then the small complications in keeping one going, he said. Since the characters are specific individuals, they needed to be as new to cart living as anybody playing the game”, he stated.
If you are intrigued to find out why Cart Life is an experience unlike anything else out there here is your chance.
Sound and Vision
Cart life is set in a monochromatic gray retro 8-bit style and accompanies perfectly the game’s dark and sad feeling. Despite the use of 8-bit, the setting is very realistic in that Georgetown is eerily similar to a typical American city.The character design, the architecture, the animations, and cut scenes are all brilliant. Cart Life immerses you into reality as opposed to escaping it. The synthesized beats courtesy of Po.Bat, Mat64. Pocketmaster and STU are fantastic, reminiscent of a Mario Bros. game, but with a drum and bass edge.
