Hi there!
We, at Mansalva Game Studio, are very excited to share with you some insights in the first entry of our devlog about who we are, what kind of video game we are creating and its purpose. So, we are a small team of 3 people with engineering and computer science backgrounds that, in order to escape the everyday nature of our lives, decided to give it a shot and make a video game (or at least try!). Worst case, we do not finish the video game or it is an absolute fail, but who cares, we are going to learn a lot and have fun with something we love.
Like most people, we spend a lot of time playing video game ourselves, and the truth is, we enjoy it a lot (even though it sometimes ends in tragedy, because screwing your friends can also be fun), because it enables us to do something together, just like having a beer or going to the movies with friends. But, let us be honest, most of the video games we play nowadays are kind of useless. Yes, you might train your teamwork, coordinations, attention or dexterity skills, but let's face it, shooting someone in the head or destroying a tower does not really help you further in real life. And that is fine, just being able to disconnect, see your enemy crushed or T-bagged is totally worth it.
But what if we could make you have the same amount of fun whilst learning something that you can actually use in real life? We know, there are already many video games with a didactic scope, but we feel that they are mainly targeting children. Who cares about the average adult over 30, with no different future ahead of him/her but what he/she's doing for the past years? Why invest in him/her? I mean, at that age, people should not only know by then what they want to do, they should already be doing it and with at least 10+ years of experience, right? Well, we at Mansalva Game Studio think otherwise.
Circumstances in life are different for each one of us. You might not have had the chance to go to college or to get professional training, or you might have been misled by your parents' expectations, you also might have just got tired of your job, not because it is a bad job, but just because you want to try something else. Anyway, there are plenty of reasons why you could just want to explore other career paths. And having to pay thousands of euros upfront to universities that care little about your and just want to maximise profit or committing to year-long programs is not an option.
That is why we came up with the idea of creating video games that enables you to get an insight in real life jobs, while having fun and spending almost no money to do so. "Butchanaifu" is our first video game with this aim. It was inspired by the YouTube video "Day in the Life of a Japanese Butcher Shop Owner" by Paolo from TOKYO and hopefully we come at least close to show what the everyday tasks of a butcher in Japan look like. For the record, we do not have any Japanese relatives or friends nor a Japanese butcher shop close by, so the video game is entirely based on what we have found on the internet (and some imagination when necessary, so please be forgiving if you find inaccuracies).
The images below show the main scenario of our video game, consisting of the butcher shop, with Teru, our main protagonist, trimming off the fat of one of his steaks in a sort of mini game that a client has ordered. There will be many more mini games, each one showing different tasks regularly performed by a butcher, such us a meat slicer, a vacuum and a cashier machine, etc. Teru will have to prepare the meat while keeping his customers satisfied and managing his business economy. Sounds challenging? We can assure you, it will be!
If you have made it so far, we really appreciate your interest and hope you enjoy this sneak preview into the alpha stage of "Butchanaifu". We still have much work to do, but any feedback will be very welcome :-)
Cheers
Your Mansalva team
