![]() "There's the whole rift between the Garretts and what they call 'the scum,' which are basically crustpunks and DIY punks, who they don't like," Yuts explains. The Garretts are working on something important-something that John has promised them-while the rest of the town (particularly the patrons at Saint Somewhere) derides them as "mall Nazis." Their home base is the abandoned Promenade Mall, where they wander its hallways reading, playing video games, doomscrolling, and bickering among themselves. There's nothing that delves more into this rich ecology of subcultures than the game's introduction of the Garretts-blue-shirted boys who answer to a sociopathic pseudo-religious leader named Kenner John. Punk subcultures are directly referenced in the game world, like a book called Crisis LARPing that chronicles the early days of disaster tourism before "collapse became the zeitgeist." "The informal nature of DIY punk as well as… almost a proto-internet of zine exchanges and informal and esoteric knowledge in those spaces was something that carried over into the game," Yuts says, explaining where he first shared his art. Norco comes from the same DNA that you'll find in DIY music scenes and punk collectives-a formative part of Yuts' youth and several others in the collective. I think people are exhausted by the alienation and the dematerialization of the internet Yuts It's also a great way to understand the Garretts-a cult of teen malcontents who form the backbone of the story. The word comes from the old German word "bummler," which means "loafer." In a modern American context it took on more antisocial connotations, and can be used interchangeably as a noun and a verb. It's not as bleak as "depression," but a very nuanced form of disappointment with a hint of playfulness. Norco's characters are lively and beautifully written, but infused with a pervasive sadness that brings us back to bummer, which sits in my head like a mantra throughout the game. "I used to boot up Kingdom Hearts when I was a youngun and just pretend to coexist in those spaces with these fun characters," says Gray. Yuts wrote an exchange between two characters about their favorite game "Fantasy Horse 6" after being inspired by Gray's love of Kingdom Hearts (as well as weird 2.5D platformer Tomba! 2). "The way they use combat more as a narrative device than as a skill-test is a philosophy we've stuck to for various parts of the game," he says. Gray brought some of his gaming favorites to the table, namely Undertale's use of humor and pacing. Jacobi, who comes from a traditional painting background, took to pixel art so fast that Yuts redrew and replaced all of Norco's older art last December to maintain a cohesive aesthetic. Meet Dallas, Catherine’s mysterious fellow gig worker with a soft spot for bolero ties, and Brett LeBlanc, a washed-up PI with an incredible office toilet who watches over the Madère family Norco isn't just for Louisianans, though residents will get a kick out of seeing real locations like Kenner's Esplanade Mall-closed due to Hurricane Ida and now being repurposed for political events-rebirthed as the Promenade Mall. The townscape and Greater New Orleans area take the form of distant highways, refinery stacks, and familiar snapshots of suburbia impossibly careful, subtle dithering imbues each scene with warmth and life. ![]() Norco is a bristling pastiche of Louisianan references, pop culture, and satirical moments distilled into a point-and-click pixel art adventure. The result is nothing short of incredible. The game pointedly avoids the disaster porn and fetishization that tend to dominate media portrayals of the Deep South, and while a big part of Norco revolves around grief and trauma, it's also full of rousing punk momentum channeled from the DIY music scene. The tiny dev collective Geography of Robots has called Norco's style " petroleum blues," a nod to the area's relationship with the oil corporation that has defined both the town and the environmental decline that colors its existence. ![]() Impossibly careful, subtle dithering imbues each scene with warmth and life ![]()
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