One colourful, spunky experience that could be found amongst this year’s PAX Aus indie scene was Dead Pets Unleashed, a narrative adventure about an ‘underground’ (read: unknown) punk rock band. Protagonist Gordy and her would-be rock star friends are trying to give themselves one last chance before they give up on their dreams and get on with life (ew). The game is a slice of life and light management sim, with the demo showing off Gordy’s first day of trying to get the band off the ground.
Dead Pets Unleashed is played by taking Gordy between home, work, and her band’s expensive studio. In each scene Gordy will interact with her friends while making various decisions about how she will respond to certain requests and situations, with each choice raising or lowering her amount of cash, her confidence, or her band’s influence. These stats will obviously become more important in the full game.
“Dead Pets Unleashed is all about style and attitude, and it has that in spades.”
There are minigames peppered through the demo too – all simple little experiences that are often hilarious. One particularly hilarious one involved cleaning Gordy’s dildo from the various… stuff on it, while another one had Gordy assemble the most disgusting-looking hot dog of all time.
The demo ends with Gordy finally getting to play with her band via a simple yet fun rhythm game. Punk Rock isn’t really my thing, so I couldn’t tell you if the music was good or not – although for comedic purposes I’m kind of hoping it’s terrible.
It’s clear the game is going to be heavy on the narrative and light on the management mechanics – the minigames seem mostly to be for novelty, and the only real management is how Gordy spends her money and who she hangs out with. Dead Pets Unleashed is all about style and attitude, and it has that in spades so far.
Dead Pets Unleashed is obviously going to be a funky little slice of the punk rock life, and it’s definitely on the radar of many of the checkpoint team. Will Gordy and Dead Pets make it in the underground world of punk rock, or will they have to break up and have to get ‘real jobs’? We can’t wait to find out.
There were so many fantastic games at this year’s PAX AUS! Check out our highlights for more of our favourites.
About the Author
Edie W-K
she/her
If it isn't video games, Edie doesn't care about it. She's been playing games since the N64 era, and only spent enough time away from her 3DS to earn a Bachelor in Games Design from RMIT.
