In-development role-playing game (RPG), Street Boy, continues to elicit positive reactions and heightened anticipation since Jamaicans and the wider world were gifted a teaser trailer last Friday (August 5). 

The 75-second teaser shows 14-year-old protagonist Arlington exploring the beautiful parish of Portland in Jamaica, as he promises to become the “world’s fastest handcart driver” for the summer holiday. 

Street Boy, packed with crisp animation, authentic accents and an easy-to-follow plot, delves into Arlington’s relationship with his grandmother, ‘archnemesis’ chicken and other characters within the community throughout the teaser.

The boy laments the ever-changing landscape of Portland but has vowed to “make the community better again”.

Jamaican game designer Akeem Pennicooke, who resumed the months-long labour of love to get the game on screens globally, says a gameplay trailer is also in the works. 

Pennicooke, in an interview with Our Today this morning, explained that the Hemiogenic Studios project has made significant progress, which he and his younger brother, Tyreik, wanted to share with the public. 

“We’ve been working on Street Boy for a few months, and we made a lot of progress, but we hadn’t posted anything [recently]. So, we released a teaser to get people hyped up again and to draw more of an audience,” he said.

The marketing strategy has been paying off, in Pennicooke’s eyes, as the teaser has collectively amassed over 34,000 views on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.  

“It was good to see that we got a lot of comments and support [for the game]. All the hard work we’ve been doing paid off. We were really happy to see it,” Pennicooke added.

The 30-year-old Pennicooke, who previously spoke with Our Today on the launch of Street Boy mini-game, Box Juice Mobile, noted that the brother-duo team is still working on a demo to attract investors. 

“The most important thing right now is finishing up the demo. The next thing we’re gonna release is the gameplay trailer but it’s not ready. And we’ll also introduce more characters that will be featured in the game,” the developer explained.

“That will allow us to maybe get an investor on board who’s interested in funding the entire project so we can spend the next year hiring new people and completing the game,” he continued.

Street Boy will be available on PCs, Pennicooke told Our Today, with the possibility of ‘porting’ the game to consoles and smartphones in the future.

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