When We Made... Norco


Chris Wallace gets behind the scenes of Norco, to find out how Geography of Robots created a snapshot of Louisiana and its culture – and found global success along the way


Norco, the debut title from Geography of Robots, depicts a fictionalised version of the developer’s home town located in Saint Charles Parish, Louisiana. At first glance the game tells the story of Kay, a woman coming back to her hometown after her mother died of cancer, only to discover that her brother is missing, and that there’s much more to their mother’s death than it first seems. It’s certainly an engaging enough story to carry any point and click title – especially when paired with the game’s exceptional writing and characterisation. But the real appeal of the fictionalised Norco is what it has to say about the real Norco, the lives of the people who live there, and the often grim reality of living in the 21st century. And so it’s no surprise that this debut title has been so well received. It was awarded the first-ever Tribeca Games Award last year, and has attracted a global audience to a hyperlocal game – far beyond what the developers themselves expected, and proving that there continues to be a market for more personal, idiosyncratic narratives in games. While the game isn’t entirely autobiographical (the presence of Million, the family android might give that one away), it is nonetheless a snapshot of the real-life Norco as it exists today. It’s a game that attempts to preserve Norco and its culture as it slowly erodes away – through flooding, through natural disasters, through people simply moving away.


W 56 | MCV/DEVELOP May 2022


e might be a magazine focused on the UK games industry, but we’re going a little bit further afield for this month’s When We Made.


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