A video game builder time-travels to a darker, more violent Canada
Ron Roisman Ismach
Fitch Ink staff reports
As a boy, Ron Roisman Ismach loved the immersive feeling he got while watching movies in a theater, entering the world and losing himself in the story. Wanting to give that experience to others is part of what prompted him to become a storyteller. These days, he writes stories that are full of characters, plot developments and an overarching narrative to capture people and transport them into a different place. But he’s not writing books or screenplays. Instead, Ismach created a career by combining storytelling with another of his childhood passions — video games.
Ismach’s Stryax Studios, founded in 2021, is a year out from launching Button Man, its debut video game. He’s crammed all sorts of surprises, secret missions and great ideas into Button Man, which also will have its own set of comics to expand on the game’s world and characters. He was preparing the game’s now-released demo when he sat down with Fitch Ink to talk about video games and storytelling, and how time plays a part in both.
Tell us about your video game. On many levels, it’s a journey back in time, isn’t it?
Yes. First, Button Man is inspired by very old games that I grew up on, like King’s Quest, Streets of Rage and those other point-and-click adventures of the ’80s and ’90s. The graphics even have a comic book aesthetic. It’s a side-scroller, which means you move from one side to the next, rather than have a deep, 3D world. It’s a combination of beat-em-up, with waves of enemies that come at you, and an adventure game where you make your choices and decide what happens in the story as you progress. A big part of the game is the number of choices a player has that can lead to different outcomes, so everyone has a unique experience.
And it’s set in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was known for its mob connections a century ago, right?
The game is sort of a love letter to Halifax, where I’m based. The game is set in a fictionalized Halifax during the American Prohibition. The story itself focuses on Bruce Mackenzie, who’s the titular Button Man, and the player’s character. He’s the guy who does everything that needs to be done for The Boss, this revered man in the city — who also happens to control the alcohol smuggling to the United States. When The Boss is assassinated, Bruce has to find out who did it and why, while fending off a mafia family that wants to move in on the smuggling operation. Beyond the primary gameplay, the player has sidekicks to assist them, plus people who need your help and people who try to keep you from solving the mystery. Another cool element is that, since Bruce is a World War I veteran, his mental health levels will change based on your choices.
How does Bruce’s trauma from his war experience play out in the game?
Bruce has shellshock, and the more you choose to fight and do violence, the more unstable Bruce becomes mentally. The more people you help, the better he gets. We’ve made it so doing good isn’t always the easiest task, which means you have to make the decision and weigh the outcomes.
How do you apply a storyteller’s skills to a video game, as opposed to a novel or a movie script?
Writing for a game is a lot more modular and disjointed than a book or a screenplay. The stories are separated into parts, and they’re not always linear. Everything has to be written for the developers, because they’re the ones that need to read it, understand what you’re doing and implement it. You can write whatever you want for a video game character; you can have him jump out a window. But you do need to think about what the developers have to do so a character can jump through the window. Is it worth taking a month or two to implement that one thing? A lot of times, the answer is no. For Button Man, I made sure anything that I put into the script can be done in the game. I enjoy taking the things I loved about the old games like side-scrolling and art style, and combining them with new ideas to make a game that’s familiar but still very novel.
So that’s time impacting development. Does time have any place in Button Man’s narrative?
We play with flashbacks a lot. Bruce’s nightmares explore his childhood. And his time in the trenches, for example, will also introduce sides of characters that you don’t see in the game.
So a player can literally go back even further in time with Bruce?
When creating these characters, I always think of where they come from, what they do, what made them who they are now. Getting that opportunity to explain why a character might be nasty towards you, why they might trust or mistrust you, being able to play with time in the form of flashbacks or nightmares is a great opportunity and a lot of fun.
Read more about our series of interviews about time.