Empty City (Game)

The game's representative image.

Empty City is a video game by DJay32. It is a first-person walking simulator with light action mechanics and navigational puzzles. Set in the Empty City, the game is about a nondescript human (You) seeking skyscrapers in search of context, information, any other people, or a possible way out. The game is playable entirely within Game Builder Garage for Nintendo Switch. DJay has not officially stated whether Empty City will be ported to other systems.

The game also has a page on My Garage, a website dedicated to user-made GBG games.

Background

Game Builder Garage is a commercial set of video game design tools published by Nintendo on June 11, 2021. DJay was an early adopter, purchasing the game shortly after release and spending a week following Nintendo's tutorials. When he was confident he understood the software, he immediately started designing his own game. He looked to other user-made games for examples as to implementing a first-person camera system, but everything else he had to figure out himself, such as spreading Empty City across several "games" that were tied together via "Game Swap Nodons," and ensuring that the player's item progression is consistently carried over, even when backtracking. As a result of this design, DJay considers the five constituent "games" to be Maps, and Empty City the overarching project to be the actual Game.

For the content itself, DJay took as influence the works of David Lynch, Jonathan Blow, James Joyce, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, Mark Z. Danielewski, "Turrican," and Seann Barbour; the game franchises Half-Life, Metroid, Yume Nikki, and Undertale; and the Fear Mythos itself. Empty City fits into and responds to the themes of DJay's own works, in the Fear Mythos and out.

Installation Instructions

1. Access a Nintendo Switch.
2. Access Game Builder Garage.
3. On the main menu, select "Free Programming."
4. On the games menu, select "Receive From Online."
5. When prompted, select "Programmer ID."
6. Input DJay's Programmer ID: P 007 K6D D4J
7. There should be five games on his profile: ECA, ECB, ECC, ECD, ECE. Download all five.
8. On the games menu, select "ECA" to begin. You do not need to select any of the others, though doing so will allow you to see their programming for reference purposes.

It is also important to remember the GBG-specific rule: When playing, pressing the + Button at any time will take you to the game's programming screen and reset your progress. If you need to pause the game, press the - Button instead.