Hiya! Greetings from The Lazerverse, and welcome to our latest Wrestling With Emotions Dev Update! In making our dream pro-wrestler cuddling-sim, our little video game band has evolved! This month we’re delighted to unveil the new and improved Team Lazerbeam lineup. There are a bunch of awesome bandmates to share, so let’s jump straight in! [h1]Ben - Art & Words[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41001973/d437ef7ec86b7406106e90e7a40f2711dd72b364.jpg[/img] [quote] Name: Ben Lazerbeam AKA Sassquatch Origin: South Africa Pronouns: They/ Them Finishing move: Atomic High-five[/quote] First, let me introduce myself: Yo! I’m Ben, the tallest and most excitable member of Team Lazerbeam! Since we started the band back in 2014, I’ve been laying down the art and words for our games! Wrestling With Emotions 2 is by far the most massive game we’ve dreamt up/ I couldn’t be more stoked to be working with this group of people to realise that dream! [h1]Dope Saint Jude - Words & Music[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41001973/dbb6f3029fc91863369de1213bed0ed338be25d5.jpg[/img] [quote] Name: Catherine AKA Dope Saint Jude Origin: South Africa Pronouns: She/ Her Finishing move: The Mic Drop[/quote] Rapper, song writer, producer, visionary. Dope Saint Jude’s musical output has defied genre, and been some of the very best stuff out of South Africa this millenium. WWE2 marks her debut in the world of video game narrative and music. We’re beyond stoked to have Dopey bringing mountains of heart and fire to our world of wrestling weirdos! Check out her previous work 👇👇👇 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbY5vmW8GKo [h1]Alex - Words[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41001973/0b4cd2d2fc8a9699e1324f34f5f3eb84de378334.jpg[/img] [quote] Name: Alex Origin: Russia Pronouns: She/ Her Finishing move: Double-cat Dropkick[/quote] The wordsmith behind the fantastic writing in Backbone, Alex sure knows how to write some good words for video games! A reformed sand-salesperson turned game punk (who likes cats as much as the rest of us), Alex has been an absolute perfect fit for Team Lazerbeam! Check out her previous work 👇👇👇 https://store.steampowered.com/app/865610/Backbone/ [h1]Mars - Words[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41001973/312484d410c6adb8d8b7eeba73ba28117ac2993f.jpg[/img] [quote] Name: Mars AKA Wii_Gay Origin: USA Pronouns: He/ They Finishing move: Pink Slipper Sleeper-hold[/quote] Rounding out our gang of wonderful writers, we’ve got the owner of Team Lazerbeam’s best moustache, Mars. Before joining forces on this game, we were monster fans of Mars’s musical output with his band Aye Nako. Between his ripping up the world of DIY music and doing hilarious let’s plays (as Wii_Gay - Check him out!), we figured Mars would be a wonderful addition to Team Lazerbeam! Check out their previous work 👇👇👇 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhrzLLKNyEg [h1]Kirstyn - Art and Code[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41001973/7282f5ee505ae6c7b23535c13996af5914ffa260.jpg[/img] [quote] Name: Ben Lazerbeam AKA Sassquatch Origin: South Africa Pronouns: She/ They Finishing move: Panda Punch[/quote] Kirstyn Lazerbeam has been working on this game with us since early last year. Initially joining us on a uni internship thing, Kirstyn smashed the look of Wrestling With Emotions into a new dimension, and quickly became a full time Lazerbeam. Her 3D backgrounds have breathed so much life into the world of Cuddle Town! [h1]Caitie - Art[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41001973/ad22bf5b25aa30a5875e5e0208b7c2a14484e634.jpg[/img] [quote] Name: Caitie AKA Potato Origin: South Africa Pronouns: She/ Her Finishing move: Doom Duckie[/quote] An illustrator/ animator that excels at bringing the adorable and strange to life, Caitie is the newest addition to Team Lazerbeam, but she’s been part of my chosen family for years. In a distant age called 2015-19, Cait and I worked together as Cool Your Jets. We were ronin artists, creating cute and weird animations for whoever hired us. Fast forward 5 years, and it’s just wild that the two of us have been creatively reunited to spend our days drawing wrestler nipples. What a time to be alive! [h1]Dorian - Production[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41001973/b3fcd38edd0d40bf05fb4aebc89784c40e9e8576.jpg[/img] [quote] Name: Dorian Origin: South Africa Pronouns: Xe/ They Finishing move: Hot Glue Gun[/quote] A legendary South African games artist, turned producer, Dorian is the glue keeping this whole crazy katamari together. Having a producer in the band is a pretty radical shift for Team Lazerbeam, and one that we’re super stoked by. Having Dorian in our corner has been life changing! Along with this game, Dorian is currently producing the upcoming roguelike goat-sweeper, Desktop Dungeons: Rewind. Check out their other work👇👇👇 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1976950/Desktop_Dungeons_Rewind/ [h1]Natalie - Code[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41001973/9f3c954b662d10bf39f179930c6056a1909572b7.jpg[/img] [quote] Name: Natalie Origin: South Africa Pronouns: She/ Her Finishing move: Saw-wave Slam[/quote] Back when I first discovered Cape Town’s amazing indie game dev scene, Natalie was one of the first people I met. With a skillset that combines programming, art and music, Natalie’s made an awesome string of experimental party games, and breath-taking interactive experiences. On WWE2, she’s creating systems that allow for sandbox style wrestling matches, resulting in chaotic bursts of unique narrative mayhem! [h1]Junior - Music and Sound[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41001973/7ab55119256771a2dbbe517768042d15e4731ff9.jpg[/img] [quote] Name: Junior Elvis Washington Laidley AKA J.E.W.L. AKA Fridge Poetry Origin: UK Pronouns: He/ Him Finishing move: Casio Crunch[/quote] Jun is one of my very favourite humans. I’ve had the joy of touring and performing with Jun’s power pop punk band Johnny Foreigner (if you don’t know them, do yourself a favour and check this incredible band out!). It’s super exciting to now have him joining Team Lazerbeam on sound design and music duties. Aside from the brilliant Jo Fo, Junior is also one half of the incredible Yr Poetry and has a solo project called Fridge Poetry. Everything this handsome man touches turns to solid gold, and we’re so very lucky to have him involved in this game! Check out his previous work 👇👇👇 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6oFMsQdQWg [h1]Jason - Music[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41001973/512be5f077162acc0ca0cbc8920813166dd2327d.jpg[/img] [quote] Name: Jason AKA J-Booty AKA Drift Prism Origin: South Africa Pronouns: He/ Him Finishing move: Blinding Legs Kickie[/quote] And wrapping things up, OG Lazerbeam and man of a million talents, the one and only Jason Lazerbeam. His music has been so instrumental in shaping every one of our games, from Snow Cones, to the original Wrestling With Emotions. Outside of Lazerbeaming, Jason can usually be found absolutely killing it with Cape Town’s Free Lives. With them Jason is currently working on the upcoming games, Anger Foot, Stick It To The Stickman and Terra Nil. Check out his other work 👇👇👇 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1978590/Anger_Foot/ [h2]Wrap-Up[/h2] Whew! That’s it! What a cute gang right?! And what sort of gang would we be without an official poster?? [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41001973/e8319c27ced330c3d7034e1b293e5dbfb3c7f5e7.png[/img] Can you guess who's who? I hope you enjoyed this wee insight into the evolution of our game band. It feels so good to finally be able to share all this good news with the world! We’ll check back in next month with more tales from The Lazerzone. Till then, stay rad and be excellent to each other! Discord: [url=https://discord.gg/9Xh3HAE]https://discord.gg/9Xh3HAE[/url] Twitter: [url=https://twitter.com/teamlazerbeam]@teamlazerbeam[/url] TikTok: [url=https://www.tiktok.com/@teamlazerbeam]@teamlazerbeam[/url]