NORCO

Norco  is a 2022  point-and-click adventure  game developed by Geography of Robots and published by  Raw Fury . It released for  macOS  and  Windows  in May and for  PlayStation 4 ,  PlayStation 5 ,  Xbox One , and  Xbox Series X  in November. The game takes place in an alternate version of  Norco, Louisiana , and follows Kay, a woman who has returned home after her mother's death.  Norco  received several award nominations. The game is set in an alternate version of Norco, a town in Louisiana, and in other portions of the state around  New Orleans . The game follows Kay, a woman who has returned to Norco after her mother's death. The game's developer goes by a pseudonym, Yuts, derived from a nickname for his grandfather. Yuts spent his childhood and some of his later life in Norco. Growing up, Yuts was "frightened yet transfixed" by the landscape in and around Norco, which has been shaped by the  petroleum industry  and hosts a major  Shell  facility which has  twice experienced catastrophic explosions . The game grew out of a multimedia documentary work by Yuts and a friend, started in 2015. The work incorporated writing, interviews, and audio-visual components, focused on the impact of Hurricane Katrina on Louisiana and its landscape. In addition to Yuts, members of the development team, Geography of Robots, include Yuts' sister,  Aaron Gray, Jesse Jacobi, and pseudonymous musicians fmAura and Gewgawly I. Part of the multimedia project was a  side-scrolling  game in which a robot attempts to enter a refinery in Norco; this game became  Norco , and the earliest version of the current game was created in 2016.  Yuts and Geography of Robots designed the game in the  pixel art  style.  Yuts relied on internet research to teach himself how to create the illustrations he contributed to the game. Gewgawly I was Yuts' original collaborator. Gewgawly I and fmAura worked to design the game's soundtrack, attempting to "capture the... mood and ambience" of the  River Parishes . The game incorporates  field recordings  by a friend of the development team, Matt Carney, taken around  Baton Rouge . Raw Fury signed to publish the game in 2020. Yuts has said  Norco  will be the first game in a trilogy. Geography of Robots announced in September 2022 that the game would become available on consoles on 20 October 2022.