Though they retain a dedicated enthusiast following, text adventures — also known as interactive fiction — aren't exactly the most popular genre these days. But there was something about them that appealed to Carlos and brother Javier, who developed Cypher together: the notion that the player's imagination could be stimulated through words alone, much like a good novel. This led them to create NeoSushi City. Cypher puts players in the role of a down-on-his-luck smuggler as he explores the seedy underbelly of the futuristic metropolis. After a deal goes bad he's left holding a mysterious suitcase, and the story takes off from there.

But while text-based gameplay alone would've been enough to keep players glued to their screens 25 years ago, Cypher needed something more to exist in today's world of flashy, action heavy releases — particularly for people new to the genre. "If you come out with just plain text over a dark screen you will lose potential players who may have never even played a text adventure before," says Carlos.

The actual text takes up a large portion of the game screen, while the right hand side is augmented with the visual enhancements — ranging from items in your inventory to the various locations you'll explore around the city. And in a nod to classic text adventures, the game even includes a logo on screen at all times, just in case you need a reminder of what you're playing. "Who puts the game title on screen nowadays?" asks Carlos. "Back in the days this was a common feature that the developers began to replace with mini maps, or big score letters."

Cypher is a game that draws from a number of different sources, both for its visual style and for its fiction. "Blade Runner, Akira, and Total Recall basically contain the core of Cypher," says Carlos. But he also cites some less obvious influences, including films like Dark City and Argentinean comedy Esperando la Carroza, as well as comics like Ficcionario by Horacio Altuna and the works of Katsuhiro Ōtomo. "I tried to add all the mood that these kinds of movies had," he says, "the neon signs in a rainy city."

But aside from notable comics or movies, Carlos was also encouraged by the work of his brother. "Javier brought me another layer of inspiration to the process," he says. "The descriptions are so rich in terms of writing that I found myself working looser than I had ever worked before. And I don't say this just because he is my brother, or because we did the game together — I have almost ten years in the game industry and not many people can bring a world to the player as Javier did."