RockON Magazine Issue 2 – Grab a Coffee and RockON!

RockON Magazine Issue 2 – Grab a Coffee and RockON!

Here at RockON Magazine, we know that cutting edge topical news is what the citizens of Rockay City want to read about! That’s why for this edition of RockON Magazine, we have pushed the boat out and done some real journalism. So, coming up – an interview with Damion Poitier aka Nasara about the upcoming Crime Boss: Rockay City game (based on our city). Our Features Editor continues to follow Travis Baker – the latest crime boss wannabe and learns how he makes his money to fund his criminal shenanigans. And a short non-piece about neon lights!

There will much more exciting top-notch hard-hitting journalism, from your favourite magazine in the future, so let’s read on and RockOn!

Travis Baker Must Decide Between Cash, Territory And Crime.

Feature report by Fran Ann McGann

Travis Baker made a big splash when he came to Rockay City, only for Hielo’s gang to try and hijack his supply of “Candy”, the cheeky scamp. He had to make the decision whether to risk his life, to go in and protect his product, or scuff his newly shined boots.

Should he risk getting the Candy back himself, potentially losing gang members and his life? Or should he wait, sneak in and get it back – or go in guns blazing. It’s up to you. If you do choose to sneak back, you may get extra loot from Hielo’s hideout, but you could lose the chance to take over unoccupied territory before it’s taken by rival gangs.

And you want territory, because territory means income. If members of your gang die, then there are always new people coming off the boat (the pirate boat, helmed by Nasara) but hiring new gang members takes money.

Don’t want a trusted lieutenant (who will do exactly what you tell them to do) to be in the firing line? Hire some soldiers. They’re just cannon fodder, Travis doesn’t even know their names, but they still cost. Is the territory worth sacrificing soldiers? If too many die, you may not have enough to defend your own territory in a turf war.

Some territories give cash, other generate stolen luxury items or even drugs. Do you want to get 50 cents on the dollar from a pawn shop or risk a meet out in the open with a fence where you can get more cash, but risk everything being stolen – or unwanted police attention.

If you can be sneaky, there’s a benefit. Get in and out clean – and the cops won’t know who you are. Make too much noise… and mess, and you won’t just be fighting against a rival gang, you’ll be fighting against the cops too.

After a while, you’ll hire some old friends – like veteran and former professional football player Touchdown, who can go and do the job for you. If they get done, the game’s not over. They might not have Travis’s skills and the awesome stopping power of his pistol – but if Mr. Baker gets a ventilation hole between his eyes, then the rest of the gangs will carve up his turf and start again.

If you do start again, you won’t get to breeze through because you know what’s going to happen. Each playthrough will present different challenges, burglaries, robberies, gang wars and special events – like taking down a speeding armoured car.

Every mission has a cost – it takes money to set up these things. Some of the guys on your team can bring the cost down a little, but they’re slow in combat. There are some that don’t have weaknesses – but that’s the kind of muscle that costs.

Each day, you must decide what you want to do. Do you steal cash, or take back your drugs? Do you buy new weapons, or build up your “Candy” supply so you can get special weapons from the arms dealer with a habit? Do you build up a cash reserve so you can build up your own private army, or do you go for territory and risk running out of cash – not being able to buy the guns and hire the bodies you need.

More territory means more problems, and more people gunning for you. There are rival gangs and the police – and all of them will do whatever they can to bring you down – but who said being a Crime Boss would be easy. How long will it take you to conquer all the territories. You must live by your wits, because every day is different – and every playthrough will present new challenges.

A word from our sponsor.

Crime Boss: Rockay City is launching on March 28th and is available to PRE-PURCHASE NOW – CLICK HERE FOR 20% OFF up until launch day!

Interview With Damion Poitier AKA Nasara

Ever wanted to know more about a thing? Well, the team at RockON Magazing LOVE things! We also like to delegate – so we asked one of the interns at RockON Magazine to ask Damion Poitier AKA Nasara, a few things about Crime Boss: Rockay City.

What makes Crime Boss: Rockay City different from all the other crime and FPS games? What are the unique selling points?

Damion: there are many aspects that are very that are high selling points. One is the meta game, which is the way you manage your funds and your team.

There are the individual characters, all the different personalities that you’re gonna encounter in Rockay City, that you can interact with and what they bring to the table, their stories, their back stories, their missions, their goals. So, it’s a huge conglomeration of so many different events, some working with you, some that are working against you, that will really create this.

An incredible amalgamation of so many different aspects that we had before, but not in the same package.

What can you tell us about the game’s story and how your character comes into play?

Damion: So, the story of the game is, the city of Rockay has been under certain care – under the care of a certain Stewart for some time. And now that Stewart passes and that creates a huge power vacuum in the city, and now all the different criminal aspects of the city are coming together and against each other and trying to figure out who is going to be the next king of Rockay City, who’s gonna be the crime boss now that the old one has fallen.

So, my character in the game – Nasara – comes in as the right hand of Travis Baker, which is the entry character. He’s the initial Crime Boss character that you’re bringing to precedence. And what Nasara is doing is he’s bringing his knowledge of the city, his knowledge of different personalities in the city and aspects of city, to Travis’s toolbox as he goes through his ascension.

How different is acting for video games compared to acting for films?

Damion: When you compare the differences in doing film production versus doing video game production, they’re widely different and strangely similar – in that you know you still performing, you’re still have to understand who and where the character comes from and what brings them to the point that you’re in but, when you’re doing just voice, because a lot of times when you’re doing the video game, you doing the performing character potentially three times. One time for the voice capture, one time for the facial capture and another time for the motion capture. So, there’s three different opportunities and sometimes those are split between different actors as well. I always like to as much as possible – perform all three, and I’ve been very fortunate in my later endeavours that I’ve had that opportunity. But the voice, the voice aspect is one thing, you’re you’re totally telling the story with your voice. So, you have to make sure that all your emotion and all the things that you need to bring are brought through to convey whatever aspect of the story you’re bringing to life at that point.

When you’re doing facial capture, it’s another thing because you wanna make sure that you’re matching the tonality of what you what you brought emotionally. So, the expressions are very important in how you moved and what you do with them. And when you’re on a camera video game, you know, sometimes it’s a wide shot, sometimes it’s a close up. It can go either way within the same scene. So, you have to perform in a kind of a broad way that enables for any of those to work as best you can.

And then with motion capture, you’re putting on the suit. You’re going through the motions, you’re using the different prompts, and you’re bringing it all together. You know, that’s when you’re the physical expression of things. Most times you’re not recording voice for the game at the same time as you’re doing motion capture, so it gives you another opportunity to express the character in a different way.

Were there any challenges when writing Crime Boss with its deep storytelling, considering you may never play through the same game twice?

Damion: Writing Crime Boss was as rewarding as it was challenging because with so many different characters and so many different moving parts; seeing how the game play will virtually never be the same twice. You must make sure that there’s enough background and story and pieces that you can put into play to make it all come together, and having the organic back story of nature, of the character actually makes it easier. That’s because you know what will bring certain aspects of it together and making sure that you have a tight through-line.

Where’s this person? What’s this person doing? What are what are their goals? How did they get here? You know, all those different aspects come into play and make the amalgamation that is the game that you get wonderfully different each times – with them all having their own goals, sometimes they interact with each other, they’ll interact with the other opponents that are trying to get involved, and that’ll affect what they do and how they end up interacting with you and the different situations that you’re placed within.

What do you think players will be most excited about?

Damion: When I look at this game, I think the replayability. It’s one of my favorite aspects of it because you can get such vastly different games.

You know, every time you play, so the fact that the discovery of all the different personalities and what they have going on – there’s so many aspects of this game that are that are incredibly exciting for anyone who’s involved in playing it, because the different characters, the personalities, the different missions, the way you approach the missions can be different every single time.

Who you have involved in your team can affect how you’re able to get introduced to a mission. The aspect of who you don’t have on your team. Maybe you had someone in the team one point and maybe either they died or you just weren’t able to get them or something else happened and how that affects all the permutations. Just being able to get into this living, breathing world that is Rockay – and experience it differently every time.

A word from our sponsor.

RCTV GUIDE

Watch all of your favourite RCTV shows over on our TikTok channel: CrimeBossGame.

Watch interviews with the stars, gameplay footage, real life at the Rockay City Police Department (rated 1 star on ClipAdvisor) and much much more!

A Sign Of Things To Come?

Star sign, neon signs, what do they mean? Some would say they mean absolutely nothing – but we at RockON magazine think they mean something, and want to make a loosely threaded story out of it. So, we sent our Miscellaneous Topics Reporter (who is from the UK) out onto the streets of Downtown Rockay to see what information he could acquire from the residents. 

Report by Karl McGnal

Alright, so neon lights, yeah? They are like the opposite of natural, aren’t they… I mean, you don’t see neon lights in the jungle. But they are a bit like artificial stars. But here’s the thing – I don’t think neon lights are as impressive as stars. I mean they are all bright and all, but they are just tubes filled with gas that have been electrified. Plus, they’re always advertising something. It’s all, buy this, eat that, come and watch this. It’s like they are shouting at your eyes. I guess that’s the point. I guess that’s the point of why I’m here asking people what neon signs they like. I forgot that’s why I was doing this you know.

Clive McHive is a Pisces and says he likes a Cactus neon sign… this doesn’t tell me anything. One of these like the water, the other one doesn’t like water. I killed a cactus once when I over watered it. It wasn’t even mine. I was housesitting for a neighbour. They have since moved from the area.

Ronny Sconny told me he has a neon coffee sign… because he used to own a coffee shop – and then he said he was an Aquarius. At least that makes a bit of sense. Aquarius sounds like a fancy brand of mineral water to me, and they only sell expensive water in coffee shops.

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RockON Magazines Top 5 Rockay Destinations

Nautilus Keys – The luxurious suburban Nautilus Keys is full of posh condos – full of fancy expensive furniture and designer clothing. These are the kind of places no one from the RockON team could possibly afford. But we can afford telescopes.

Rockay Port – Rockay port is often called the “Cargo Gateway of the Americas“. We at RockON Magazine don’t know what that means, but we suspect it has something to do with cargo pants. It’s also the busiest cruise port in the world in both passenger traffic and cruise lines. Time for that vaycay!

Swamp Road – Swamp Road was the first part of land to be reclaimed from the Everglades over a century ago. It now consists of industrial sites, shopping carts and unsavoury characters – like our editor in chief.

City Beach – Surfing, ice creams, sandy beaches, empty soda cups blowing in the breeze. It’s not the most glamourous of places, but you won’t find many tourists here – mainly due to the constant turf wars, so the beaches are always empty – happy days!

City Center – The center of Rockay City has an impressive waterfront with walkable sections. The city’s memorable skyline of towers offers wonderful views of the islands, the gulf, and your uncle Dave failing at white swimming trunks in his back yard.

In the next issue of RockON Magazine…

Our favorite places to eat out in Rockay City. Our Features Editor goes on a field trip with Touchdown and life in the Rockay Police Department – we promised to write something about them after we forgot to acknowledge them in our previous magazine article about Sheriff Norris (yes we read their tweets).