Prepare for Cartage! | Video Game Students Unveil Latest Capstone Game ‘Brawlmart’

“In a world where brawling is legal in grocery stores, cute fluffy animals shank their enemies for the last steak, douse one another with flaming hot sauce, and compete for the most coveted item in the store – toilet paper!”

When this term’s crop of graduating Video Game students was tasked with coming up with a ‘wave’-themed concept for their capstone project, they chose to draw inspiration from the scariest wave in recent history: the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our group started this program in the middle of this historical event. COVID had a huge impact on the world, and it changed a lot of people’s lives, so we thought it would be a natural fit to use it as our inspiration,” said Video Game Design & Animation student Guillaume Lavoie, who acted as lead game designer, producer and production manager on the project

“Using satire, we thought we could make something people could have fun with. And when we looked back at the toilet paper frenzy that happened during the first wave, we chuckled a little bit and knew what we wanted our game to be.”

Fast-forward nearly a year of hard work and dedication later, and Lavoie and his fellow classmates and Strategic Mischief Studio members have now officially unveiled Brawlmart – a local, multi-player party game that casts players as cute, yet cruel, animals forced to brawl their way to the check-out line at the grocery store.

The ultimate goal of the game, he explained during the recent 2022 Video Game Capstone Showcase, is to collect all of the items on your grocery list. The first player to cash out with all their items wins the round. And the first player to win three rounds, wins the game.

But there’s a twist: You must also prevent other players from doing the same – and to do so, you’ll need to use every weapon at your disposal.

“There are no laws against violence in our universe, so you can grab anything around you, on the shelves or in your cart, and throw it at the other players,” Lavoie laughed.

“If yelling at them to stop isn’t going to do anything, a can of beans and mild concussion might do that. All of the items in our grocery store have their own unique properties, so experimenting with all of them and finding your ideal weapon of choice is part of the fun.”

Brawlmart is now available for download and play here: https://aymi.itch.io/brawlmart

The Strategic Mischief Studio team behind Brawlmart is:

Guillaume Lavoie – lead game designer, producer and production manager

Chantelle Keeling – Development Producer

Usmaan Hasan – Lead Game Designer and Developer

Fiona Jeeva – Art Director

Seth Wagman – Key Game Developer