At the request of Dauber in our Discord (we have a Discord, by the way!) let’s take a look at Hamza, a secondary character who appears here and there throughout the game.
Hamza is introduced in Level 02, where a private collection of arcade games owned by former 80s pop star Donna Michaels is being auctioned off. Since Arcade Spirits was designed to delve into various aspects of the arcade community, this chapter represents the “arcade raid,” where an abandoned trove of games is located and divvied up among collectors. Hamza acts as master of ceremonies.
His original concept was that of a jet-setting urban explorer, someone who’d be more of a Lara Croft of the arcade world, tracking down rare finds and sharing them with his friends. But as the writing went forward, I found his voice as something far more bombastic and ceremonial — more like Chairman Kaga for the Iron Chef series, someone larger than life and grandiose.
Befitting his status as self-made arcade royalty, we wanted his costume to be lavish and consist of a robe or cloak. Several designs were considered before we settled on his final one, a mixture of elegant detail work and simple broad shapes. He needed to be wide in his stance and clothing, large and in charge, without being too gaudy. (We’re saving total jewel-encrusted opulence for a later character.)
Writing Hamza was so much fun that he had to pop up in later chapters, so don’t think you’re done with this melodramatic goofball after Level 02 is complete. He turns up in unexpected places, invited or not — such is the iron will of Hamza!