Sudbury man to release his second video game

Chris LaRue is getting ready to release a spinoff of his video game Tall Poppy sometime this year. (Alana Pickrell/CTV News)

Being a videogame creator is something Sudbury's Chris LaRue loves doing, even if it means long hours and multiple job titles.

“Generally what it takes is you have to wear all the hats,” said LaRue, founder and CEO of Attainable Entertainment.

“You have to be the producer, the programming, animator, artist, 3D modeller, rigging, too. There’s just a whole plethora of jobs that you have to do.”

LaRue’s first game was called Tall Poppy, described as a horror adventure that sees a man searching for his wife’s purse.

“Tall Poppy was a game created back … between 2018 and 2019 with myself and another developer called Mike,” he said. “We created the game to be a short little three-month project and the game ended up being six to eight months, then I released it on Itch in June 2019.”

Tall Poppy II is the next chapter.

“The husband comes home from the church and he’s trying to deliver the purse to his wife," LaRue said.

"Well, he finds out that his wife’s not there and the mischievous Tall Poppy has kidnapped her. So it’s our duty to chase her down and rescue her and stop Tall Poppy’s terrible behaviour.”

Although horror based, it's not a game intended to frighten users.

“It’s not actually scary but startles you and then you realize afterwards it wasn’t actually gory or anything, it’s just a fun ghost,” said Ed Bull, who played Tall Poppy.

“I think (LaRue) voiced the ghost himself. So it just pops up from behind something and goes ‘woooo’ and scares you, and then afterwards you laugh at how silly it was."

LaRue has some extra help in preparing to release Tall Poppy II.

“It’s different than what is on the market currently,” said co-developer Ryan Bendall, who lives in Texas.

“I think where Tall Poppy and Tall Poppy II get their uniqueness is we’re trying to incorporate a lot more to keep the player involved.”

Although an exciting job, LaRue and Bendall said a lot of work goes on behind the scenes when it comes to creating video games.

“It's not one of those things like a 9-5 job," said Bendall. "I’ve been working on it for quite a few months and I would probably say I’ve worked more on this than any full-time job at the current moment. But it’s worth it.”

Tall Poppy II should be released sometime this year.

“This game is going to have a lot more functionality,” said LaRue.

“The scares are going to be funnier, the game's going to be a lot longer to play, too, so there’s a lot more juice to it.”

For Bull, he’s excited for his friend's success and the chance to play the next chapter.

“It’s always great seeing someone who does something creative and finishes it and gets it out there and then other people get to enjoy it,” he said.

Although Tall Poppy II isn’t yet released, LaRue said there will be more to come in the future, including multi-player games.

“The reaction has been astronomical,” he said. “I can’t even believe it.”