Character Profile: Mortimer

Oh, new meat. Welcome.

In deadland, Mortimer is one of two of the first NPCs you will encounter. In Story Mode, you learn he died sometime before Emmy but more recently than most of the other residents you'll encounter--hence, why he has not yet lost his soul to the crushing monotony of the afterlife. That said, he's not exactly in high spirits, either.

Like many deadland residents, Mortimer is a snarky, deadpan sort, and he's not exactly optimistic that your efforts to revitalize the afterlife are going to be all that successful. Regardless, he's bored, too, and could use the distraction of helping you out. Every scenario in the game will start with Mortimer available as a Neighbor, and you'll be able to utilize him in helping build up your town. He'll also provide helpful suggestions and color commentary as you go about your town-planning. Like with other Neighbors, you'll be able to build a relationship with Mortimer, but he is distinct from the others in a number of ways: he has no re-souling mechanic, since he starts out with his soul intact; he has no set aesthetic theme--while his look matches the "default" theme, his relationship score is not actually affected by the themes you apply to your buildings; and he has no planned romance arc.

Fun dev fact about Mortimer: in our current build for deadland, he is already implemented as a fully-animated wandering NPC. However, for some reason, Unity reads him as stronger than the player character, so if he wanders into you, he'll push you around, even if you try to wander right back at him. I'm not entirely convinced I need to try to fix this aspect of his programming.