Staffordshire town to feature in new video game - along with fictional pub

An upcoming video game set in Burntwood features the developer’s real-life grandad as a landlord at The Bell End pub.

Centred around the fictional pub, the Staffordshire town is being rebuilt digitally in ‘Nothing Ever Happens Here’, as Jack Henry Somers aims to make something ‘nobody's definitely done - maybe for good reason!’

Much of Jack’s community has already pulled together to make the game a reality, with local voice actors including his grandad featuring prominently to make a world which feels authentic.

“I've got a good mental model of how big it will be.” Jack said of the area covered, “There's going to be a fair bit of rural Burntwood, so the east side of Burntwood just outside near Chorley. The northern part of the map then is going to be a large area of Cannock Chase.

“The places you’re going to have around Burntwood are Swan Island, the leisure centre because that was quite important to me as I was growing up, the skate park there, Chasetown will be in and its High Street, and so will the Sankey’s shopping centre.”

The story starts with the player being turfed out at 18 by their parents and moving into the Bell End, where their digital landlord and grandad will be voiced by the very real Henry Atkinson.

Jack explained: “I was thinking who I wanted this character to be. A little bit, sort of, dodgy, bends the rules and stuff, and then my mind just went to my grandad, 'cause he is like that in real life.

“He just was really willing from the beginning, to be honest, and he frees up his time for me, he's very helpful.

“He does a really good job, because I was worried! I was thinking, it's gonna be awkward if I have to sack him, but he did a really good job. So he'll be staying. I'll keep him on.”

Jack has been making the game alongside his job in IT and raising a family, and plenty of other people have gotten involved, passionate about the game.

At an event in Kent last week, he met some of the online community who are helping test the game during development. People in both online and real-life communities have lent their expertise in 3D modelling, cars modification and voice acting, with the Bell End set to get a visual overhaul soon.

Jack said: “I've got somebody, I only recently found out that I went to school with him, and I didn't realise it. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, and I know who you are!’ and they're doing voice acting, so I've got local people from Burntwood.

“I used to always think I'd make this zombie game, or this post-apocalypse game, and this and that, and I thought, it's already been done. What hasn't been done? Especially as well with AI and stuff like that, and everything's sort of quite generic now.

“Everything is starting to look the same, and I was thinking, well, I want to do something that's almost like an anti-game, in a sense, like, what? Burntwood in a game?

“And nobody's definitely done it - maybe for a good reason, I'm not sure!”

Jack is hoping for his passion project to release in late 2027, but regular updates go out on his discord server.

“I'm coming up to a year. It's been the first thing I think of every single day I've woken up,” he said.

“You know, I’ve got two kids as well and a wife. So, it's hectic, but I think at the end of it, it's really going to be worth it.

“And for me, I really want to make a game that, with the details I'm putting in there, I want people to know what it feels like to grow up in a town like this. And if they already know what it’s like, for it to be authentic to them.

“Maybe hearing the scrap iron van driving around and stuff like that.”