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rpgmgames · 6 years

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August’s Featured Game: Shroom Soup

DEVELOPER(S): Shroomy ENGINE: RPGMaker 2000 GENRE: Adventure, RPG, Psychological Horror WARNINGS: listed here (may contain spoilers) SUMMARY: You play as Arnika, a gloomy teenage girl. Perpetually tired, you live off excessive sleep, lime juice, and instant soup. You look into the vortex forming in your cup of said soup, this time mushroom flavour. Next thing you know, you are in an entirely different world where everything, from buildings to people, is being devoured by fungi. It seems like you have no choice but to walk on... Your journey involves exploration, puzzle-solving and battles.

Download the demo here!

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! Hello! I am Shroomy, and I still haven't figured out which one of my nicknames I should go by, but I use "uboaappears" for art and "toxic shroom swamp" for games. I have a bachelor's degree in biology since two weeks ago and like everything surreal, gory and gay. Nice to meet you. I have been in the community since about 2012, and that might be also when I first wanted to make a game - a Yume Nikki fangame, because YN brought me here. I messed around with the engine for a long time, and certain characters and ideas gradually mutated to whatever this is now.

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Shroomy: It's about making a cup of instant soup and accidentally going on a very weird adventure. ...Okay, actually, it's a coming-of-age story with an emphasis on mental health, relationships, and toxic flesh-eating mushrooms. The idea came to me when I made myself an instant soup once. For some reason, I thought it would be cool if there was a portal into another world in the cup. That's how it started. (I was also into drawing mushrooms growing on people at the time, so that naturally made its way into my Awesome Game Idea.)

How long have you been working on your project? *Shroomy: ...A while. It's enough to say that I graduated from both high school and university with it. But to be honest, I didn't really do much with it until about two years ago. Right now I tend to think of the time before that as trial and error, playing around with ideas and learning to use the engine. I feel a little self-conscious about how long it took me to come up with a coherent story, but that might be a good thing. Since this is quite a personal game, it helped to grow as a person. I think it made for a more interesting and mature work than it would be otherwise.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Shroomy: I feel like I take little bits of inspirations from everything. But I'd say Yume Nikki and Re:Kinder were the biggest game influences. Maybe Hello Charlotte, too - the minimalistic world gave me some food for thought :> Design-wise, I think my current (character) style is a lovechild of Danganronpa, Killing Stalking and something else I am not sure about. Maybe just me.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Shroomy: I think the biggest challenges for me have always been centered around the lack of free time, the lack of energy or the lack of motivation. Some people manage to juggle life and gamedev, but I get exhausted really easily, so it's hard. This is an ongoing issue. I tend to try and free up a day just for relaxing and creative stuff. I've also started using the Forest app for focusing on things, and sometimes use it for gamedev as well. At the beginning I found it frustrating that my skills (in pixel art, for example) didn't match what I wanted to create. That one was improved by - you guessed it - making a lot of pixel art. Making and scrapping a bunch of tilesets for the game. It's as simple as practice and learning how to get the most out of your art program. (It also helps me to make a detailed sketch of a map before I start working, or at least brainstorm the main elements of it.) Another challenge was the incoherence of the story. Originally I wanted to make something really vague and open to interpretation, but... that actually didn't give me enough material to work with. In the end, I played around with the characters, tried to write them some backstories that no one was going to see, and somehow ended up with an actual plot..? Shocking, I know! And the final thing is putting gameplay into the game. To be honest, the puzzles in the demo were pretty random on my side, I just thought them up on the spot. In subsequent locations I tried to make them relevant to the game's themes and/or hint towards the story.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Shroomy: For one thing, the current project has a story and a plan, even if the story is presented in quite an obfuscated way. The original concept was not much more than an idea of a shroomy world. The characters also have a lot more depth and pain to them than they used to. The locations have changed a lot as well, to the point where most of the original ones don't exist anymore.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Shroomy: My team is mostly just me. At the beginning it was a young and naive me, and now we have a slightly older and better-at-art me. After I started my dev blog, I was contacted by Tommuel, who now helps me with sound design and music. And my old friend Robin has made a few NPC sprites for me, and might give a hand with more pixel art in the future. They're not really involved with other aspects of development, but I really appreciate their help anyway! I prefer to keep most of this game to myself - it feels too personal to share, plus I'm a bit of a perfectionist.

What is the best part of developing the game? *Shroomy: I would say it's putting my work out there and sharing it with the world. I'm also really proud of how much I've grown as an artist and writer through developing this. I got attached to this story and this world, with all of its fun, weird and sad details. It's also been really fun, amazing even, to get to know other devs and make friends through being part of this interesting and creative community. I owe some wonderful friendships to it.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Shroomy: I definitely play other games for inspiration, it helps me a lot. Though I try not to make things "just like" other games, but make it a transformative learning experience instead.

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Shroomy: I feel like I have been through stages. At first I was Arnika, then Lina, now I feel like I'm turning into Arthur. I guess I put my traits into all of them. (Does that mean that Bernard is the next stage? I'm /so/ ready to transcend humanity, finally learn how to do maths and become everyone's favourite character.)

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Shroomy: I think the biggest mistake I made was jumping straight into making a game without thinking it through or considering the scope. In the end, the lack of planning set me back a lot. Admittedly, I was young and excitable, so I guess it was a learning experience? I didn't really know how to write stories or plan long-term projects, but over time, I somehow built up those skills. I think it's good to have a clear-ish idea of what you want to make before you start, and maybe start with something small. (So basically, do the opposite of what I did.)

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Shroomy: Aha. Actually, yes. I have accidentally started writing two sequels already. They will be small games focusing on other characters' perspectives (as opposed to Arnika). I'm not actually touching them yet though, only making some notes and writing scripts. Perhaps by the time the first game is released I'll have enough material to comfortably work on them.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Shroomy: Fan reaction, I think? To be honest, I'm not really sure. I think I'll just be enjoying the incredible dopamine rush after finally setting this child of mine free to explore the world and infect people's brains with all the shroomy memes it contains. (Also will probably get off the internet for about a week from the anxiety.) Then maybe being free to work on other things, indeed. And posting spoilery concept art >:D

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Shroomy: I am a little worried about the reception of the game's subject matter. If you looked at the list of warnings, you might have an idea what I mean. Sometimes it feels dangerous to explore certain themes in your stories, because people misinterpret depicting something bad as promoting it, for example. But that's why that list exists. I'm just going to let people know straight away that I explore dark themes in this project and I'm not going to hold back on how I do it. Creativity should flow freely, I think. (I am also a little worried about the ratio of my free time vs. gamedev time and /when/ I will finally be able to release it, but... Thankfully, I'm the one in charge of that.)

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Shroomy: Take some time to make a plan for your project, start small, fail faster, and aim for something finished before you aim for perfect. Make a system for organising your files. Back up often, and on a different drive/cloud than your game is on, preferably several. Most of all, make something you would love to play! And don't be too hard on yourself.

Question from last month's featured dev @blackcrystalsrpg: What are your game dev pet peeves?? *Shroomy: I dislike the fact that sometimes I want to have made a game more than I want to make a game, but to have made a game you need to go and make the game. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But there's no escape from fate, so... go, go and make that game happen!

We mods would like to thank Shroomy for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Shroom Soup if you haven’t already! See you next month!

- Mods Gold & Platinum

#rpgmaker #indie games #pixel games #rpg maker #rpg maker 2000 #shroom soup #gotm #game of the month #gotm august #august 2018 #august #2018 #interview #game making #game dev

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meyerlansky · 7 years

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Are there any games (anything that doesn't require a special console which I know limits it a bit) you'd recommend for someone who is NOT a very experienced gamer? Not a big fan of games based around violence, but not a deal breaker if the game was interesting to me (wouldn't play GTA or one of those army games like Call of Duty). I got Skyrim a couple of years ago because of the Aesthetic but I'm embarrassed to say I got (literally) stuck 5 minutes in.

[AW what kind of stuck, did it like glitch out or something?] anD OH MAN SO. i’m flipping through my steam library to pick out some options that might catch your interest aaand i have a lot of games that might work, and i hope it’s cool if i answer publicly because i’m sure other people will have recs/input of their own :D

disclaimer: in general, a lot of these will inevitably have combat of some kind, but none of them focus on it as, like, the POINT of the game? and none of them are too gory. i’ll point out the ones that have it as a necessary mechanic if you want to stay away from any fighting altogether. tl;dr list of titles that might be worth checking out, longer descriptions underneath:

stardew valley

night in the woods

sunless sea

ori and the blind forest

battleblock theater

civilization vi

stardew valley: very chill, very cute farming simulator that’s way more engaging than it sounds. pixel art graphics and relatively intuitive controls, and the point is pretty much to farm, fish, forage, raise animals, make artisan goods like cheese and wine, and get to know the characters in the town. there’s optional combat with monsters in a few specific areas of the game but it’s not necessary.

night in the woods: okay admittedly i haven’t finished this one all the way through yet because i am easily distracted, but it’s a story-driven platformer with anthropomorphic characters about a girl who drops out of college for Reasons and how she deals with coming back to her relatively backwoods town after dropping out. cute art, pretty basic controls, and mae is snarky as fuck and i love her. as far as i know there’s no combat but like i said i haven’t played all the way through juuust yet.

sunless sea: also very storydriven, and awesome if you like lovecraftian kinds of writing minus the various -isms the cthulhu mythos is rife with, or if you enjoy sea monsters. lots of those. it’s a textbased topdown sailing game focused more on exploration than combat, but you have the option to attack sea monsters and other ships. it is...challenging, though, in that the default mode doesn’t let you save manually: if your“current” captain dies [or you “win”], they’re dead for good, and you can choose something from that captain to pass onto your next captain, but aside from that you basically start the game over with a mostly-new captain and a shuffled map. you can turn that mode off, though. i... really like this one a lot so i’m very biased :P

ori and the blind forest: probably the most combat-focused rec on this list, but the combat system is very fun and it is at its heart a platforming puzzle game, and very story driven. it’s also gorgeous, like it looks like someone storyboarded it with very in-depth concept art and the devs were like “awesome so let’s just animate that, no changes.” it’s also GREAT if you need a cathartic cry or three, but ultimately it has a positive ending. seriously, i've logged 18 hours in this game so far and i spent probably six of them BAWLING MY EYES OUT because it is a VERY emotional game.

battleblock theater: you and a ship full of your best friends get shipwrecked on an island of giant cats who imprison all your friends and make you perform feats of daring onstage to earn gems to buy your friends’ freedom. THAT’S IT. THAT’S THE PLOT. also a puzzle platformer with pretty sparse narrative, especially compared to the other games on this list, but the plotline that is there is really funny and it’s good if you enjoy a challenge. if you’re the type to get perfectionist urges [which. i am.] bbt will definitely give you opportunities to scratch that itch.

civilization vi: aaand civ vi is kind of my ringer rec, because... it is a lot more complicated than pretty much everything on this list, and probably also the priciest. i rec it anyway because it’s a very good game and i enjoy it a lot, and i don’t think it’s too complicated to pick up after a few rounds, but i can acknowledge my biases and i might be wrong. as for what it is, civ’s essentially what it says on the tin: a civilization simulator where you grow your chosen civilization and try to achieve a win condition before any of the rival civilizations in your game do the same thing. win conditions can be achieved through military conquest, and rival civs’ AI won’t always have good reasons for declaring war on you, so combat can happen whether you want it to or not, but there are also cultural, religious, and scientific victories, as well as a score victory if no civs get any of the other victories by the time the game ends. the real draw of it for me is you can choose to be some REALLY interesting civilizations: the usual suspects are there, my first win was with teddy roosevelt and the american civilization, but my second and third were with tomyris/scythia and gilgamesh/sumeria. like i said, it’s a pretty complicated game, but i really enjoy it.

so yeah, those are probably some good games to start with? if you want links to game play footage of any of them before trying them out let me know and i can hunt down some let’s plays or something :D

#ifigaveyouthemoon #asks

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jowalnab-blog · 5 years

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dev.log Violet

My switch finally got back from being repaired, I sent it in like a month ago. They charged me one hundred and some change for the repairs and wiped all the save data on my SD card. All in all, not worth it. On the bright side, I did get to buy a game I’ve wanted to play and it was on sale too. Being able to play games while laying in bed has kind of revived my will to play video games again.

Anyways, Blasphemous is a metroidvania style game that takes heavy inspiration from Dark Souls. I really like the art in this game, that’s what drew me in to begin with, there’s something about fluid pixel animation that just does it for me. I wouldn’t say this game is for the feint of heart though, it’s a lot more gory than I thought it would be. Usually, the gore is implied in souls games, they’re surprisingly tame in this regard, aiming more to unsettle than to gross out. Blasphemous doesn’t really care about your sensibilities though, naked enemies and dismemberment are the norm in this game, one of the main game bosses is a half-rotted half-melted floating head with a surprising amount of detail for a pixel art game. Needless to say, I didn’t go into this game expecting any of this, at most I expected the typical zombie-like enemy or some large gross looking boss monster, but I feel like the shock of seeing these things really helped the overall experience. It made the world all the more confusing and scary. It also made me want to find out what made the world of Blasphemous this way, it’s implied that things weren’t always like this, your goal in the game is to fix things, or at least make things better for the inhabitants of this world by performing some vague ritual, as is the norm in souls like games.

The gameplay is pretty solid, the combat is nice. Hitting enemies feels right, sometimes games don’t do this part right and it can ruin the whole experience. When The Penitent One (the player character) swings his sword the motion feels good, he’s agile but tired, you can feel the weight behind his swings, like every strike is a desperate last attempt at defense. The jumps feel heavy, you can take off in the air, but fall too far and you’ll land with a solid crunch. Despite this, you still retain enough control in the air to make it a viable form of dodging during combat. Speaking of dodging, no souls-like game would be complete without a dodge, The Penitent One slides forward, purple silhouttes trail behind him implying the swiftness of this motion, but also highlighting the frames where you’re invincible during the animation. Dodging in this game is important, it’s one of the best ways to avoid being hit and losing health (obviously), but there is a more offensive option. If you’re up to it, you can try to parry pretty much every physical attack in the game, this gives you an opportunity to retaliate while the enemy is stunned. Sometimes, after a powerful attack or parry you’ll get the option to perform an execution, this lets you instantly kill the enemy no matter how much health they have left and it fills your fervor bar (basically a magic meter) very quickly.

I do like the platforming in this game quite a bit, having to wedge your sword into the wall to wall jump is pretty cool, it also makes the wall jumps a little more calculated and weighty. You can just hang on a wall, waiting to make your next move, unless of course something is trying to hit you, which is the case most of the time. My only gripe with the game are some of my platforming related deaths, of course most of my platforming related deaths can be chalked up to sloppy inputs and impatience. However, I don’t think falling off a cliff should instantly kill me every single time, I understand this mechanic in a 3D game, but in a platformer the least you could do is take half of my health bar so I at least get a second chance. You don’t lose too much upon death so it’s not really that bad, the worst thing is the damage it does to your morale. Having to trek up the same mountain twenty times only to get slapped by the same guy twenty times and fall off the same ledge twenty times. It really gets to you. Like I said though, this is mostly my own fault for getting slapped so many times.

While I haven’t finished the game yet, I’m pretty darn close, like eighty percent or something. I feel like I’ve gotten a good enough feel for the game that I could make a solid review for it. Like I’ve experienced everything the game has to offer (mechanically and aesthetically speaking) and I feel really inspired by this game as a whole. It’s crazy that someone pretty much made exactly the kind of game I’ve been dreaming of making for a while. A metroidvania style game with the visual aesthetics of Dark Souls, weighty combat and platforming, an interesting yet vague story told mostly through its environment, and some really somber and melancholy music to top it all off. Clearly it’s possible if someone else made it happen, now I’m just going to have to pull it together and give it a shot.

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