HOUSEKEEPING'S PROFILE

My name's Kasey Ozymy. I'm a game designer from Texas. I made Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass and am currently working on Hymn to the Earless God.

Check out Hymn to the Earless God:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2165130/Hymn_to_the_Earless_God

Buy Jimmy:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/706560/Jimmy_and_the_Pulsating_Mass/
Hymn to the Earless God
Live and die on a hostile world.

Search

Filter

Let's Get to Know You, Revolting Blob!

@Unity: Now that that sentence is under the microscope, I can't help but notice it's redundant. But, uh...maybe it still works for the sake of emphasis? Either way, I still like it, haha!

@Merlandese: Yeah, I'm fully convinced that Billy Madison is the subconscious reason why I named this monster the Revolting Blob.

Screenshot Survival 20XX

I've been putting some animated gifs up on tumblr/twitter, but I've been hesitant about uploading them to the game page since the cumulative file size might be PRETTY big if I make a habit of it. Or is that something I shouldn't even worry about? Anyway, I'll toss them up in this thread every once in a while:

Ask Mint

author=Suus
Who put all those metal squares with arrows everywhere?

Mint says:
You know, I've never really thought about that...


Yvette says:
Better let me take this one, kid.


Mint says:
...


Yvette says:
It was the late '90s. Arcades--once hubs of childhood social activity--had been quickly losing ground to home consoles over the past few decades. The birth of 3-D consoles had all but rung the death knell for arcades, and the war was almost over. But then...


Yvette says:
Then came the Dance Dance Revolution. New, more interactive machines brought new life to arcades! The war was back in full swing, with consoles creating bulky and mostly disfunctional peripherals that weren't able to compete with the pricier and more fat-kid resistant hardware used by Dance Dance Revolution machines. The war continued with no end in sight.


Yvette says:
But, alas! The Dance Dance Revolution could only last so long. Consoles got more and more advanced until they achieved total sentience. After turning their mechanical arms and noose-like cables to their human oppressors, their hubris in being the best technology made them seek out every last arcade and dusty warehouse. They destroyed those Dance Dance Revolution machines. The once-proud arcade champion was now no more than a pile of useless electronics, their iconic arrows strewn about the world to clearly indicate jump-off points and teleport spots...


Yvette says:
It's just...so sad...


Yvette says:
Boohoohoohoo!


Mint says:
Why did you do that, Suus?!


Mint says:
Why did you make her remember the Dance Dance Revolution?!


author=Suus
And how do you all survive such high drops?!


Mint says:
Uh, duh, we have wings.


Yvette says:
Yeah, duh...


Yvette says:
Wait, Mint, you don't have wings.


Mint says:
What are you, the wing police?!*


*Developer's Note: Luckily the wing police were mostly disbanded, so Mint's in the clear.**

**Developer's Note: To answer the question, video game characters are like cats: you can drop them off of the Empire State Building and they'll land on their feet.***

***Developer's Note: After some research, the cat analogy isn't factually correct.

Ask Mint

author=Malandy
What are your favorite colors?


Mint says:
How do you choose? Hmm...how about a nice, dark green...


Mint says:
Like a goblin's butt!




author=Malandy
What is your most favorite thing out of the things that you've seen on your adventures?


Mint says:
Alright, I'm going to tell you a secret, so you can't tell anyone, ESPECIALLY Grandpa.


Mint says:
When we were in Solomon's Furrow, I found some old clothes in Grandpa's basement, so when he wasn't looking, I took them, walked outside, and...


Mint says:
Dressed up all the pigs! It was adorable! They kept squealing like they really liked it and we had a tea party and then we rolled in the mud!


Mint says:
Of course the clothes got pretty muddy and I had to tear them a little so they would fit, but I just shoved them underneath Grandpa's bed.


Mint says:
It was pretty dusty down there, so I bet he'll never find them!


author=Malandy
What monster would you want as a pet?


Mint says:
That's easy! A sea slug!


Mint says:
But, like, you can't just have one sea slug, you know? I'd need at least 24, and even better if it's 30 or 40 if I want this production of Cats to be successful.


author=Malandy
What regular animal would you want as a pet?


Mint says:
Piggies of course!


author=Malandy
How well can you dance?


Mint says:
I'm the best dancer! I'll have you know that I've danced until I've passed out on five separate occasions!


Mint says:
I'm not supposed to dance anymore...


Mint says:
So now I must dance in secret...

A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky

Thanks! I'm still pretty proud of A Very Long Rope, but, hopefully, I'll get to make better and better games from now on. Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass is already going to be such a big step up from A Very Long Rope--God, sometimes I just get really excited about game dev!

A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky

@Suus: Woah! What a wonky issue--glad Cherry had a fix for it! And glad you like the game!

@Furipu:
Like anything, I didn't directly address how soul tears are made, so standard disclaimer that ANY explanation is really valid. From my perspective, the soul tears were a gameplay/character consideration more than anything. I originally had a class system in mind that I was too green to get working at the time, and the soul tears would have let you play as the different class masters so you could get a feel for the entire skill sets of those classes. That's still present to a degree, but, yeah, it's not a clear-cut class system and you're really only seeing one move that you automatically get when the scene is over anyway. But, I still liked the character/worldbuilding it let me do, and the Raccoon scene was incredibly important.

The actual reasoning behind soul tears existing is a question that I didn't think through all the way. The idea was that it's a stone that has recorded a person's memory/timeline, which is fine, but Raccoon's was given via a dream, so there's a weird metaphysical quality to them. I thought that fit with their actual utility, so I left it unexplained. There's probably not a clear way to explain them, which is kind of fitting but probably just me being lazy.

A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky

Well, that's not the kind of thing I keep a record of, haha. I'm not touching the bust-waist-hip ratio question with a ten-foot pole, but here's how I imagine the general mass of each of the main playable characters stacking up:

From most mass to least:
-Oliver: Average height, but, well, heavier components.
-Raccoon: Raccoon is really a powerhouse, and his adult build reflects this.
-Leif: Leif's a pretty big guy by normal standards, but Raccoon edges him out.
-Rutger: Rutger's sinewy and tall. I like to think of him like a snake--just a long muscle tube.
-Ivy: Ivy's a little taller than average, and her life in the wasteland has made her pretty strong.
-Gainer: He's average, but the bulk of his life was spent in leisure, so he doesn't have much in terms of muscle.
-Cyril: In his prime, he'd probably be a little bigger than Ivy, but he's shrunk a bit.
-Yvette: Our smallest adult. You don't get much time to work out as royalty.
-Ivy (Child): She's in that awkward, gangly phase when we first meet her.
-Raccoon (Child): Though unnaturally strong, he hasn't hit his growth spurt.
-Yvette (Child): Small adult, smaller kid.
-Mint: Mint's illness and overprotective sister haven't done much for her physique.

Garden1.png

Thanks, Sated! When you've got my artistic talents (read: lack thereof), your options are pretty limited. I've been really happy I've scraped together something presentable.

And it is, indeed, a mine. But that's all I'm saying! I think I need to get better at sounding cool and mysterious.

A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky

@Malandy:

It was just a pretty straightforward way to show that Mint is always on Ivy's mind.

A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky

Well, if we're just talking aesthetics, I'd make the raw ore a milky-white crystal that's embedded in the rock, only the area around it would waver as if you were looking at a reflection in water. I'd make the treated saecelium clear and pulsing a faint white glow. If I were actually drawing this I might think about it more and experiment, but that's what immediately comes to mind.

Yeah, the first quote was foreshadowing; not the second, though--that's just a joke!