The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Squishy's Revenge

Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, the Squishlings are using the power of puzzle gods in the cutest, squishiest way possible with Ryan Olsen and Toy Studios' Squishy's Revenge.

What's your game called and what's it about?

Our game is called Squishy's Revenge and it's a sliding-tile puzzle game that is about a little purple Squishling monster named Squishy. Squishy is exacting revenge on Evil Buildings for stealing the Squishling's favorite food, Squishberries.

What inspired you to make Squishy's Revenge?

Rob, the designer of the game, was at a game-design conference in Madison, Wisconsin, when he was playing around with an idea for a "god" game in its simplest form. In traditional "god" games, there are very intricate systems that work together. In Squishy's Revenge, you slide the world and the character moves. The player is still acting like a "god" but at a very simple, pure level.

Once that was worked out, Rob came back to the studio and cut up some scraps of paper to make a working prototype of the game idea he had based on moving a grid of tiles around in a 2D space. It was like a Rubik's Cube flattened out. We kept refining from there.

How did the plotline and "squish" name come about?

We settled on the name "Squishy" first. The name came about when Jess, the artist, and Pavel, the programmer, were just coming up with names. "Squishy" stuck. The next logical leap from there was, what type of monster was Squishy? A Squishling. Then, what do Squishlings eat? Squishberries! The story just rolled from there. A Unicorn Happy Fun Land was added for good measure.

Puzzle games don't always need a background story -- what does the Squishlings' story add to the gameplay?

How crazy would it be if Tetris had some secret backstory all along? While some puzzle games don't need a backstory, others can be enhanced by it and we felt we could enhance the game with a bit of story. The one thing we wanted to make sure is that the story never gets in the way of gameplay in Squishy's Revenge. The puzzles are the star of the game. Story is used to give players a connection with Squishy and be a reward for clearing a world.

Who's responsible for the artwork and art style?

You can blame Jess for all the fantastic art. She worked extremely closely with Rob, the designer, and Pavel, the programmer, so that everything blended together beautifully.

What's the coolest aspect of Squishy's Revenge?

With all the testing we did at local coffee shops, swooping in with our game to unsuspecting caffeine addicts, we think we were able to get the balance of the gameplay just right. It is easy to pick up and play but, at the same time, takes time to master. Squishy is also a very likeable character. There is a lot of sympathy for Squishy because the player sees what happened without any notice. It translates into something people will care about and they want to get revenge for the Squishberry injustice.

Anything you'd do differently?

There are some things we would have done right from beginning, like add story elements and more levels. Squishy's Revenge actually released on the Nook Color but it was originally called Monster Slider. We quickly found out that the people who played the game loved the character and wanted to know more about Squishy. They also went through the levels in no time at all. We then started to work on improving the game by adding story elements, tweaking the difficulty and adding more levels. To have done all that from the start of the project would have been ideal.

Why develop independently, rather than work for an established company?

Being a small, independent studio gives you a lot of advantages. You don't have the layers of management like big studios have, so developing on an idea and continuing to refine it can happen at quick pace.

One of the other really cool advantages of working for an independent studio is how small the team is. When you are small, you are instantly connected to a project on a level that is impossible on a larger project. You put your heart and soul into something because you see all the hard work being put into action and it becomes impossible not to care about every little pixel on the screen. Our hope is that it translates into our games so that they feel more charming and authentic because of the passion we put into them.

Do you see yourself as part of a larger indie movement?

I think we see ourselves as part of larger gaming movement that is about play and fun. Historically, games were thought of as something people enjoyed in their parent's dark basement eating a bag of Cheetos, playing games made by a few dark programming magicians who were capable of conjuring digital bits through rare crystals. We couldn't be any further from that point now, which is incredible. Games can be created by anyone and distributed anywhere. That means everyone can enjoy a fun game and play it anywhere.

Sell your game in one sentence:

Squishy's Revengeis a fun, challenging puzzle game that is guaranteed to be the only game you play this year with Squishberries.

What's next?

For Squishy's Revenge, we'd love to create a level editor and let people make their own devious puzzles and share them with others.

Squishy's Revenge is out now for iOS and Android devices -- download the entire squishiriffic game for free right now, and give yourself the opportunity to see Squishy flying on a unicorn and dropping a nuke on entire levels. Because you deserve it.

If you'd like to have your own shot at converting our readers into fans, email jess [at] joystiq [dawt] com, subject line "The Joystiq Indie Pitch." Still haven't had enough? Check out the Pitch archives.