[released] Avocado Smash

[shallow_depths]

Hi Thumbs.  First-time jammer and first time posting on the forums.  I'm taking advantage of the looser rules to make something not so tied to Idle Thumbs episodes and references.

 

The plan:

Avocado Smash is a 2D, dialogue-focused game.  You play as a journalist investigating the seedy underbelly of Melbourne brunch culture.  Depending on who you interview and the questions you ask, it will produce a different article about why avocado on toast is indicative of everything that's wrong with society.

 

Context: In Australia there was a recent article that made some waves, suggesting young people would be able to afford their own home if only they weren't wasting money on expensive brunches instead of eating at home.  I seriously just read a response that compared seeking a perfectly ripe avocado to bad heroin-- anything I come up with will not be nearly as exaggerated as it seems.

 

Diversifiers:

Hoping to incorporate Nice Segue and From the Horse's Mouth.

 

How you can help:

My previous game-making experience is with Twine, and this is my first Unity game. I reserve the right to ask silly questions and maybe wig out a bit.  I'm also seeking donations of avocado brunch photos.

[TopFish]

I love everything about this. Good luck!

[Rilen]

Whoo-hoo! Sounds awesome! We have a pretty healthy discussion going on the slack channel in #wizardjam and it's a good place to get help in a pinch. 

[phill]

As a millennial who has sold most of what he owns to continue enjoying his daily avo smash, I'm looking forward to learning the deep secrets of the avocartel.

[Travis]

Living in a place where brunch is so popular that it is being blamed for societal problems sounds amazing.

 

Glad you're joining us for the jam! Your game sounds like a lot of fun!

[Nappi]

Haha, this setup is brilliant!

[shallow_depths]

Thanks all.  Can anyone tell me how to get access to the Slack channel?

[phill]

  On 11/18/2016 at 6:37 AM, shallow_depths said:

Thanks all.  Can anyone tell me how to get access to the Slack channel?

 

You can join up over here: http://stingo.infinitebit.net:8001/.Be good to have another Aussie around! (:

 

EDIT: Huh, that link seems to be broken for me. But that's from the official thread. Hm.

EDIT 2: Oh, looks like it's a known broken thing. You can PM @zerofiftyoneto get an invite though.

[zerofiftyone]

Welcome to the forums (and the slack) @shallow_depths!

[shallow_depths]

Day 1: Similar face

 

Going with a zine-inspired black-and-white aesthetic and embracing my lack of artistic talent.  Ugly characters via photo collage.

 

Tomorrow it's going to be 38 degrees C in Melbourne (100 F).  It's only going to get harder to take anything seriously.  Maybe that's a good thing.

[Travis]

Ooooh, I like that photo collage idea.

[Rilen]

That is an awesome idea, I will have to try it in future! 

[phill]

Very cool style! I almost think that not being a professional artist means you can embrace really different art styles that are more impactful (and appropriate, in this case!).

[shallow_depths]

Thanks for the encouragement.  You are all much nicer than my partner, who went on an extended rant about how confronting and creepy my characters are and how much I'm going to unsettle and alienate people.  I mean, that's fair, but it's all good and there's purpose in my weirdness. (It's all cool, I am being amused by his reaction).

 

Not a lot to show for myself yesterday, unsurprisingly, but I'm working on writing and basic stuff like menus. Getting there.

Grateful for Unity addons (Fungus) that make it simple to get the basic narrative structure and conversations working.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Clearly your partner doesn't understand art, these faces are top notch.

[CEJ]

I second that, superb look. 

[dibs]

Sounds like someone had a bad experience with some superglue back in his collage days!

 

This looks creepy and wonderful, good luck:)

[shallow_depths]

Intro sections basically working. 

 

 

Featuring randomly selected brunch. I am going to spend all of Wizard Jam managing avocado cravings.

 

[keibo]

This looks absolutely brilliant! can't wait to try it out!!

[clyde]

I like the background textures. 

I'm curious if the game will feel completely whimsical or if it will have some weight.

[shallow_depths]

  On 11/23/2016 at 4:04 PM, clyde said:

I like the background textures. 

I'm curious if the game will feel completely whimsical or if it will have some weight.

 

I'm not thinking of it as whimsical but I guess we'll have to see how it turns out. The premise is pretty blatantly political, and I'm not trying to sugarcoat that. Whether I can find a good balance between whimsical joke and serious satire is a good question. 

 

My biggest concern right now is trying not to make the interviews themselves completely boring.

[clyde]

I read that keeping text blocks visually small goes a long way. So for instance, a 100-word monologue is easier to digest when split up and requires the user to click to get all the sections of the text.

Personally I think that frequent sound and visual changes help too. 

[shallow_depths]

  On 11/23/2016 at 10:51 PM, clyde said:

I read that keeping text blocks visually small goes a long way.

 

I have admittedly shown some of the worst examples for that here. Still definitely a work in progress!

[Rilen]

Ah, damn I was going to use Fungus but I was talked into trying TyranoBuilder. It looks awesome!

[Nappi]

Very nice animation!