Today we have an exciting announcement dev log written by Kristi, the writer for Slippery Flippers: Episode 1 - Amulet of the Gods. 

Welcome to our first devlog, where I’ll be discussing what Slippery Flippers: Episode 1 - Amulet of the Gods is about and how it came to be.

What is Slippery Flippers: Episode 1 - Amulet of the Gods about?

Slippery Flippers: Episode 1 - Amulet of the Gods is about a team of four wanted thieves: Orlando, Veda, Walter, and Chip, who venture throughout space stealing valuable treasure and artifacts! In Episode 1, Orlando and his crew find an amulet called the Amulet of the Gods that’s part of a special exhibit being hosted by Nitro Museum on Trion XY7N, a snow-covered planet. The amulet is said to hold the power of the gods within it, but no one has been able to figure out what exactly that is. Our “heroes” don’t care about that, though! All they care about is getting their hands on that valuable amulet and selling it off to get a ton of seashells!

But there are a couple of obstacles that stand in their way: the cops and the fact the museum is decorated with super-HD cameras that are so crystal clear, they can see your pores. Despite that, the group’s confident in their skills. Will they be able to successfully steal the amulet, or will they get caught?

How Slippery Flippers: Episode 1 - Amulet of the Gods came to be

John, the founder of Snowhaven Studios, and I were talking about game jams and he thought about entering one. We talked about the different jams happening throughout the year and I threw out an idea to make a game jam game about a “space cowboy penguin.”

He replied with: “Could be fun to make a VN about a space cowboy penguin.”

John then linked me to a villain Spotify playlist titled “Villain Mode” for me to listen to. I think he just wanted to link me this for funsies, especially since it had some songs I liked on it. I don’t think he thought this playlist would cause me to start thinking about the space cowboy penguin idea and start fleshing it out, but whenever I’m watching or listening to something, my mind can’t help but start imagining.

So while listening to the songs, I started thinking about ideas for villains and making those people the main cast for a story. But I knew that I couldn’t exactly tell a story with despicable characters as the leads. I started thinking: “Why not make these characters more fun?”

I’ve had an affinity for thieves ever since I was introduced to Kaito Kid from Case Closed when I was a kid. I loved the way he looked, how he acted, etc. Then, of course, I got introduced to Lupin III and the master thief Lupin from Code: Realize. I was like, “Okay, I want to tell a story about thieves.”

Then I thought about the tone. Well, I love Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Telltale’s Tales from the Borderlands, the latter being one of my favorite games of all time. They’re comedic but have heart to them and feature central characters that, while they do bicker, they ultimately care for one another. They all have their strengths, weaknesses, pasts, motivations, etc. So I knew right then and there that I wanted to tell a tale about a group of thieves who go around stealing things.

The space part? Well, I just thought space was cool. There’s a lot you can do with space. So why not set the game in space?

Then, I pitched the game to John, and that’s how we got where we are today. :)

During development, the game was codenamed Space Cowboy Penguin or SCP for short. We realized that we had to come up with an actual title for the game, so after some brainstorming, John came up with the fantastic title Slippery Flippers! Following that is the subtitle “Episode 1 - Amulet of the Gods.”

Conclusion

Thank you all for reading this devlog! Next time, we’ll go over the characters and talk a bit about them. :D In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter and Tumblr to see more about Slippery Flippers and our other games!