SQUISH

Taz: Hi Athene! What game are you working on? 

Yip: I am working on Squish. It is kind of like Tetris and Smash combined. So the premise of this game is that the Skelegoos are throwing a rave, and they’re partying so hard that the mausoleum is starting to crumble. So in this game, what you want to do is you want to manipulate the terrain—so in this case, push blocks—in order to squish other players and be the last Skelegoo standing. 

Taz: That sounds awesome. Tetris and Smash—awesome. And what do you do in the process? 

Yip: Yeah, so I’m actually the lead producer and also the lead environment artist of the game. 

Taz: Awesome, awesome. And I forgot to ask: what is the name of the development studio? 

Yip: Yeah, so we’re called Grave Rave Games. We’re a pretty new indie studio. 

Taz: Awesome. What would you say inspired your game the most? 

Yip: Right, so this actually started off as a student project back in 2019 from UC Santa Cruz in California. And one of the original developers was playing a level in LittleBigPlanet, and they got the inspiration to like, manipulate terrain in order to make a game and like, be really cool. 

Taz: OK, OK. If you can go back and begin again from scratch—I know you said you’re kind of part of the art stuff—if you can go back and change how it looks or how it feels, what would you change? 

Yip: Oh, that’s a really tough question actually, ’cause like...I think...honestly, like I really like the aesthetic of our game. It’s like cute and spooky, so it’s like kind of spoopy, and like the rave, and neon, and EDM... I honestly wouldn’t change that much. I mean, if we had like a million dollars and extra, you know, time, like way back in the day… Something that was a really early concept with having different characters. So our really early concepts, we had like a retro 80s rad, we also had like a cutie Cthulhu, and then we also had Skelegoo, which is the character that we settled on. So I mean yeah, if we had a million dollars and a bunch of time—which I mean like, which developer studio doesn’t—I would probably try to implement different characters. 

Taz: OK, awesome, but for what you had and the resources you had, you feel like you kind of nailed the vision you had for it? 

Yip: Yeah, definitely, I would say so. I mean again, like with, you know, planning and making sure we don’t get out of scope and everything, I think what we have is really solid, and all of our artists on the team are incredibly talented and really happy with how it turned out. It just looks incredible.

Taz: Good, good! That’s awesome. What has been your favorite part of the development process? 

Yip: Ohh, you’re asking really good questions! 

Taz: [laughs]

Yip: Honestly, I would say just like… talking with my team and being a part of something that’s super cool. All of us were pretty close-knit as a team. All of us, we’re standing on the same ground, no one’s looking down at each other, we’re like, really open communication, really like…we’re just kind of like, “Let’s make the best thing that we can.” Honestly, just like sitting with them and brainstorming and having wild-ass ideas, like, no idea is a bad idea. We’re like, “OK, maybe this wasn’t what we were originally imagining, but let’s play this out, like what does it look like? Let’s brainstorm on the whiteboard, let’s see how it goes,” and some of our best ideas have come from that. 

Taz: Awesome! And I forgot to ask: how many people are on the team? 

Yip: Right! So we started off with ten back when it was a student project, ’cause you know...we gotta pass and graduate. But right now we have about five people on the team. 

Taz: Wow, I was expecting that you’d say like, “Oh, now we have like fifty people!” But it went down by half. 

Yip: Yeah. 

Taz: But you feel like it’s pretty… You mean, your favorite part was just kind of collaborating and all that teamwork? Do you feel like it’s— I mean at this point in the stage of the process, do you feel like it’s better with a small amount of people, or like a large amount of people? I mean in your point of view, what do you feel like that’s—what that’s like?

Yip: Right. I wouldn’t say— OK, no. Actually, I can’t say. I wouldn’t say it’s worse in like, a bad way. I would say we have less resources, so in that very specific aspect, it sucks that we don’t have enough people power, but other than that, I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily worse or bad, I think. With both sizes of the team, we were really open with each other, and...again, we just wanted to make the best game possible. 

Taz: Sure, sure, and I mean shoot, you’re here at PAX. You know, and that’s awesome, with five people, that’s amazing. And how many—I think you listed off a couple. So how many games have your team developed?

Yip: Right! This is actually our very first game!

Taz: Ohh! 

Yip: Yeah! So we’re with PM Studios and they publish other games, but specifically for Grave Rave Games, this is our first game. 

Taz: That’s awesome. That’s amazing, actually. [laughs] And then, so, kind of wrapping up the question, is there anything else you want us to know about your game? 

Yip: Well, it’s coming out early 2022 on PC and Switch so you can find us on Steam. You can actually search up Squish and wishlist it right now. We will have both local and online multiplayer, so look out for that. And thank you for checking out our game, thank you for spending time and talking to me. We’re just so happy to put this out and have people play this, and...everyone who’s come by and played our game, they just—they want more. 

Taz: For sure. Well, thank you so much for your time. I really do appreciate it. 

Yip: Yeah, thank you!