the neon sign from our old office
Devlog by Nick
Dude I miss this neon. I bought this on a whim at 3AM off eBay. It’s not custom for us or anything, I think it's probably mass-produced for seafood restaurants. Before things got weird, turning on this light was my ritual for when I carried my bike up the stairs into the office, made a pot of coffee, and got everyone sitting down ready for a morning meeting. Like at Krispy Kreme, the light being on meant we’ve got a hot fresh batch of donuts (game development energy?) to serve you up.
had to get my fix
We’re extremely fortunate as game devs to be able to work from home in an industry largely unimpacted, if not somewhat boosted, by the pandemic. Aside from having to shut down the office, I really can't and shouldn’t complain. One thing quarantine has helped me appreciate though, is the importance of community.
As game developers we face a conundrum of making creative experiences for others through a process that makes us shy away into our holes. I am putting thoughts and feelings and experiences into the world via sitting at a computer for half of my twenties. This is a process I have found that I am wholly uninterested in. I can’t speak for everyone but I don't want to make blender models in a vacuum for all day and then show them off a year later when the game is out. That’s just...weird, it's too big, there’s too much time between the effort and the payoff. Sometimes it feels like other independent content creators, like Twitch streamers and YouTubers, are lightyears ahead of devs on how to connect with audiences because of their insanely fast turnaround time on producing content. Ultimately I think games are way more litty than those other mediums (that's why I'm still here), but there are things we can learn from them.
team aggro crab in their natural habitat
We started this game a year and a half ago (which isn’t even a long time for games) and it goes without saying that the world is different now. In our current reality, does anyone really want to play a game anymore about businesses that have gone under? Are startups still funny? Is our game’s ending cutscene a little too on the nose now? Probably, yeah. I’m not actually worried about people not liking the story, it’s still hella good, just feels a little less relevant while still not exactly serving as escapism. I don't know!
At Aggro Crab I think you can kinda tell from our freshman project that we want to be on the pulse of things. We like being political and making games that reflect our current times. We’re down to put a meme in the game even if it's cringe for everyone playing it on Games With Gold in 2022. No game is truly timeless, so might as well be timely.
ok maybe some games are timeless
So on that note we’re makin’ a few changes around here!! I haven’t solved the problem of games-taking-time-to-make yet, but I think there are still plenty of ways we could better engage with our community. That’s why I’m pleased to introduce our new Community Developer, Lulu!
uwu
Lulu is a social media mogul, she’s responsible for some of Twitter’s greatest hits, and now will be making social content for our game, managing the Discord, and much more! Expect improvements on all fronts as well as more noise from the rest of the team coming soon<3
Going Under is out in September!! (we had to push back launch two weeks but it's still gonna be September, funny how that works). Which means for us at least, the light is at the end of the tunnel. I’m more than anything stoked for you guys to play through what we’ve made, there’s so much in the game we haven’t shown. We’re so excited to come out of Moist Crack, bathe in the light of launch, and crawl right back in to work on DLC.
See you soon, interns. If you made it this far give us a wishlist, it helps out a lot<3
- Nick
